NetDiva’s Awesome Hot Sauce

I needed a sauce to put over the fresh tamales we made the other night. I whipped this together with veggies that I had lying around. It was delicious and perfectly spicy.

Ingredients

• 1 cup chopped red onion (about 1/2 large onion)
• 5 garlic cloves
• 1 pasilla pepper (with seeds)
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 jalapeño (with seeds)
• 4 tomatoes
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar, (Bragg’s or other natural vinegar is recommended.)
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Instructions

Finely chop all vegetables and place in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add all other ingredients. Bring to a boil and then simmer over medium-low, covered, for 15-20 minutes or until all vegetables are very soft and stewed.

Using a stick blender, purée the mixture until it’s a thick, even sauce. If you don’t have a stick blender, a regular blender or food processor will work, too.

Add more salt, sugar or red pepper flakes to taste.

Can be served warm or cold.

Spicy Sausage and Roasted Red Pepper Bolognese

This pasta sauce is somewhere between a bolognese and an arrabiata. It doesn’t matter what you call it, though, this is an absolutely delicious and spicy dinner. The sauce gets stuck i the twists of the fusilli pasta. You can adjust the spiciness by reducing the amount of crushed red pepper flakes –but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Ingredients

• 2 red bell peppers
• 4 tomatoes
• red wine vinegar
• 1 red onion
• olive oil
• 4 italian sausages —I like these.
• 1 lb fusilli pasta
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 cup fresh basil
• 2 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes (or to taste)
• 1/2 cup fresh parmesan cheese, grated or shreaded
• salt
• 6 chopped mushrooms
• 1 14-oz can of tomato sauce

Instructions

Preheat your broiler and then stick both bell peppers into the broiler. Thoroughly blacken all sides.

Put a gallon of water on to boil in one pot.

Put a quart of water on to boil in another pot.

Core tomatoes and slice crosses only through the skin on two sides. Prepare a bowl of ice water large enough to fit the tomatoes. When the smaller pot of water boils, drop the tomatoes in for thirty seconds. Remove them with tongs and drop them into the ice water and set aside.

In a large skillet, brown the red onion, some salt and the sausage (remove sausage casings).

Peel the tomatoes. The skin should come right off, easily. If these directions aren’t clear, check out this site on peeling tomatoes.

Next cut each tomato into eight wedges. Place in a large flat pan (like a pie pan). Drizzle with red wine vinegar and sprinkle with salt. Roast in a 500°F for ten minutes.

When all sides of the bell peppers are black, remove from heat. Using tongs and a fork, remove the skin. It should come right up. Chop off the stem and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. This should be very easy. If the skin isn’t coming off, you didn’t roast the peppers long enough.

When the large pot of water is boiling, add your fusilli. Cook until al dente.

Add sausage mixture, basil, garlic, cheese, about 1/4 cup of olive oil and tomatoes to your food processor. Pulse a few times to make a thick mixture which is slightly coarser than a paste.

In the same skillet, sauté the chopped mushrooms for a few minutes. Add the mixture from the food processor, the red pepper flakes and the tomato sauce. Simmer for fifteen minutes.

In pasta bowls, add the pasta and spoon generous amounts of sauce over the top. Add a few more shreds of cheese to the top and sliced mushroom for garnish. I suggest serving with garlic bread.

Serves: 6-8
Cook + Prep time: 45 min – 1 hour

Diva’s Chili

Chili

I don’t have a long story to tell with this recipe. It doesn’t have any kind of generational history. Admittedly, I originally learned to cook chili from my mom’s recipe, which I’m pretty sure is based on this. But mom got me started cooking her recipe when I was a child. I’ve never been one to stick to a recipe. I like to get creative. And so, my version has changed and evolved, and now, it’s most definitely my own creation.

I’ve won two chili cook-offs with this recipe. Although they were small contests, I don’t think there’s anyone who is going to deny that this is some damned amazing chili. By publishing the recipe, in some way, I feel like I’m giving away the family jewels. However, I believe in sharing the source and so, I will….

• 1 splash olive oil
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 large onion (white, yellow or red are all fine)
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 jalapeño
• 1 habañero
• 1 handful crimini mushrooms
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 16 oz kidney beans
• 24 oz tomato sauce
• 3 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tbsp freshly chopped oregano
• 1 large tomato
• salt
• pepper

Method

Chop an onion and heat up a very large skillet. Add olive oil to skillet. Add onion and a pinch of salt. Stir and sweat until onion is translucent.

Chop bell peppers and toss into skillet. Chop garlic, jalapeño and habañero very finely and add to pan. Stir. Then add chopped mushrooms.

Stir in ground beef and add salt, pepper, garlic and 1 tbsp of chili powder. Brown mixture.

Drain kidney beans and add beans, tomato sauce, red wine and other ingredients except for tomato. Taste and add more spices if needed. Simmer for ten minutes and add chopped tomato. Simmer another fifteen minutes or so.

Cool and serve with a few strands of grated cheddar and maybe a dollop of sour cream. Buttered french bread is great with this too!

Cook + Prep Time: 45-60 min
Feeds: 6-8
Notes: This is really spicy. For those of you that like things milder, cut out the jalapeño, habañero and cut the chili powder down to about 2 tbsp. For those of you that like it hot, try adding in chipotles.

Cilantro Cumin Salad Dressing

I whipped up some super yummy salad dressing tonight. Try it over a mixed green salad with bell peppers and red leaf lettuce.

1 bunch cilantro
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup olive oil
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp chili powder
2 drops mega hot sauce like Dave’s Insanity

Put cilantro & apple cider vinegar in food processor and finely chop cilantro. Pour into bowl and add other ingredients. Whisk vigorously until oil no longer separates. Serve immediately or if you store it, whisk again right before serving. Can be saved in fridge or freezer.

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And it burns burns burns…

M&D Ring of Fire Hot Sauce

I’m so excited! My package from Mike & Diane’s Ring of Fire Hot Sauce just arrived in the mail. Steve and I were visiting San Diego this winter and happened to pick up a bottle of their Garden Fresh Chile Sauce at a touristy hot sauce shop in Seaport Village. Wow! It really knocked my socks off. It wasn’t all vinegary like most bottled sauces. It tasted fresh, like I made it in my own kitchen. So I simply had to order more.

I got a bottle of their Tomatillo Roasted Garlic Sauce which is quite tasty! I can’t wait to try it over some breakfast potatoes. I also bought a bottle of the Original Habañero Hot Sauce. You can really taste the serrano peppers in there. This one is a little more vinegary but still delicious! I can tell I’ll be cooking up spicy food this week!

The sauces are a little pricey at $8.75 bottle, but they’re 12.5 oz bottles and the quality of the ingredients really stands out when you taste these products. The box came with a hand written thank you card—nice touch—and some freebies: M&D Ring of Fire Jerky, a magnet, and a “travel bottle”. Cute.

I am going to make one tiny little nit. My hot sauce was shipped in a ton of old fashioned pink foam peanuts. Not only are those messy to unpack, more importantly, they’re environmentally awful. I’d like to see them use more responsible packing materials.

All in all, I’m still pretty impressed with these delicious sauces. The quality and care put into making them really stands out. Now go out and grab a bottle of two!

http://www.mikeanddianes.com/

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