Saucy Contessa » Featured Recipes

Shrimp or Crawfish Boil

Saucy Mama — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:48:24 +0000

Mark Bittman, chef, cookbook author, food activist and blogger extraordinaire just posted a fantastic recipe for a shrimp/crawfish boil on his blog. A boil is a great, fun way to share food with family and friends. Grab some corn, grab some shellfish, and of course grab some hot sauce, and get boiling! Also, be sure to check out Mark Bittman’s website, it’s an amazing resource.

Crawfish or Shrimp Boil, Louisiana Style

Simply scale up or down depending on how many people you’re cooking for.

Makes: 4 to 6 servings

Time: 30 minutes, plus time to cool

It’s traditional to serve the seafood (and vegetables; see the variation) in the center of a newspaper-covered table with some French bread and a bowl of the cooking water—which will taste pretty good after having all this cooked in it—handy for dipping.

About 6 quarts water, fish stock, or shrimp stock

4 bay leaves

2 teaspoons dried thyme or several sprigs fresh thyme

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

3 cloves

4 small dried hot red chiles

Salt

4 pounds whole crawfish or shrimp

Tabasco or other hot red pepper sauce for serving

Lemon wedges for serving

Freshly ground black pepper

Garlic mayonnaise, or tartar sauce for dipping, optional

1. Bring the liquid to a boil in a medium to large saucepan and add the bay leaves, thyme, peppercorns, garlic, coriander, cloves, chiles, and plenty of salt. Turn the heat down to medium and cook for 10 minutes.

2. Add the crawfish or shrimp. Cook for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and let the seafood cool down for a few minutes in the liquid.

3. Remove the crawfish or shrimp with a slotted spoon, sprinkle with more salt, and serve, passing hot sauce, lemon wedges, black pepper, and sauce at the table.

Crawfish or Shrimp Boil with Vegetables. More of a meal: In Step 1, add 11/2pounds waxy potatoes and 1 pound onions (all cut into large chunks if they’re big- ger than eggs). Boil with the seasonings until just beginning to get tender, about 10 minutes. When you add the seafood in Step 2, add 4 to 6 ears of shucked corn (cut in half if you like). Proceed with the recipe.

Bloody Mary With Two Kinds of Hot Sauce

Saucy Mama — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:25:29 +0000

We are experiencing a massive heat wave here on the East Coast, and are looking for fast ways to cool down. You may already know that hot sauce actually can cool you down, but when it’s too hot to cook, what do you slather your sauce on? How about a nice, cold Bloody Mary? You don’t need a mix to make your own Bloody Marys at home, and in fact, as true with many things, Bloody Mary’s made from scratch are a lot better than the ones from a mix. We found this recipe online that uses both red and green hot sauce. I’m going to try Crabenero and Uncle Brothers All Sauce No. 9 in mine.

Bloody Mary Recipe
Serves 1, but you can scale it up or down as needed. Let us know how you like it, and what kinds of sauce you used!

1 oz Vodka
3 oz tomato juice
2 red hot sauce
2 green hot sauce
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
0.5 oz lemon juice
1 pinch salt
1 pinch peppers
1 stalk celery

Add all ingredients except celery to a glass or cocktail shaker. Pour back and forth between two mixing glasses.
Strain into an ice-filled glass. Garnish with celery. Enjoy!

Great BBQ Chicken

Saucy Mama — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:26:31 +0000

I just found this great BBQ Chicken recipe online from Demopolis Times, a little newspaper from Alabama. What I really liked about it is that it calls for hot sauce of your choice, and you can adjust the amount you add (as long as it’s between 1/4 and 1/2 a cup). It would also be fun to add a couple of your favorite sauces! I also think it would be good on other cuts of chicken as well. I’m definitely going to try this one out over the holiday weekend. Let me know if you do too!

Buffalo Chicken Breast

1 stick unsalted butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

8 tsp plus 2 tbsp ancho chili powder

one fourth cup hot sauce (you can make it one half cup if you like it hot)

2 tbsp honey

salt and pepper

4 chicken breast

2 tbsp plus 2 tsp ground cumin

canola oil

Preheat the grill to medium; make sure the grill is ready for cooking over indirect heat.

In the kitchen while the grill is getting hot, melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the 2 tablespoons ancho powder and heat for 10 seconds. Stir in hot sauce and honey and season with salt and pepper. Remove about 1/4 cup for garnish, and keep both portions warm.

Season each side of the chicken breasts with 1 teaspoon each ancho powder, and cumin, and the salt and pepper. Drizzle canola oil over the both sides. Grill over indirect medium heat, about 5 to 7 minutes.

Flip the chicken, keeping it on indirect heat, and brush with a good amount of the hot sauce glaze. Cover and cook, brushing occasionally with sauce, until cooked through, about 5 minutes.

Top with blue cheese dressing or ranch for that truly buffalo style taste.

Head to Head Sauce Competition

Saucy Mama — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:13:55 +0000

This weekend I pitted two sauces against each other: Uncle Brutha’s Allsauce No. 9 and The Boulder Hot Sauce Company’s Smokey Serrano. I made a quick open faced sandwich with:

Sourdough bread
Swiss Chard
Garlic Scapes
EVOO.

Toast the bread. Heat oil in pan. Chop chard and scapes and saute them in the oil until tender. Arrange on top of bread, salt to taste and enjoy!

I put Uncle Brutha’s on one side of the “sandwich” and Boulder Company’s on the other. It should be noted that I have tried both and liked both equally. First, I tried the Smokey Serrano side, and while it was good, the components of the sauce that I liked so much on my egg sandwich the other day were missing. The swiss chard was too mild to stand up to the hot sauce, and all I tasted was heat. The sweet, smokey flavors were gone. The Uncle Brutha’s was a different story. This sauce, though still plenty hot, went really well with the mild vegetable. The cilantro, ginger, and heat were all present with each bite, but none were over powering.

For the swiss chard sandwich challenge, the winner hands down, was Uncle Brutha’s Allsauce No. 9.

World’s Greatest Sandwich Improved With Sauce!

Saucy Mama — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 13:48:09 +0000

For my first sauce taste test I selected The Boulder Hot Sauce Company Smokey Serrano. I know I said I might try each one on scrambled eggs, but I already cheated and used this sauce on a sandwich. I opened the top and gave the sauce a long sniff, it smells a little bit like chipotle, smokey and peppery, with strong undertones of garlic and vinegar. I put a bit on my finger and tasted it. Wow, it seemed really hot to me, (remember I’m a newbie)but, I immediately wanted more.

Next, I prepared my sandwich, this is probably my favorite sandwich, I make it quite often – it’s good for any meal, really. The inspiration comes from Thomas Keller’s “World’s Greatest Sandwich” which was featured in the movie Spanglish. Anyhow, this is what you need:

New and Improved World’s Greatest Sandwich:

2 slices of sourdough bread
1 egg
1 small tomato, sliced
1/2 cup (good sized handful of greens)
cheddar or other sharp cheese
mayo
salt and pepper
hot sauce

Slice the cheese and put on the bread, put in toaster oven or under broiler until the bread is crisp and the cheese is melted. Fry the egg until cooked, but yolk is still runny. Slather one side of bread with mayo generously, then shake some hot sauce on there. Top with tomatoes, lettuce, egg, and bread with cheddar. Enjoy! This sandwich is also excellent with bacon. Because really, what isn’t?

I put what I thought would be a lot of hot sauce on the sandwich, but the heat that I initially experienced by licking some sauce off my finger was greatly tempered by the ingredients. I ended up putting a lot more sauce on there. The smokey spiciness of this sauce went perfectly with the egg, cheese and veggies. I had been a firm believer that the World’s Greatest Sandwich could not be improved, but yes, yes it could. I will never make this sandwich without hot sauce again!

Caribbean-Style Hot Sauce Recipe

Saucy — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:47:46 +0000

Need a great recipe for tasty Caribbean-style hot sauce? Try this one….and please let us know how it goes!

8 oz. Scotch bonnet chilies, de-seeded and minced
4 Cayenne chilies, de-seeded and minced
1 small carrot, peeled and minced
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup oil
1/8 cup ground mustard seed
1 tbsp Jamaican curry powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
4 garlic cloves, minced

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and purée to a paste (if should be the consistency of mustard). Transfer the sauce into a glass bottle then seal and store (this will keep, unrefrigerated, for up to 3 months). Add a dash to rice or any Caribbean dish or serve as a condiment. This is a VERY hot sauce.

Clams on the Grill!

Saucy — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:15:36 +0000

It will be summer and clam season here on the coast of Maine (as we get our 20th snow storm of the season today, that’s hard to imagine, but Saucy is holding out hope!

Ingredients

4 1/2 lbs fresh clams in shell (in their shells)

5 ripe tomatoes

2 garlic cloves , finely chopped

1 (8 ounce)can whole corn , drained

3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro

3 scallions , thinly sliced

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1 lime, juice of

1/2-1 fresh green chile , deseeded and finely chopped

salt

lime wedges , to serve

Directions

Place the clams in a large bowl. Cover with cold water and add a handful of salt. Leave to soak for 30 minutes to rise out the sand and grit.
Meanwhile, skin the tomatoes by placing in a heatproof bowl and pouring boiling water over to cover. Let stand for 30 seconds then drain and plunge into cold water. The skins should slide right off. Cut the tomatoes in half, deseed, and chop the flesh.
To make the salsa, combine the tomatoes, garlic, corn, cilantro, scallions, cumin, lime juice, and chili in a bowl. Season with salt to taste.
Drain the clams, discarding the ones that have opened. Place the clams on the hot coals of a barbecue, allowing about 5 minutes per side. They will pop open when they are ready.
Immediately remove from the barbecue, top with the salsa and serve with lime wedges for squeezing over the clams.