Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Some Like it Hot

I accidentally found myself with the painful experience of hot sauce meets eyeball today. While I was mumbling "ow, ow, ow!" and trying to flush out my left eye, I realized I really need to do a post on hot sauce.

I was so happy to hear in one of Dr. Greger's DVDs that vinegar and chili peppers are good for us. (Now you can know why too, just click on those links.) That is fortunate since hot sauce is our condiment of choice at Chez VL. We have a lot of hot sauce on hand at all times and we each have our favorites. I'll give you a tour of our hot sauce cupboard.

Sriracha - who doesn't love sriracha? How does it get that consistency? It is darned addicting (perhaps the sugar content). All the sriracha I've found has preservatives which kind of seems unnecessary for hot sauce. This keeps me from buying it, but I can't wait to try my hand at making my own.

Cholula (original) - simple, easy to find, goes with anything.

Dave's:
Ginger Peach Hot Sauce - the sauce of choice for Indian leftovers. We love to stuff leftover channa masala in a tortilla and call it lunch, but not until we add a big dose of Dave's Ginger Peach Hot Sauce.
Cool Cayenne Pepper - Parker's hot sauce of choice. He puts it on practically anything; grits, seitan or baked tofu sandwiches, pasta with nooch sauce, etc.
Total Insanity - we laugh at those hot sauces sold with a dropper as a top...not hot enough! Rob and I both order "Thai hot" at our favorite Thai restaurant (if they kids aren't sharing our dish). We can handle hot. This is the first hot sauce that I am a tad careful with when pouring it on...the only hot sauce I think I've regretted getting a bit much on my food. It gets your attention. I see they now carry an Ultimate Insanity, can't wait to try it!

The Boulder Hot Sauce Co.:
Smokey Serrano - one of our new favorites. Complex with just the right amount of kick.

Frontera:
Red Pepper Hot Sauce - this hot sauce is the one that started it all for me. I wish I could make this at home by the gallon. It was the hot sauce I first fell in love with. We always remember our first.

I'd love to hear about your favorite hot sauce, I'm always on the look out for a new favorite.

I'll leave with with a special treat. Parker loves this graphic. I'm sure most of you have seen this, but love it so much I had to share:

1 comment:

Cadry said...

I'm crazy about hot sauce too, but you're braver than me where Dave's Insanity is concerned. Last year I ordered nachos at a local vegetarian cafe. They had Dave's Insanity sauce, and I doused a chip with it. Usually the hot sauce at restaurants is incredibly mild, and so when it poured out in a big pool, I didn't think it would be a big deal. Moments later, I was really regretting that move. Tears were pouring down my face, I couldn't drink water fast enough. My lips were burning for hours. My husband drank out of my water glass, and even he had tingling lips!

My favorite hot sauce is the Trader Joe's brand. I buy them by the handfuls.