Food Revolution December Challenge - BBQ Sauce

 Food Revolution Ambassador December Challenge

Make your own Condiment

Starving Foodie Smokey Sweet BBQ Sauce

As a Food Revolution Ambassador we receive monthly newsletters from the Jamie Oliver organization with monthly challenges and things they would like us to do as Ambassadors.  For December one of the Super Ambassadors Alex had a suggestion for us to make our own condiment.  I suppose it could be a dressing, a cranberry sauce, ketchup or whatever.   I decided to make a BBQ sauce because I had loads of hardened brown sugar I needed to do something with.  I have a pretty full pantry of things so I just used whatever I actually had on hand.  I would have liked to add cumin but I just sorted out old spices and have to do an inventory of what's missing now.

I like smokey BBQ sauces and one of my favourite spices are chipotle and smoked paprika so that's what I used to give it a BBQ smoke flavour.  You can control what you like and don't like and the amount of sugars, salts and preservatives and chemicals that would go into making these sauces.  I like to reduce the salts but like it full of flavour and slightly sweeter.  I added a few other things to the sauce besides the ones in the photo above.   Recipe below.

STARVING FOODIE SMOKEY BBQ SAUCE

Ingredients:

1 tbsp canola oil or other vegetable oil

½ chopped medium onion

1 cup brown sugar

1 ½ tbsp. maple syrup

1 tbsp molasses

1 tbsp honey

5 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 cup ketchup

1 tbsp Worchestershire sauce

1 oz. Jack Daniels whisky or similar

½ tsp paprika

½ tsp ground chipotle pepper

3 tsp dry mustard or regular mustard

1 tbsp smoked paprika

½ tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp smoked paprika

½ tsp ground black pepper

Directions:

In a saucepan on medium heat add the Canola oil and when it’s hot add the diced onions.  Cook until translucent.  Add the salt and spices and mix until you smell the spices.   Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer on medium low for about 20 to 30 minutes until it thickens up and flavours are released.

Let cool and store in a Mason Jar or squeeze bottle in the fridge.  If you leave the onions out you can store for a longer time.

Recipe:

I used it on cubes of chicken that I sautéed.  Cut up chicken breast in cubes and add salt and pepper.  Saute in a frying pan until there is a golden brown color.  Lower the heat and add a tablespoon or 2 of the BBQ sauce and then just heat until it coats the chicken and is thoroughly cooked through and hot.

Super easy and quick.  I had it with a quick boiled peas and some coleslaw but you can get more creative with rice, mashed potatoes, polenta or other vegetables.

D.I.Y. Cooking from Scratch-Bread & Pasta

I have been using my time without a full time job to take the time to do some
D.I.Y. from Scratch recipes like our Grandparents did before everything came in a convenient package.

1.  BREAD

People used to bake their own breads or get it from their local Bakery.  When was the last time you saw a local Bakery in your neighbourhood?  More than likely you get your bread from a huge supermarket that gets it shipped from who knows where and if you are lucky they might bake it probably from a ready made dough on site.   There is nothing better than the smell of freshly baked bread.  It makes your place feel like HOME.

I have been trying to perfect a No Knead dough recipe that has been going around.   What I need to perfect is how to make it without spilling flour all over myself and my kitchen.  I think I got the bread almost perfect now.  It's not exactly no knead in my books because you still have to semi roll it out and then form a ball and it's a long process.  It takes about 20 hours of resting time and approx. 25 minutes to bake.   But this is what it looks like after taking it out of a dutch oven.

2.  PASTA

The next thing I attempted is to make Pasta or specifically Orrechiette which is "little ears" in Italian.
I used a combination of Semolina flour and all purpose flour but I think I should have added eggs to make it a bit lighter.  It turned out a bit chewy.  I used equal parts of semolina and flour and then added
water.  I will try it with just semolina next time and see how it turns out.

What I realized from this experiment is that it's a whole lot easier to just pick up a box of great pasta as it's less of a mess and a whole lot less time consuming.   But  when it comes to making GNOCCHI the DIY way is way better than the frozen version as it makes Gnocchi that are as light as pillows instead of frozen rocks.

3. PIZZA

And the last thing in the Bread and Pasta attempt from scratch was a Pizza dough and pizza made from '00' flour from Italy.

This is another one that I haven't perfected yet but it did work.  When I was a kid my best friend's mom who was from Italy used to make fresh pizza dough on a saturday night and we would cut up the toppings and put it on the pizza and then she would bake it off for us.  It was the best Pizza I ever had anywhere.  It was light but had a crunchy bottom crust, more like a focaccia bread but it was delicious with fresh toppings and crushed tomatoes 

instead of a commercial sauce.

I want to get to the point where my homemade version brings me back to that great tasting pizza dough that I remember as a kid.   It wasn't the wood oven type of thin crust but a thick and light crust that just tasted fresh and great.  This one take a lot more elbow grease to knead the dough even if you use a mixer you still need to stretch out the dough.

Although it's a whole lot more work trying to make these things from scratch the one thing you get when you make them is the Pride that you DID IT YOURSELF and if you master these recipes you will know that you can whip up an amazing dish just with a little flour, some water, maybe some eggs and add a little tomato sauce and cheese and you have some GREAT FOOD.

Everyone should know HOW to DIY some basic
recipes that our Grandparents made on a regular basis and didn't even think they had an option to do it any other way.

Teach your kids or grandchildren these skills so they don't die off with future generations.

The way things are going with our foods and the trust factor of mass producers it's nice to know that you can try and get a few ingredients and make things yourself and know what is going into them and control what you eat and how it's made a whole lot more.   While I doubt we are ever going to grow our own wheat and grind it, this still reduces the risk of what goes into our bodies.    Of course if you have an opportunity to have a garden or a farm then you know that you have the option to control a lot of what you make from scratch.

I am not suggesting you spend all day in the kitchen making everything from SCRATCH but I am suggesting that you KNOW HOW to DIY and know how it's made and know that you CAN DO IT.

I know that I CAN and have the choice to do it or not now.   DIY and feel the Pride!