Seeking great recipe for Jenise's hot sauce!

[Robin Garr]

Okay! Mary and I got home from a brisk walk and a quick espresso today to find a box on the porch from JENISE! Yippee!!

It had some wine in it but better yet, it had a big, fat bottle of that great hot sauce that Jenise and others were talking about here recently: The Pepper Plant Original California Style All Natural Hot Pepper Sauce from Blossom Valley Foods in Gilroy, epicenter of the Golden State's garlic country.

Naturally I opened it right up and took a taste right off my finger tip. Woooeee! Seriously, seriously good stuff. It's hot, yes, at least Tabasco level, but lacks the vinegary bite of Louisiana sauces in favor of an intense, transparently clear yet layered red chile heat. It's a little chunky, yet smooth, and the hot flavor never hurts, it just warms you down to your endorphins. Closest hot sauce I can remember in the same overall style was the excellent Canceaux Sauce from Portland, Maine, picked up at a Boston Wine Festival years ago. It had a similar texture and overall clarity, but was only a distant cousin still.

I could just use up this whole bottle on eggs and as a table seasoning, but somehow I want to come up with a dish that showcases it. Not a five-pepper kill-me-now dish but something that will let the deep flavors of the sauce express themselves across the background of the other ingredients. Something eggy, I'm thinking, but I'm not sure. Or something vegetarian with tofu?

I've been out of the kitchen, mostly, for a couple of weeks, but this project might get me back in. Thoughts, anyone?

If it was me, I'd probably try it on some wings.

Not very fancy, but I find a quesadilla made with sharp cheddar and good flour tortillas to provide a great backdrop for spicy sauces.

Robin, do you mean it was purchased in Blossom Valley or that is where it was distributed? Because I have the same sauce but it is coming from Atascadero, CA Ingredients are: peppers, water, salt,spices, vinegar, garlic, onion. olive oil, xanthan gum. I can't say I am crazy about it just tasting it out of the jar, however we are having tacos tonight and I will give it a try.

Mike, you will please stop stealing thoughts out of my brain?

That was the first thing that came to mind.

[Robin Garr]

Not very fancy, but I find a quesadilla made with sharp cheddar and good flour tortillas to provide a great backdrop for spicy sauces.

Yeah, you and Stuart are onto something good there fer sure, although still, it seems a little more like "a dish with hot sauce on it" rather than "a dish that showcases a particular hot sauce as a key ingredient."

To that end, after having decided things like purpose-stuffed omelets with hot sauce were a little too simple, I'm thinking of something along the lines of a fairly straightforward jambalaya in which I'd let the sauce carry the hot-stuff melody and try to balance it against the ingredients.

Hmmmm ... I'm gettin' hongree ...

Well, imagine my pleasure when I bit into our family taco with the Pepper Plant Sauce rather than our beloved Lindy's Taco Sauce and WOW! A pleasure sensation. I loved the bold flavor with a hot (but very tolerable ) finish. Yep, it was a winner. My second taco had to have our Lindy's and it was just not the same. How can our beloved, family taco sauce loose out to a newcomer that has been sitting in my hot sauce pantry shelf for a long time? What will the kids say when I tell them I found a better sauce? What fun this was. Well, for me, Gene would not hear of a new kid sauce coming into our lives....

Robin,

A jambalaya with the hot sauce as the chile-heat contributor is what came to mind for me, too. Or a jambalaya using cayenne, ground black, and ground white pepper as the heat elements, with the hot sauce used as a garnish at serving time. Basically, use this hot sauce where Tabasco or an equivalent might be employed.

Gilroy wings (this sauce instead of Frank's), anyone?

-Paul W.

I sell the stuff, and we always have bottles on hand. (oh, here's another sample I forgot to give out.)

It is fused in my mind with eggs. That's how I use it, mostly.

Chili verde, with fried eggs on top, doused with pepper plant, enough to change the color of the yolks to brown.

Good stuff. In addition to the original California style, they have chunky garlic and added habenero versions.

But as in most things in life, the original is best.

[Jenise]

Robin, do you mean it was purchased in Blossom Valley or that is where it was distributed? Because I have the same sauce but it is coming from Atascadero, CA Ingredients are: peppers, water, salt,spices, vinegar, garlic, onion. olive oil, xanthan gum. I can't say I am crazy about it just tasting it out of the jar, however we are having tacos tonight and I will give it a try.

Karen, the first bottles I ever bought were made in Atascadero. But recent bottles hail from Gilroy. How long have you had yours?

I suppose since it came from Atascadero. How long has it been coming from Gilroy?

[Jenise]

How long has it been coming from Gilroy?

No idea. My Gilroy bottles are a year and a half old, though.