Crack Sauce - The Ultimate Dipping Sauce for Grill Season

This sauce has become a favorite in our family. It's spicy hot while being cool in temperature. When the beer can chickens come off the grill, or a smoked turkey comes out of the smoker, or a spicy walnut encrusted pork tenderloin comes out of the oven, a bowl of this dipping sauce sits ready. It's so delicious that it's addictive, hence the name. It's perfect for dragging bites through before gobbling!

I'm sure it has another name, but what can I say? To our family, it's crack sauce. It keeps in the fridge for about a week. Then, it tends to separate. I've shaken it back up and marveled that the pepper spiciness gets stronger. Wahoo!

Enjoy!

Crack Sauce

Makes about two cups of dipping sauce. 

Ingredients:

3 jalapēnos, stemmed, small chop

4 large cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1 generous cup cilantro leaves and stems

1/4 c. sour cream

1/2 c. mayonnaise

1/3 c. fresh lime juice 

1 tsp. Kosher salt

1 tsp. black pepper

Place the ingredients in a blender and whiz to a smooth green flecked sauce.

NOTES: Perfect dipping sauce for roasted turkey, chicken, grilled fish, or roasted pork tenderloin. Excellent on sandwiches instead of plain mayo. If you want less spicy heat, remove some of the veins and seeds from the jalapēno peppers. 

Ahi Tuna and Caramelized Onions / Roasted Kabocha Squash

Sushi grade ahi tuna for a reasonable price! I happened into the fish market yesterday and got that pleasant surprise! It didn't take long for me to have two fat steaks cut, wrapped, and paid for.  Then it was home to decide just how I wanted to prepare them.

Venison Kefta with Harissa and Yogurt

They look like little cigars on a skewer. They're full of coriander, cumin, caraway, cilantro, parsley, onion, red pepper flakes and cayenne pepper, and very lean venison. Incredibly spicy, grilled medium, piping hot! Wrap them in a whole wheat pita, layer on some yogurt and hot spicy Harissa and you have a Moroccan hotdog!

Pork Chops with Plums and Chinese Spices

 

 

 

Last evening, I made the most delicious pork chop sear that I have ever made ... period. Peace.

 

Marinated Grilled Chicken and Mango Salsa

When the heat picks up, the grill goes to work. We are deep into fresh garden peas and Swiss chard these days, so an easy grilled chicken dish went well last evening. To boot, there are mangoes galore in the market right now. An easy salsa and a sweet marinade on sliced boneless chicken breasts made for an easy meal.

Steak and Stuffies!

Nothing like a Friday night steak, hot and juicy from the grill...

Linear Patterns

Give me some stuffed mushrooms, a honker green salad, and a bottle of red wine. I. Am. A. Happy. Girl !

If you're liking the look of that photo above, there is one thing you must know about grilling a good steak ... my brother Jim's marinade. These steaks sat for three hours in his marinade and then were grilled for 5 -6 minutes per side (inch thick rib eyes) on a pre-heated grill that got downed to 'low' the minute the steaks hit the hot metal. They came off done to a perfect medium rare pink - OMG, how good can it be - doneness. Surrounded by hot-from-the-oven stuffies,they made for a nice fast photo before SB and I fell on them like lions. The poor dogs didn't have a chance of a scrap. Okay, maybe one scrap.

So... here are the marinade and stuffies' recipes. I leave them in your capable hands. Go get that grill out and fire that baby up!

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                                                                                     Image - Doring Kindersley @ Getty Images

Choosing what to post is always such an issue with me. Right from the get-go, this blog has been about sharing the foods that we eat, that I'm interested in learning about, and that I want to pass on to my kids. I love cooking and the more I travel, read, and experience, the more I am amazed at all the food variety there is in the world. Given the finite number of food items on this planet, people find the most amazing ways to combine them for fantastic dishes. Brilliant! I want to play around and sample as many as possible!

Lately though, I have been feeling the pressure from all sides to cut the fat, eat more vegetables, eliminate sugars, eat less red meat, only eat seasonal, brown rice vs white rice, watch out for sustainability issues at the markets, nuts, nuts, nuts, substitute yogurt for dairy that is high in fat, eliminate dairy ... the list seems endless. Being a mindful consumer is a lot of work!

Ribs, Rice, and Roasties

Let's get this out of the way real fast. These are probably some of the BEST ribs I have ever had - spicy hot ... 'make your lips tingle' hot ! This barbeque sauce is a tangy sweet hot concoction that clings well and needs minimal basting. It stays shiny and caramelizes well in the hot oven (or grill!) that finishes the ribs.

Marinated and Grilled Lambchops ...

Basic grilling on a hot evening ... a practice that keeps one sane when it seems the heat will never break, the meal must be made, and the cook says, "Let's keep it simple.".

Two Words ...

Beer Can

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It all started with a really nice pineapple, beautiful mangoes, and unblemished jalapeno peppers ... then, I moved to the seafood counter and discovered gorgeous, shiny-fleshed red snapper. To boot, it was on sale ... music to a Yankee heart! I remembered a Christmas gift that I'd received from my gal, Sara. The rest is history.

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So ... I have a theory about we New Englanders ... we bitch and moan about the weather when it's cold and snowy and frosty and muddy and rainy and dry and hot and humid. The only time we DON'T complain is on those four or so days when Spring is really here. These four or so days are balmy, sunny, soft days that call us out into our yards and fields to contemplate all the wonderful things that we'll 'put in' so that late summer and autumn will yield plenty for the pantry. But wait ... those four days or so? Those are the days that the black flies and mosquitoes emerge and wreak havoc. So ... we bitch and moan about them! It never ends ... and while we're whalin' away, the glory of our flower gardens unfolds.