TORTUGA CARIBBEAN HELL-FIRE SAUCE - SAUCE REVIEW

This past summer my good friends BRAMANDA went on a work related cruise. AJ has the best job ever. Anyways, they were super awesome and brought me back some hot sauce from their Caribbean adventure.


The name "Hell-Fire" sauce excited me, but so many hot sauces out there have grandiose names, but can't deliver. I could see all sorts of scotch bonnet pepper seeds floating around, and that's a pretty hot pepper. Nature has this way of telling you how hot a pepper is by its size. Bell peppers are giant and have no heat. Scotch bonnets are small little buggers.

I had grilled up some wings (read about my adventure in the rain HERE) and while they were seasoned, they needed some sauce.

2008 SAUCE SCORE v1.0: Tortuga Caribbean Hell-Fire Sauce

BOTTLE INFO
TYPE:	Hot pepper sauce
PRICE & BOTTLE SIZE:	$ = ??? (dunno, it was a gift) 142ml (5 fl oz)
OTHER SAUCES:	Jerk Sauce Gourmet Steak Sauce Sweet Heat Caribbean Pepper Sauce Mango and Ginger Stir Fry Sauce
INGREDIENTS:	Water, scotch bonnet peppers, vinegar, modified food starch, salt, approved spices, 0.1% sodium benzoate, (preservative).
CLAIMS/SLOGANS:	Tortuga Caribbean Spicy "Hot as Hell" Sauce adds a unique enhancement to any meal or snack! Try it as a relish on Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Sandwiches, Patties or Crackers.
WEBSITE:	Tortugarumcakes.com
THE SENSES
APPEARANCE /TEXTURE:	-Watery -orange -visible heat seeds
SMELL:	-sweet vinegary smell -instant nostril flare
FLAVOUR:	-sweet, almost fruity
THE PAIN
HEAT:	burn, a nice zap	2/3
BURN CHRONOLOGY:	Beginning Burn – POW! to start Middle Burn – dies down quick After Burn – tingle stays for a minute or two I could smell the heat to begin with. After tasting it attacked the tongue. It dies down after the initial volley, but the sting remains on the exposed lips and tip of the tongue.	X X X
TASTE:	Good – this would be great to kick up a salsa, but I don’t know if I would eat it as a sauce on its own	2/3
FINAL SCORE		4/6
OTHER:	Might be hard to find in Canada/North America

I poured just a little first to get the flavour. A little heat, vinegary smell. I poured more on, took a bite and BAM! the heat kicked in. Big bold bite to begin with, then it cools down. But my lips and tongue were still tingling. I was half trying to conserve the small bottle and half trying to douce my wings. And I had to cover my leftover wings the next day for sure in the sauce.

FINAL SCORE: The sauce is zingy, but not a rich flavour. But it does have a good kick. Mixing it in with a weak sauce would definetly kick things up a notch. 4/6

Tortuga Caribbean Hell-Fire Sauce
Tortugarumcakes.com

PS: THANKS FOR THE SAUCE!!!!

BBQ in the Rain & BACON WRAPPED JALAPENOS ~ RECIPE

It was a dark and stormy night. No this isn't some cheap novel, this was my dining experience about a week ago. Ribs and meat that sat in the fridge were near their expiration date and they had to be cooked. But I just couldn't bring myself to bake the ribs. I had been looking forward to bbq and gosh darn it, I had to do it.

I went out and there was a light rain. The bbq pit on the balcony was not covered up at all (I thought the wooden trellis went over but I was wrong). The rain wasn't heavy enough to put out my charcoal fire, and because I had a lot of wings and a lot of ribs, I used a lot of briquettes and man, was it a big fire. It wasn't long before the meat was on the grill.


It also wasn't long before the sun went down and the darkness filled the patio. I forgot there was only one light out there, and I was grilling in the dark. I had to use the flare ups to see how done the wings and ribs were. It was a very zen moment. The rain, darkness, the fire, the meat. Ok maybe more my primitive roots than zen. But it was a moment.





The ribs, rubbed, grilled, then sauced with the PC Smokin' Stampede Beer & Chipotle Barbecue Saucemixed with Siracha sauce. The meat itself didn't taste so great, but the sauce mixture was. The wings were good, and I did a sauce review HERE with them. On the side was some garlic mashed potatoes I whipped up earlier. But there was one special addition to the meal:

BACON WRAPPED JALAPENOS
Ingredients:

• Jalapenos, sliced lengthwise, seeds/ribs removed
• cream cheese
• bacon

Instructions:

1. Fill emptied jalapeno shell with cream cheese
2. Wrap shell with bacon (use toothpick if necessary)
3. Grill (or bake) until bacon is crispy
   
   

I had 2 jalapenos leftover from another appetizer dish I had made for an event I attended, so there were only 4 halves. I had no idea how long the bacon would take to cook, so they were close to the heat and on first the grill. Of course, it was quite difficult to check on the progress of the bacon because of my lack of light, but it came out well. When finally eating, the crispy bacon and the cream cheese were a dream, but the jalapeno was neither hot (we took out the seeds after all) and just tasted like a green bell pepper. I could have made ATOMIC BUFFALO TURDS, which is basically the same thing, just add Little Smokies (which appear to be some sort of smoked sausage cocktail weenie) and maybe some hot sauce. That would kick these up.

The appetizers, the ribs, the wings, the mashed potatoes - it was a good little feast. Although I got wet, the whole experience of being outside with the elements made the meal that much more special. "You chose a hell of a night to bbq" shouted a man passing the patio into the building. He was right, it was a hell of a night.

WK Garlic Alfredo Chicken Bacon Pizza ~ RECIPE

Whoa! 3 recipe reviews in a row. Crazy. But what can you do? Anyways, this pizza is modeled after a take-out pizza place LJ and I get now. It's something different than the same old tomato sauce pizza, and I have to say it turned out pretty good.





WK Garlic Alfredo Chicken Bacon Pizza

Ingredients:

• pizza dough
• garlic Alfredo sauce
• shredded mozzarella cheese
• roasted/grilled chicken breast, chopped
• cooked, crisp bacon, chopped
• garlic powder
• salt and pepper
• flour
• cornmeal

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Spread flour on flat surface, roll out pizza dough until flat
2. Roll bottom of pizza in corn meal
3. Pour and spread Garlic Alfredo sauce
4. Sprinkle garlic powder
5. Sprinkle cheese
6. Add chicken, bacon
7. Sprinkle salt and pepper
8. Bake in oven pre-heated 350 degrees for 25 minutes (approx)
9. Remove, cut into slices, enjoy

The kneading process. LJ doesn't have a rolling pin so I used a hot sauce bottle. In the far left, you can see the bacon, then a plate of cornmeal. On the far right, roasted chicken breast.

Alfredo & Roasted Garlic sauce. From the pizza place we usually get Garlic Parmesan sauce, but this is good substitute.

Spreading the sauce.

One large pizza was hard to knead/roll without a rolling pin, so I made 3 small pizzas.

The chicken, bacon and cheese added. The chicken was simply seasoned with salt and pepper, but it could have used something else as a kick.

Ah, the final product. The cheese was melted and caramelized perfectly, the crust wasn't too thick, and the chicken with the bacon tasted like a club pizza should.

The downside was that I brought the pizza out of the oven and put it back on the cutting board with the flour on it, so it got dusted and the crust tasted too much like flour. Also, the sauce was pretty mild in flavour.


What would I have done differently? Well, I personally would have 'Buffaloized' the chicken in hot sauce, add onions, and probably some jalapeno pepper rings. And if I could have made a thinner crust, this pizza would have been a real hit. Next time, more spice, more heat!

More photos HERE at the Wing Bucket.

WK Fake General Tao Chicken Wings v1.0 ~ RECIPE

Oh he's back, and he's in wing form this time!

Our good old friend Zuǒ Zōngtáng. Better known as General Tao. As in General Tao's chicken. This is my favourite dish next to wings, and I got to thinking . . . what if I combined the two?!?! General Tao Chicken Wings was born. Ok FAKE General Tao Wings as I am not following a real recipe for the chicken.



WK Fake General Tao Wings v1.o

Ingredients:

For Sauce:

• VH Pineapple Sauce
• Vinegar
• Soy Sauce
• Siracha Hot Sauce
• Corn Starch
  
  

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Mix all sauce ingredients together. How much? About 2/3 the VH sauce, splashes of all the rest
2. Bread wings
3. Fry wings (deep fry is best, I just stir fried)
4. Pour sauce into wok until bubbling, add wings, toss, serve
   
   

All the liquid components. And Corn Starch, which I have never used before. Boy does it work well as a thickening agent.

The sauces all mixed up - the cornstarch must be stirred in well. This does not look like traditional General Tao at all.

Breading the wings. The wings were marinated with a touch of soy sauce, s&p, and a bit of cayenne. When I was ready to bread, I dropped in an egg, mixed it around, then dunked the drummettes and flappers into the flour.

Using chopsticks to bread the wings.

The wings stir fried. I should have cooked them longer.


This is a stir fry that went with the wings. Nothing special, beef, peppers, onion, mini corn, water chestnuts.


The sauce was bubbled, hot and gooey. Tossed in the cooked wings. I was excited at this point.

The final project. General Tao Wings (fake) and stir fry.

The wings looked sooooooo good. I was stoked. I took like 10 photos because I couldn't believe how good they looked to me. Crispy looking wings, sticky sauce. What could be wrong?


Well the sauce was good. Very thick. Very gooey. Of course it wasn't like real GTC, but it was a pretty good knock off. Sweet, spicy, it was all there.


The problem with the wings were the wings. The chicken that is. The skin and breading was great. But I wish I had cooked the wings longer. Not that it wasn't cooked - the meat was white all the way through, but it was chewy. I was disappointed. I just kept liking the sauce off my fingers. I eventually stopped and later in the evening I baked the wings again (sauce and all) and that improved the chicken, and didn't hurt the sauce at all.


What I would do different to the sauce? Next time I will add a few ingredients I forgot to put in that I planned on. But not a whole lot more. One day I will make a classic General Tao sauce for sure for the wings. Overall, I think a success!

WK Chipotle Suicide Sauce v1.0 ~ Recipe

For so long now, I had dreamed of making my own sauce. Not just any sauce, a killer suicide wing sauce. Something distinct, flavourful but will turn your mouth to fire. Up until now, I have just mixed commercial sauces together. But not now. No this time I would be making my own creation.



WK Chipotle Suicide Sauce v1.0

Ingredients:

• Tomato paste
• Vinegar
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Adobe Sauce (from Chipotle can)
• Water
• Chipotle peppers
• Diced onion
• Cayenne powder
• Red chili powder
• Ground corriander
• Salt & pepper
  

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Add first 4 ingredients in a sauce pan on low-medium heat, mix
2. In a blender/mixer/processor - whiz chipotle peppers whole and onion
3. Add whizzed mixture to pot, add rest of ingredients.
4. Stir and mix regularly for 2-3 hours

The ingredients. But I forgot some for the photos.

All the liquids and solid ingredients. Boiling in the pot. Keep stirring.

The Spices go in.

Bubble bubble, toil and trouble. Actually that's a misquote. But seriously, keep stirring and watching. On two separate occasions my back was turned, and the sauce exploded all over the kitchen. It was a terrible mess. Why didn't I take photos of that? Oh, because I was angry, that's why.

To test out the sauce, I had to try it out with some fresh wings. I had to cut up the wings into their 3 respective pieces. Not a fun task, but worth it.

The wings were seasoned with salt, pepper, cayenne and a little bit of oil. Baked at 400 degrees on each side for about 50 minutes, flipped 3 times.


And the finished wings themselves came out crispy and juicy and good enough to eat on their own.


Then I added the cooked sauce to the wings. My anticipation levels were pretty high.




The finished wings and sauce. Oh and some cheese bread to cut down the heat/mop up the sauce.

So how did the sauce turn out? It didn't. I was quite disappointed because the overwhelming flavour of tomato was there, and no heat. Through the early cooking process I kept tasting the sauce, and the heat was killer, but slow and gradual. By the time I was done, it was pretty mild.

My other big mistake that I made was that I used tomato paste (which I bought by accident) which was way more potent than I wanted. There was lots to learn from, lots to learn from.

To celebrate my wings, I had grabbed a bottle of Stewart's Black Cherry soda the day before. I l love cherry coke, and while some black cherry drinks are not up to snuff, this was a good bottled soda.


So what now? I have a ton of sauce that didn't meet my expectations. I guess it could be used for pasta sauce, or even a salsa. I had read someone's recipe on the Internet about 'steeping' the sauce for 2 weeks, then straining it. I might do that and re-infuse the chipotle. I don't know. I'm sad, but not defeated. Lost the battle, not the war.

Thumbs down.

Pizza Pizza wings if I have to . . .

What is a guy to do when he wants wings, is too far and too hot to go out for wings, the closest place that he could get wings is not answering 2 phone lines, and he has no cash but only debit? He orders from Pizza Pizza.

Ya, I wasn't excited about getting them, but what was I going to do? I know it was pretty pathetic. Not that Pizza Pizza has the worst wings, in fact they can be pretty good when done right. These wings were not.

I got zesty breaded wings with hot sauce mixed in. Pizza Pizza is pretty good about the customization of dishes: they could have been naked or breaded, sauce on the side or mixed in, and a variety of sauces on them.



When I opened the little box they came in, they looked good, lots of sauce etc. But Then I looked at the wings themselves; they were pretty overcooked. Not so much that I would call and complain, but enough that they were not very good. Too crispy and crunchy - deep fried too long. And for some reason, the hot sauce just didn't sit with me right.

So I was caught in my own wing hell - deep fried too long and soaked in sauce that wasn't that great. That was the price I paid.



Fortunately, I got a cheap pepperoni pizza on the side made up for it and ensured breakfast the next morning.

So the moral of the story: sometimes its not worth it to indulge in your wants, because you may not get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you get what you need. I guess. Oh, and always have cash on hand to get OTHER pizza delivery places to deliver.