By KARA NEWMAN
FOR THE JOURNAL NEWS

Sriracha the red chili sauce with a rooster on the bottle has gone mainstream. People are mixing it with ketchup for dipping fries. They’re shaking it over soups. They’re dashing it on mac-and-cheese. It’s so popular that Margaret Walsh, a salon owner from Pleasantville, serves it on Christmas Eve to accompany a traditional fish dinner.

Sriracha (sree-RAH-cha) used to only be found tableside at Thai or Vietnamese restaurants, but now this sweet and spicy sauce has found fans who are using it to flavor and intensify other dishes, whether everyday or gourmet.

It provides tang to spicy buffalo wings and a warm glow to a dipping sauce for golden calamari at Jackson & Wheeler in Pleasantville. It makes a citrus emulsion for bluefin tuna with rice-cracker crust pop at Perry Street in Manhattan. And a dash of it enlivens a cool cucumber-and-melon soup at Riingo in Manhattan.

“It’s not super spicy, but it has a little kick to it, a little bite to it,” Walsh says of the sriracha remoulade served with calamari at Jackson & Wheeler. She gets it to go and serves it with shrimp cocktail even carrot sticks.

“I can’t leave any of it in the container,” she confesses.

Gregory Gilbert, a chef and partner at the restaurant, also uses sriracha mayonnaise to pep up sandwiches such as a grilled salmon BLT and a roast beef wrap with fresh mozzarella and roasted peppers.

He credits the Italian classic Fra Diavolo, a spicy tomato sauce that gets its heat from red pepper flakes, as the inspiration for his rosy remoulade, which he describes as a cross between Fra Diavolo and garlic aioli.

“The remoulade has a mayonnaise base which is basically eggs and oil, which gives a nice texture,” he says. “And the heat of the sriracha cuts the fat nicely.”

But it seems any hot sauce could do that. Why not use Tabasco or some other chili sauce? In a word: subtlety.

Aficionados prefer the lingering sweetness of sriracha, which comes from sun-ripened chili peppers as well as garlic and sugar. (Other hot sauces have a more vinegary bite.) Others note that the heat of sriracha is mellower and milder than more aggressive chili pepper sauces. Still others like the thick, smooth consistency, not unlike ketchup, which makes it easy to dot the top of burgers or other fun foods.

Vince Risi of Croton-on-Hudson always asks for an extra order of sriracha remoulade with his calamari at Jackson & Wheeler. He says that the combination is one of his favorites, and describes the taste as “salty and hot at the same time.”

And though Riingo chefs Marcus Samuelsson and Johan Svensson have temporarily retired their summery cucumber soup in favor of warmer, heartier fare, no doubt sriracha will make an appearance in other dishes, such as the classic spicy tuna roll.

But there is no reason for sriracha to be used only by chefs. In fact, the mild, sweet heat of sriracha makes it ideal for home cooks, even those who don’t consider themselves to be chili-heads. It’s an easy mix with mayonnaise (see Gilbert’s remoulade recipe, below), ketchup, or other condiments.

“Sriracha has a good heat to it, but it’s got flavor also,” says Gilbert. “To me, Tabasco is just straight hot. Sriracha is a very hot, flavorful sauce. There is a little sweetness to it, it still tastes like peppers, but very hot.”

Gilbert pauses. “Speaking of which, where is mine? I haven’t seen my sriracha around.”

What it is…
Sriracha (sree-RAH-cha) is named for Sriracha Harbor, the largest private port on the eastern coast of Thailand, not far from Bangkok.

This sweet chili condiment, which some have nicknamed “Thai ketchup,” is often found on the tables of Thai and Vietnamese restaurants. The two most commonly-found brands are Huy Fong, which sports a white rooster on the label, and Shark. (Supposedly, the shark is in homage to the shark-infested waters off the coast of Sriracha).

Shark brand is made in Thailand and is used widely there as well as imported to U.S. stores and restaurants. Huy Fong is made in California by a Vietnamese immigrant, David Tran, and is the U.S. favorite.

Both brands have similar ingredients: chili peppers (usually red jalapeno peppers), sugar, garlic, vinegar, salt, xanthan gum and sometimes preservatives (potassium sorbate, sodium bisulfate).

The following recipes were adapted from Greg Gilbert, Jackson & Wheeler.

Sriracha Remoulade
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sriracha
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Whisk together until smooth. Serve as a dipping sauce with fried calamari rings.

Fried Calamari
1/2 cup calamari
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/2 cup semolina
Vegetable oil for frying
Salt and pepper

Soak calamari rings in milk for about 20 minutes; drain.

In a bowl, combine the flour and semolina. Dredge the calamari in the flour mixture, and shake off the excess.

Heat the oil to 350 degrees, and fry the calamari until golden brown.

Season with salt and pepper and serve with Sriracha Remoulade.

Sriracha Spicy Buffalo Wings
6 chicken wings
Oil for frying
3 tablespoons Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
1 tablespoons sriracha
1 tablespoons butter, softened
Baby mache or other lettuce to garnish

Fry the chicken wings until crispy. In a bowl, combine the red-hot sauce, sriracha, and butter. Toss the wings in the sauce and serve. Garnish with baby mache or other lettuce

No, this isn’t a case of hands not being washed prior to a trip to the bathroom but a review of a delicious snack that could give you a case of cheeto love that would put Britney Spears to shame.

Fire Balls are made by Blair’s Sauces and Snacks, which explains the name. I will never again speak about putting balls in my mouth, but I can’t help popping 3-4 of these suckers in at a time. These habanero & cheddar puffed corn balls are labeled as Medium Heat, but that just makes them that much easier to eat.

A 2oz. bag contains approx. 67 Balls – 310 Calories worth. Not quite enough to spell out Hot Sauce Blog.com – I reckon I’d need another bag just to get the ‘Blog.com’ portion – but ‘Hot Sauce’ was good enough for me.

Click to Enlarge
The Fire Balls are a bit greasier then the other Blair’s Chips, but for cheese puffy things – who really cares? The flavor is great – with just enough habanero heat to ensure that the cheddar flavor isn’t over powering.

The 2oz. bags are perfect for lunch or snack time – just make sure you have plently of napkins around – the ever present cheeto dust will get all over your fingers.

Front Label:
Red Chile Ketchup
“Refrigerate after opening”
www.bitandspur.com

Ingredients: Fire Roasted Tomatoes, Smoked Chilies, Sugar, Vinegar, Salt, Seasonings.

Packaging: Bit & Spur’s Red Chile Ketchup comes in a low key clear glass bottle with a white cap. The front is adorned with a small black and tan label. There is no back label.

Color: Orange/Red color with dark specks floating around.

Smell: Surprisingly, Red Chile Ketchup smells like nothing so much as spaghetti sauce. No real hints of smoked peppers, no vinegar burst…nothing but tomato and Italian seasonings. I have to admit that I was a taken aback, given the name and ingredient list. I was expecting more of a smokey, chipotle experience.

Consistency: This was a thick sauce, not unlike a well blended salsa. On a tilted paper plate there was a good amount of runoff, but also a substantial quantity of thicker stuff.

Taste: Tasting a tablespoonful, the spaghetti sauce impression continues. This is definitely a mild, mild sauce, and if I were served this on a plate of pasta and told it was homemade, I’d probably not bat an eye. Over the course of the next few days I tested Red Chile Ketchup a variety of foods, including a barbecued cheeseburger, fish, and a grilled chicken breast. On one item after another and the flavor vanished. I dumped more and more of the sauce on to my food, attempting to get enough on there to simply taste it, but always seemed to come up empty. As a condiment, I’m afraid Red Chile Ketchup isn’t bringing much to the table.

Texture: Smooth-to-lumpy. Some vegetable crunch when eaten straight up, but nothing noticeable when used on food.

Heat: This is a profoundly mild sauce, probably one step above a green bell pepper. On a heat scale of 1 to 10, I rate Red Chile Ketchup 1.5.

Overall Impressions: This is the sort of sauce that has you reaching for something else within seconds of your first bite. The smell is pleasant, unique, and promising, but the seasonings simply don’t pack enough oral punch for you to be aware that a condiment is even being used. Someone could literally sneak this sauce on your burger without telling you and you’d probably not know it. It tastes nothing like ketchup, and that leads me to wonder why this name was chosen.

Blair’s 2005 Halloween Reserves began shipping last week!

Blair’s 2005 Halloween Reserve

TorchBearer Products on SNS:
We liked the TorchBearer Sauces so much, we decided to buy them by the case!
TorchBearer Super Fancy #7 Sultry Sauce – Not Yet Reviewed
TorchBearer Super Fancy #37 Tarnation Sauce – Review #1 & Review #2 ~ About half the heat of Slaugher Sauce, you can see that this one is still too hot for some…
TorchBearer Super Fancy #42 Slaughter Sauce – Nick’s Review – Short version: This may as well be pure habanero peppers! Perfect for heat lovers like me.

More New Stuff:
Blair’s 2005 Halloween Reserve – Only 299 produced, did you get yours?
Big Daddy Jake’s Texas Pit Smoked Hot Sauce – Adam thought so highly of this 9 pepper hot sauce, we thought it’d make a good addition to our catalog.

First thing I noticed when I opened up my latest hot sauce shipment was a nice 5oz. bottle with the signature gold sticker “Winner 2005 Fiery Food Challenge” on the bottle’s neck. Oh yum yum this is going to be good! But I decided to do some research, and I could only find that Uncle Brutha’s No.10 sauce was the actual 2nd place winner, not this No.9 sauce. Maybe they had some extra stickers and decided to put them on their other products. Or maybe if you win one award you’re allowed to put the stickers on all your products. Regardless, I don’t know how this sauce could have lost any competition; it’s that tasty.

Remembering The Smoking Tongue’s comments (see days 25, 52, 69 and 73) concerning chef faces on hot sauce labels means the sauce is going to be ridiculously terrible; Uncle Brutha’s breaks that mold wide open. You’ve got Brennan G. Proctor’s mug on each and every bottle, smiling like he knows something you don’t. Around the back of the label are some Nutrition Facts (30 servings, com’on’), a few warnings to the heat of the sauce (not quite a XX heat level, maybe just a quarter of a X), and a quaint family folklore about the origins of the sauce. Now, I’m not going to bore you with specifics; but the folklore about the great great uncle “Brutha” finding a wild patch of strange fruit while working on the Underground Railroad is a bit tacky; especially since the props should be going to Chef Proctor.

Upon opening the bottle; I knew from the odor exactly what I was getting into. This puppy is my version of hot sauce heaven. Pourable, finely chucks of green chilies with a scant about of chili seeds and not even a hint of vinegar smell. And the flavor….oh the flavor.

I’ve finished half the bottle just tasting it over and over again. It’s that good. It actually surprises me that Four Gem Enterprises, Inc can manufacture a sauce like this that can stay consistent between production batches. Chef Proctor is a master at blending the flavor with the heat. Heat only creeps up through the flavor, lingers and never over powers the next taste. Heavenly.

I can’t wait to try Uncle Brutha’s No. 10, the actual 2nd place winner.

Packaging 6/10 (would be a 9 without the sticker)
Coloring / Temperament 9/10
Consistency 15/15
Heat 22/25
Taste 38/40

Final Score: 90/100

Did I mention she has great people skills?

From: (Columbia) - See the video here.

In a small garden on Trenholm Road, you’ll find bright reds and yellows and a few dark greens – some pretty plants with a very potent pop.

“They are dangerous hot,” says Mark Riffle with a grin.

Which, by the way, is how he and his wife Julie like it. From Mark’s pepper shirt to Julie’s kitchen decor, they say they always liked a little spice, but an unusual gift is what really warmed them up.

“Well, it really started when a friend of mine gave me a bunch of pepper plants,” Mark remembers, “We had about 60 plants.”

Without hesitating, Mark and Julie started planting, putting pepper plants pretty much everywhere and – without knowing it – watching a plan literally start to grow.

“We just started combining different ingredients and coming up with something that really tasted good,” explains Mark.

Adds Julie, “Anything that our neighbors had that was ripening, we would make hot sauce out of.”

Eventually, they found the right blend, not once, not twice, but three times with flavors they named Daily Red, Molten Golden and Larynx Lava – unique tastes that caught on like fire among their friends.

“We just got to the point where everybody said, ‘This stuff is so tasty, you really ought to try and sell it,’” Mark says.

And so began Palmetto Pepper Potions, the Riffle’s very own hot sauce company. At just one year old, it’s already won three industry awards, including a coveted Scovie – the Academy Award of hot sauce awards.

“Every once and awhile, we’ll be somewhere and someone will be like, ‘Where do I know you from? Aren’t you the hot sauce guy?’” says Mark with a grin.

Actually, they’re a couple of scorching specialists on a pursuit of pepper perfection.

The Riffle’s sauces are sold at several local stores including The Fresh Market and Rosewood Market in Columbia, as well as The Farmer’s Shed in Lexington.

For a complete list of locations and how you can order online, click on the link at the top of this page.

Once again, it’s all dependant on a reviewers taste buds. Read the two reviews below and you can see what I’m talking about. One couldn’t get enough heat and the other had far too much heat. It’s all relative…

This review has been forthcoming for quite a long time now, due to the fact that I’ve been trying my best to find the good qualities in this sauce. Torchbearer Sauces #23 Fever Sauce is in the upper eschelon of the Torchbearer sauces in terms of heat. The taste, smell, and appearance is just the same as all the rest of them; the only difference being the amount of spice.

The smell hits the olfactory senses pretty hard when you waft it under your nose. It has a slight vinegar tang, and the habaneros vaporize and zing the old sinuses. The primary ingredient is carrots, which explains why the consistency of fever sauce is much like purreed carrots. Why hot sauces are using carrots, I’ll really never understand.

This sauce is called Fever for a reason. It’s stronger and the burn lasts twice as long as our Sultry sauce. The sauce is not for the weak of heart. Even though it is promised to burn, it has the same TorchBearer flavor that everyone will know and love. So love yourself today, and then pick up a jar.

I’ve had a few choice words in the past for these hotter than hell torchbearer sauces. Mainly, I just don’t like them because they’re way too hot. I think I can handle my heat pretty well; better than most, I’d say. But when a company makes a sauce that could burn the skin right out of my sphincter, then claim that it’s the same torchbearer flavor I know and love, I just can’t respect it. I’m sorry.

In fact, I’m not sure the company even believes in the hotter sauces themselves. If you look at the list of recipes here, you’ll notices that none of the recipes listed use anything hotter than the sultry sauce, which is only the 3rd in line for heat and it’s number is 7. Compared the the 23 for the fever sauce here, the sultry sauce is mild.

A little dab will do a whole lot with this one right here.

I’m really confused. If all I need is a little dab, the implication is that the only purpose for this sauce is to make things hot. If I just wanted to make things hot, I could sprinkle on some ground cayenne and save myself some money.

I did use this sauce to make some compound butters. This was one respect where I thought the Fever Sauce shined. The flavor came though pretty strong in the butter as well as the heat, and it tastes great melted over steak. You can see my recipe for the compound butters right here.

I wouldn’t mind trying the sultry sauce or the sugar fire sauce just to see if I’m being too hard on the Torchbearers.

Rating: 10 out of 10 chiles, but two thumbs way down.

The label on the Super Fancy #1 Every Day Sauce is freaky. A whole lot of freakiness going on; like the Elvis-looking, half-shaved dude with a house as shoulders, holding a white boot saying Gol darn that’s good. Plus they use graphics to make the label look vintage. Unique; screams old school and raw.

But I don’t like it. It’s spooky. I’d consider redoing the label; especially with all the colors they use to print them. I like the sticker label on the lid, but too many words are spewed around the jar in different types of fonts and looks messy to me.

The sauce comes in an eight ounce jar with is good, cause this sauce is not going to flow out of a bottle. I’d call it a preserve. You’ll need to spoon it out, or use a butter knife. This should be smeared on stuff; and used in recipes. It’s extremely mild, which is what I’d be expecting. They have sauces ranging from this #1 (mildest) up to #42 (67,582 Scoville units!)

Super Fancy #1 comes with a recipe book to help you figure out how to use it. I really didn’t enjoy tasting it from the jar, and I had a very hard time thinking of a way to use it. None of the recipes from the book seemed worth trying either. It was opened two and a half weeks ago and I’ve been banging my head off the refrigerator door trying to come up with something to put this on.

It tastes like carrots mixed with tomato juice and has an aftertaste of onion/garlic. No heat. Reminds me of baby food; except I would eat baby food in a pinch.

I’d try some of the higher #numbered Torchbearers sauces before using this one again. And since I was taught not say anything if I didn’t have something nice to say, I’ll add that the price of $6.95 is not that bad to add Super Fancy #1 to a hot sauce collection (if you have the space.)

Packaging – 2.5 out of 10
Coloring / Temperament – 4 out of 10
Consistency – 6 out of 15
Heat - 2 out of 25
Taste – 10 out of 40

Total 24.5 out of 100

-thakswet