mild bam! sauce

Would you like something like Tabasco sauce made with fresh green chiles, but even more flavorful?

If you don’t like a RAW onion and garlic flavor, this is the hot sauce for you!

• as many hot chilis as you want – jalapenos, tabascos, habaneros, just depends what you like – the original recipe called for 20 tabascos, which are teeny-tiny and mild, so make sure to use way less than 20 if using anything hotter than a jalapeno. I probably used about 5 jalapenos and 3 serranos, and it came out quite mild, so adjust to your liking.
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced onions
• 3/4 teaspoons salt salt to taste (1/2t or less for my tastes, more if you plan to store it long-term)
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 2 cups water (note: this will create a very watery hot sauce, so maybe start with a cup and add more if necessary)
• 1 cup distilled white vinegar
  
  Combine the peppers, garlic, onions, salt and oil in a nonreactive saucepan over high heat. Saute for 3 minutes. Add the water and continue to cook, stirring often, for about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to steep until mixture comes to room temperature. In a food processor, puree the mixture for 15 seconds, or until smooth. With the food processor running, pour the vinegar through the feed tube in a steady stream. Pour into a sterilized pint jar or bottle and secure with an airtight lid. Refrigerate. Let age at least two weeks before using. Can be stored in the refrigerator up to 6 months.

recipe adapted by friedsig, original recipe by Emeril

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I have posted hot sauce recipes before. My favorite hot sauce had always been a “throw whatever you have in the house” pick-and-mix. I’d throw in anything from leftover roasted carrots or butternut squash, to fruit (can’t beat fresh peaches), to sweet peppers. The past few years, I’ve been doing a simple pineapple hot sauce – just raw garlic and/or onion, a can of pineapple (in juice, not syrup – just a personal preference,) and a fistful of peppers. Sometimes I give it a “jerk seasoning” kick with some allspice and thyme. It doesn’t go with everything, but it’s perfect alongside some pastelles, callaloo, or soup joumou!

Although I’m addicted to sweet hot sauce, this stuff really surprised me. It’s not super complex, so it compliments a wider variety of foods. It’s surprisingly basic – just what you’d expect from a Cajun-style hot sauce – but a thousand times more delicious than Crystal and the other bottled hot sauces in Cajun country. Definitely my new go-to all-purpose hot sauce! I’ve made two batches in the past month…

This is the very first Emeril recipe ever posted here… a weird “first”. Bam? Well, it’s an obnoxious name, but I wanted to make sure not to confuse this simmered hot sauce with the everyday blended raw hot sauce. Benefits to cooking it include a longer shelf life (six months!), a more mild flavor (if that’s a benefit for you…), and also a smoother blended hot sauce if you have a cheap blender (I do!) that hates chopping raw garlic, haha. It’s a very Emeril recipe – a bit neutered if you’re used to the fiery heat of la jiao jiang (hot pepper oil), but surprisingly good for how easy it is.

Also, a FANTASTIC way to use your freezer full of frozen garden chilis from last August!

Batches #1 and #2 are really good. This recipe is also infinitely adaptable. Add sweet peppers to the mix, caramelized onions or roasted garlic, or even leftover roasted carrots! Let me know if you alter this in any way! A perfect first hot sauce if you’ve never tried to make it yourself before!

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vegan cajun “blackened andouille sausage”

another happy accident from my kitchen to yours.

cut extra firm tofu into “steaks” and marinate in your favorite dressing or marinade as long as you can stand. (i did oil, lemon juice, soy sauce, garlic, tahini, and some other stuff. you can use salad dressing if you’re lazy.) sprinkle with a lot of cajun seasonings. if you don’t have it, throw together lots of paprika with a little salt, thyme, red pepper, black pepper, and lots of garlic powder. make it as spicy as you can stand with red pepper or cayenne.

marinate a few hours, or as long as you can stand to wait.

start hot chili oil (or any high heat oil like canola) on medium-high, like for flash-frying.

fry on one side until dark brown.

start to break it up with your spatula. get rough with it, until it crumbles into ground sausage sized pieces.

continue stir-frying until crumbles firm up and get meaty.

serve on top of a salad – i can attest that this is terrific for dinner!
you can also serve it anywhere you need a little spice! How about on a vegan po’ boy sandwich, in a stir-fry, mixed into a bean salad, tucked into a lasagna, or – of course – jambalaya, gumbo, or any of their infinite variations? the possibilities are endless!

louisiana red beans and rice (+ vegan version)

scroll down for a vegan version!

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meaty cajun red beans and rice

1 pound dry kidney beans
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 stalks celery, chopped
6 cups water
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried sage
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
1 pound andouille sausage, sliced, or 1 smoked ham hock
4 cups water
2 cups long grain white rice

Rinse beans, and then soak in a large pot of water overnight.
In a skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Cook onion, bell pepper, garlic, and celery in olive oil for 3 to 4 minutes.
Rinse beans, and transfer to a large pot with 6 cups water. Stir cooked vegetables into beans. Season with bay leaves, cayenne pepper, thyme, sage, parsley, and Cajun seasoning. Add hamhock, if using. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 2 1/2 hours.
Stir sausage into beans, and continue to simmer for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the rice. In a saucepan, bring water and rice to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve beans over steamed white rice.

modified from here

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vegan louisiana red beans and rice

1 medium onion
1/2 green pepper
2 ribs celery
3 cloves garlic
3 15-ounce cans light red beans (no sugar added), drained and well-rinsed
1 15-ounce can can fire-roasted tomatoes
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon salt (optional or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 – 1 teaspoon red (cayenne) pepper (to taste)
2 teaspoons hot sauce, plus more to serve
Smoked salt or Liquid Smoke seasoning (optional)
cooked brown rice, to serve

Begin heating a large, non-stick pot over medium-high heat.
Cut the onion into quarters and pulse it in the food processor to mince; add it to the heated pan. Cut the pepper into quarters and chop it finely in the processor; add it to the pan. Cut the celery into 2-inch long pieces and chop it and the garlic in the processor; add it to the pan.
Stir the vegetables well and add 2 tablespoons of water. Cook until soft, about 6-10 minutes.
While the vegetables are cooking, rinse the beans well. Put half of them (1 1/2 cans) into the food processor with half of the can of tomatoes. Process until all the beans are coarsely chopped, just short of pureed.
When the vegetables are soft, stir in the blended beans, remaining whole beans, remaining tomatoes, and all seasonings except smoked salt. Cover tightly, reduce heat to very low, and cook for at least 30 minutes. Stir every 5 or 10 minutes and add water as needed to keep beans moist but not soupy. Like regular red beans, these taste better the longer they cook, so consider 30 minutes the bare minimum and cook them longer if you can, adding water as necessary.
Just before serving, sprinkle with smoked salt or a little Liquid Smoke. Stir well, and serve atop rice with more hot sauce on the table.

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from the fat-free vegan kitchen

cajun french onion broccoli jambalaya

this came out of a craving for broccoli cheese soup, french onion soup, and jambalaya. it’s all of them at the same time. easy to make vegetarian, too – just leave out the sausage and chicken, and replace with whatever veggies you have in the house that taste great in soup!

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fry two onions in a soup pot.

add stock, or water and bouillon.

add a head of peeled roasted garlic, two bay leaves, and a hot chili pepper or two. (i added potatoes, too, since i have a surplus.)

boil together a half-hour or so until soup base tastes wonderful.

add cajun seasoning blend (make your own with thyme, oregano, paprika, cayenne, onion and garlic, salt and pepper,) cut-up raw chicken, chunked broccoli stems, and slices of andouille sausage.

cook about another half-hour.

add broccoli florets 3 – 5 minutes before soup is done.

top with a little cheddar.

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highly recommended! hearty, rich, filling, and easy.

gene’s beans and rice

i just made this up today.

“gene’s”?
named after my favorite sausage shop of all-time.

shrug.

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1 link smoked sausage, ~1 cup, cut into chunks and skinned (i used hungarian spicy sausage, but it’d be great with anything)
1 sweet pepper
several tomatoes from the “dollar bin” at the veg shop, with the moldy bits sliced off

a squirt of garlic-dijon mustard
a few yellow mustard seeds
a hearty scoop of horseradish
two cloves of garlic
three sundried tomatoes
a small pinch of bouillon
a dash each paprika, caraway seed, thyme, smoked salt / seasoned salt (NOT MUCH! i oversalted it, forgetting the sausage is salty), black pepper, nutmeg, Worcestershire sauce

a heavy splash of white cooking wine
a heavy splash of apple cider vinegar

three cups water
a cup and a half mixed rice and urad dal (black lentils; use any cooked bean or pea, or uncooked pulse or lentil)

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fry mustard seed and minced fresh garlic in a tiny pat of fat, then add everything else and a lid and boil.

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topped with thick yogurt and tomato sauce, and kraut if you have it

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i was going for polish, but it kind of tastes like hungarian cajun food. really. like sauerkraut-caraway-seed jambalaya.

cajun three-pepper sourdough bread

Cajun Three-Pepper Bread (No-knead)

adapted from Peter Reinhart’s Brother Juniper’s Bread Book

3 cups bread flour
¼ cup uncooked polenta (grits, people, grits. sheesh.)
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
1-1/2 teaspoons sea salt
¼ cup sourdough starter
2 tablespoons Tabasco sauce
1-1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh garlic
¼ cup finely diced red bell pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Place dry ingredients (flour through salt) into a large bowl and mix well. Combine starter, Tabasco sauce and water and add to the dry ingredients. Stir and add in the garlic, bell pepper.and parsley.

Cover bowl with plastic at let sit at room temperature for 18 hours

After 18 hours turn dough onto well floured surface and gently flatten enough to fold dough back onto itself a couple times to form a roundish blob.

Cover blob with plastic or an inverted bowl and let rest 15 minutes.

Gently and quickly shape blob into an approximate ball and place in proofing basket or bowl.

Cover with a towel or bowl cover and let rise for 1-2 hours depending on room temperature.

Just before baking, slash the bread top to control cracking and lift the foil and dough into dutch oven preheated to 500F degrees. Bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove cover and bake an additional 15 minutes at 450 degrees.

Allow bread to cool completely before slicing and eating.

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from breadtopia