HotSauceDaily

A New Food Blog Featured Each Week

Each Friday, I hope to feature a food blog that I read, or inspires me in some way.

I’m launching this series early as part of a “blog challenge” from Jeff Chandler and his PerfCast podcast from Performancing.com.

If you’d like me to feature your blog here on Fridays, use the Contact form or drop me an email with “Food Blog Friday” in the subject.

What’s Cooking? - Thoughts and Recipes of a Kitchen Adventurer

My newest favorite blogger is “food hedonist” Ben Herrera at What’s Cooking? A self-proclaimed kitchen adventurer, Ben features a lot of Mexican recipes, as well as tons of baking, desserts, kitchen tips, and other useful information.

A Featured Publisher on Foodbuzz.com, Ben is also a great food photographer, and his blog is loaded with beautiful photos of his kitchen adventures.

A new feature on Ben’s blog is Wash It Down Wednesday where he explores the world of adult beverages.

Check out What’s Cooking? and tell Ben that Brian from HotSauceDaily.com sent you!

Pace has a new line of salsas on the grocery shelves.

I reviewed their Triple Pepper Salsa here - so you can read my gushing review of this mass-produced jarred salsa, but here you’ll see why I’m not so keen on these other 3 varieties reviewed here.

Let’s start with my 2nd least favorite of this bunch:

Pace Salsa Verde: OK, the jar reads:

“The smoked Spanish paprika that spikes this concoction is not the bland stuff you typically see around.” [But the paprika is indiscernible and in fact bland.] “… we use it to give chunks of tomatillo splashed with lime a unique and unforgettable kick.” [Uh-huh. Kick. If you think lots of vinegar and yellow tomatoes are "kick". Yes, yellow tomatoes. Between the tomatillos and yellow tomatoes, this salsa is the color of baby food... and about as hot. Or not].

Do you really want to see the ingredients list? Oooh-kay:

• Yellow tomato puree (water, yellow tomato paste), fresh jalapeno peppers, water, tomatillos, fresh onions, salt, cilantro
• vegetable oil (corn, cotton seed, canola, and/or soybean), distilled vinegar, lime juice concentrate
• sugar, garlic, smoked paprika, and natural flavoring

It’s a hoot to see corporations extol an ingredient such as paprika, only to find it next to last in the list.  Pace, you did good with the 3 Pepper Salsa… this one, not so much.

Bottom line: it’s thin, vinegary, slightly tingly on the tongue, but not worth fooling with.  Ok.. I

Continue reading →

So I have this jar of Sambal Oelek chili paste and I have NO idea of how to use it, or what recipe it would be used in. So this is HotSauceDaily.com’s version of “ask.com”, where I’m asking you, the reader, to help me out with suggested uses for this chili paste.

Sambal Oelek

It’s made of only 3 things: “chili, salt, distilled vinegar”, plus 3 preservatives - “Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Bisulfite and Xantham Gum“.

This rich, deep red sauce says:

Add GROUND FRESH CHILI PASTE to make any food mouth-warmingly spicy. Use it to “heat up” your stir-fry dishes, pizza, eggs, pasta, or anything you desire.”

Wow, sounds like there’s no limit… typical of the condensed marketing hype on any given bottle of sauce, I mean “mouth-warmingly”?… I like it! The hype that is.

I should add, this sauce is made and distributed by Huy Fong Foods, who make the awesome Sriracha Sauce I’ve gushed about on this blog time and again. So I’m sure it’s a quality product.

And sure, I could Google “sambal oelek recipes” to find recipes for it, but I want to hear from the experts out there… YOU. Have you ever used this concoction and what is your favorite way to use it?

Update: Oct 31, 2008 - Wow… this Sambal Oelek is very much like one of my favorite condiments for subs and pizzas - Tallarico’s Hoagie Spread. The Sambal Oelek is slightly thicker, and maybe sweeter - but it’s a great stand-in for Tallarico’s! And it’s definately hotter. Yay!

Leave a Comment and help me out.

Here’s a list of Food Podcasts I listen to daily/weekly. I’m lucky to be able to listen to many hours of podcasts on my job, so here’s a list of the food related podcasts I enjoy. I also listen to tech podcasts and a few comedy podcasts. I’ll list them in a later post.  If you know of any good food podcasts missing from this list, please click here and let me know about them!

All You Can Eat

Website: http://www.dongenova.com/shows_podcast.html

RSS Audio Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/allyoucaneat

APM: The Splendid Table

Website: http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/

RSS Audio Feed: http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/podcasts/xml/splendid_table/kitchen_questions.xml

Barbecue Bob’s BBQ and Beer Bash

Website: http://www.bobsbeerandbbq.com/

RSS Audio Feed: http://barbecuebob.podOmatic.com/rss2.xml

Barbecue Secrets

Website: http://www.barbecuesecrets.libsyn.com/

RSS Audio Feed: http://www.barbecuesecrets.libsyn.com/rss

The BBQ Central Show on LA Talk Radio

Website: http://www.latalkradio.com/Greg.php

RSS Audio Feed: http://www.bbq-4-u.com/bbstalkradioshow.xml
Continue reading →

Tortilla Pizzas are so easy to make.  All you need are tortillas, pizza sauce, cheese and toppings. Put them all together and place in a toaster oven, and in about 10 minutes, you have a great, thin, crispy, personal sized pizza. Cut it in 4’s or 6’s and you’re all set!

I know many folks have made these, or maybe you’ve had them at bars and wanted to make them at home but didn’t know how to begin… follow along. They’re so easy!
Continue reading →