Homemade Sriracha – A Hot Sauce Worth Crowing About!

If I had a dollar for every “I can’t find Sriracha, what can I use instead?” email I’ve received, I could eat at every Thai restaurant in town, twice. I usually say to use whatever hot sauce they can get, but alternatives like Tabasco and Frank’s (I don’t put that sh*t on everything), just aren’t the same. No offense.

So, instead of continuing to help people fit spicy, square pegs in hot, round holes, I figured it was time to show just how easy it is to make your own homemade sriracha. I’ve listed exactly what I added below, but when you get to the end of the process, it’s very easy to adjust with extra salt, sugar, and/or vinegar if need be.

I used about 75% red jalapenos, also sold as “Fresno chilies,” and about 25% red Serrano chilies, so this version is probably a bit spicier than the Huy Fong Foods “rooster sauce,” which you’re probably more familiar. 

I don’t want to sound “cocky,” but the flavor, color, and texture are remarkably close. Now, if I just pronounce it right. It sounds fine in my brain, but something happens in my mouth on the way out.

Anyway, this is a fun project, and a really delicious, must-have hot sauce. I hope you give homemade Sriracha a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for about 1 1/2 cups Sriracha:

1 1/2 lbs of red jalapenos and red serranos, stems removed

4 cloves of garlic, peeled

3 tbsp light brown sugar

1 tbsp Kosher salt
1/3 cup water

1/2 cup of distilled white vinegar

Next Up: A Certain Hot Sauce

Suspect Heading North on 5

I’m driving up to Seattle this week for the 2013 International Food Bloggers Conference, and since I’ve never done the drive before, I was wondering if anyone has any great food recommendations along the way? I’ll be staying on Interstate 5 all the way from the Bay Area, stopping about halfway for the night. Thanks in advance for any tips that come this way!

The video below was shot the last time I was in Seattle for this event, and it features one of my favorite things to do when traveling; improvised hotel room cuisine! If you’re interested, you can read whole story here. Enjoy!

Hotel Room Cup O' King Salmon

Salad Lyonnaise – A Super Salad from a City of Meat

How great is Salad Lyonnaise? Lyon is considered the meat capital of France, and yet the city’s most famous, and reproduced dish is probably this simple frisee salad. Now that’s some delicious irony.

Don’t worry…this salad is far from vegan. The mildly bitter greens are dressed in a shallot and Dijon dressing, it’s spiked with a generous handful of crispy lardons, or bacon in my case, and topped with a runny egg.

By the way, unless you’re some kind of crazy person, you’re going to need some crispy croutons or crostini to finish this masterpiece off. Here’s a link to the ones I used for this, sans Parmigiano-Reggiano. You’ll also want to taste and adjust the dressing to your liking. I use a 2-to-1, oil to vinegar ratio, as I think you need some acidity to cut the richness of the bacon and egg yolk, but you may not want it as sharp.

As I joked about in the video, this is so tasty, it may be the only salad that has a chance to be picked as someone’s last meal. There’s good, and then there’s death row good. Anyway, I’ve been dying to film this old favorite, and I really hope you give it a try soon. Enjoy!

For 4 generous portions:

2 heads frisee lettuce, aka curly endive, or use arugula

8 oz bacon (or pancetta if you want to experience something closer to real lardons)

4 large eggs

1 tbsp chives

For the dressing (makes extra, about 3/4 cup total):

1 generous tbsp minced shallots

1 generous tbsp Dijon mustard

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup sherry vinegar

1/2 cup lightly flavored olive oil

Next Up: A Salad from Lyon

Sorta Porchetta

One of my all-time favorite street foods in San Francisco is Roli Roti’s famous porchetta sandwich, served at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. For those of you not familiar with the perfection that is the porchetta, it's a loin, and possibly other cuts of heavily seasoned pig parts, wrapped inside a pork belly, which is then roasted until the inside is tender, and the outside is crispy and crackling. It’s then sliced and served on a crusty roll with salsa verde.

It’s insanely good, and something I've always wanted to try doing at home. Of course, a real porchetta feeds like 20 people, so I wanted a version that would be better suited for a smaller group. 

I decided to try using a small pork shoulder roast. The plan was to mimic the same flavors, but cook it more like pork loin, instead of the usual fork tender, falling apart state we associate with this cut. Pulled pork was not what I was after here.

It worked wonderfully, although you do need to slice it nice and thin. We’re only cooking this to 145 F. which is not high enough a temperature to break down all that connective tissue. All in all, I thought it was a very successful experiment, especially when you consider how much we scaled this down. 

What it didn’t feature however, was that crispy skin, also known as “the best part.” I wish I’d thought of it before I finished the video, but what I should have done was fried up some diced pancetta (un-smoked Italian bacon) until it was perfectly crispy, and topped the sandwich with that! That would have put this already fine faux-porchetta over the top! I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 4 very large portions:

2 1/2 pound boneless pork shoulder roast, butterflied open, and slashes made all over the connective tissues

olive oil as needed

1 tbsp kosher salt (2 tsp for inside, and 1 for out)

1 tbsp black pepper

2 tbsp chopped sage leaves

2 tbsp chopped rosemary

6 cloves minced garlic

zest from a large orange

2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed

- Stuff, tie, salt, and refrigerate uncovered for 24 hours

- Roast at 450 F. for 15 minutes

- Reduce heat to 250 F. and roast another hour, or until an internal temp of 145 F.

For the vinegar sauce:

1/2 anchovy fillet

1 tsp hot chili flakes or to taste

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/4 cup freshly chopped Italian parsley

Bonus How to Butterfly Meat for Rolling Video! 

 

Next Up: Porchetta Impostore