Cayenne Kick

Delicious burn.  My lovingly sprouted cayenne pepper plants from the spring have yielded the most luxurious harvests of cayennes in my entire life.  I have been regularly producing batches of cayenne pepper sauce, which is now aging in jars, bottles and containers.

Cayenne pepper sauce has long been a fave of mine, since my University days.  Now, even though the thought of eating a chicken's wing revolts me, I am still very much a fan of "vegetarian wings" and a great homemade hot sauce.

My go-to recipe NEVER yields leftovers.  Here it is:

Karen's Kicked Up Hot Wings Sauce

2-4 tbsp Earth Balance (or you can use butter if that's what you like)

2 tbsp hot sauce

1 tsp smooth dijon mustard

1/4 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp lemon juice

a few grinds of fresh black pepper.

The dijon helps emulsify the sauce to become beautiful, clingy and thick.

One of my fantasies is to be able to order vegetarian "wings" at restaurants.  President's Choice makes a great version or "meatless chicken tenders" that sub in perfectly here.  The protein is a vegetable protein with a hearty, rich flavour.  It would be AMAZING if restaurants could just add these to their purchasing so that  people could get them with a cold beer.

The thing I always hated about "wings" - and most people do, vegan or not - is the reminders that what you were eating had both veins and feathers.  I hated that spindly plucky feather coating, even if it was crispy when deep fried.  The drumettes were usually easier to get a mouthful of chicken but the pieces with two bones often revealed a browning vein or two between the "meat".  Vegan wings remove all that discomfort and (almost) all the saturated fat.  No side order of environmental degradation or suffering either.

I believe that the reason veg wings aren't on menus is that they are probably more expensive than traditional wings.  The mark up on chicken's wings is extraordinary.  BUT, if a restaurant's objective is to make money, hopefully the rest of the tab might make up for the loss leader of a plant-based wing?

I have probably jarred about 4 litres of hot sauce using an extremely simple recipe.  Hot peppers (cayennes are my fave), vinegar, garlic and salt.  That, plus a little time.  The aging process is very good to hot sauce.  It mellows it out, reduces the sharpness and heat-forward taste.  It adds to the flavourful balance.

I have actually filled two small ketchup bottles with my homemade hot sauce.  One for my purse, one for my travel bag - for those meals where no hot sauce is available.  

When I think of those gorgeous pepper seeds, sprouting, popping out their first two leaves to now, I am so proud of my little plants' life cycles!