Hot Smoky B*****d Chilli Sauce

So back to the routine...

Kids back to school, snow, BT being rubbish and reducing my broadband service to the point where I think it must be provided by a couple of indolent pixies sauntering up and down a rather frayed piece of string. We've had weather like you wouldn't believe - hail, snow, rain and wind - my goodness, the wind is something to behold - and that was just 5 minutes ago...

As you may imagine, cooking has been of the utilitarian, comfort food variety recently, and also of the 'using up the left over leftovers' (if you catch my drift) variety. Nothing new or exciting has graced our plates as far as what I've produced from the oven or stove, but what has kept culinary stagnation at bay has been the introduction of Hot Smoky Bastard Chilli Sauce to our table.

putting a tingle into our tacos...

I came across this delight via a friend who happened to mention it on her Facebook page. I'm a sucker for a good chilli sauce, and was keen to try.

Having pestered said friend for details and been put in touch with Mr Hot Smoky Bastard himself, I was able to collect 2 prized bottles (one for the Husband as 'a Christmas present' - on the strict understanding that it be shared - and one for another relation, although as we haven't seen them yet, I'm seriously thinking of unwrapping the second bottle from the Christmas paper and keeping it, such is the rate at which the first bottle is disappearing) from a location outside Cardigan a couple of days before Christmas. It had the feel of an illicit trade - small bottles of exclusive sauce brought from Leicestershire to the wild west coast of Wales, bottles given out to those who'd asked, exchanged for coins of the realm...

But enough - this is not rum smuggling from days of yore, or even anything slightly dodgy, much as I occasionally wish my incredibly middle of the road life might be. It's simply getting hold of some darn good chilli sauce. You see, in order to get the kids interested in more exotic food, I've steered away from using chilli in cooking, adding depth of flavour with smoked paprika and concentrating on getting them to try things. But while this has worked for the kids, the Husband and I miss our chilli hit, so I'm always on the look out for something to hit the spot. In fact, my strategy has worked and both kids are now ready to take on more chilli, but that doesn't remove my desire for chilli sauce. Oh no.

 I'm not just looking for heat mind, but interest too, and this bad boy has bags of both. It's not 'blow your ears off' hot (which is fine by me, just to be clear), but the sweet smokiness combined with a tingly afterburn is bang on.

We deployed it to great effect with the Boxing Day leftovers, and it's been a key feature of our table ever since.  Handmade in small batches, this is a sauce to seek out.