Feel the burn with these 6 hot pantry staples

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Feel the burn with these 6 hot pantry staples

Heaters chow electricity. Turn up the temperature on the cheap by transforming your pantry into a UN of hot sauces. All the best chefs do.

Forget the fan-heater or the fireplace, we’ve found a better way to keep warm this season. Here’s the low-down on some of our favourite hot sauces.

  • Sambal oelek , this hot Indonesian export is traditionally made by grinding chillies and salt, but some recipes call for a dash of vinegar and sugar. Locally, chef Luke Dale-Roberts likes to add it to his fish tacos.
  • Jamie Oliver is a huge fan of harissa, a Tunisian paste which varies regionally, but usually stars roast red peppers, chillies, cumin, coriander and garlic. He slathers it on sardines and brinjals and stirs it through yoghurt or mayo to make dips for lamb meatballs and squid.
  • Jalapeño sauce is made with the still-green version of the Mexican chilli and for the wussier palates. Nigella Lawson prefers making her own version of garlic-siked, vinegary sauce, fancying it as a condiment on baked sweet potatoes and fish.
  • Tabasco sauce’s complexity, derives from ageing ad fermenting a variety of Mexican chilli peppers in barrels for years. New Orleans superchef, Alon Shaya is known to use in everything from chipotle onion jam and simple seafood sauce for handmade fusilli, to chocolate ganache.
  • Peri-peri is another name for the African bird’s eye chilli – the main component in this Mozambiquan sauce. Chef Marcus Samuelsson of Merkato 55 in New York makes his own version, including lemon juice, coriander, parsley and garlic, and uses it to marinate shrimp, which he fries and serves in lettuce wraps.
  • Sure it might be a fad ingredient, but as far as we’re concerned, anything Tabasco can do sriracha can do better. At chef Alvin Cailan’s cult LA eatery EggSlut, the sweet-salty, hot-sour, garlicky sauce is the crowning glory of the Fairfax, a soft bun filled with soft scrambled eggs, chives Cheddar Cheese and caramelised onions.

Try Spicy sriracha chicken sloppy joes on steamed buns with fiery slaw.

TASTE Article by: TASTE

The TASTE team is a happy bunch of keen cooks and writers, always on the look out for the next food trend or the next piece of cake.

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