Product Review: Sabrosa Fire Roasted Pepper Medium Salsa

Duane Thompson's passion for  salsa sparked in the mid-1990's after having a tough day. After the college football team he played for had a particularly awful game, Duane returned to his dorm room exhausted only to find that his friends had raided his fridge, including the bag of garden fresh vegetables his grandmother had delivered to him that morning. With the few vegetables and half a bag of tortilla chips he had left, Duane created his earliest version of Sabrosa salsa. Realizing that the snack he just created  left him without any of the stomach troubles he experienced from other salsas, he made it his mission to tweak his recipe in search for the perfect salsa.

By 2000, demand for his homemade salsa had grown so high that he decided to quit making the salsa altogether so he could figure out how to bring it to market while maintaining his standard of local, wholesome ingredients. In 2006, he founded Sabrosa (Spanish for "tasty") Foods Inc and began manufacturing his salsas in a co-packing plant in Virginia Beach.

The primary ingredient in his salsas are bell peppers instead of a tomato base common in
many salsas, making his salsas a better option for heartburn sufferers. The naturally balanced pH makes Sabrosa salsas shelf stable for up to two years without the use of artificial preservatives. All of the produce in his salsas are fresh from local sources: "If you don't continue to harvest the farms around here, they'll go away," he says. "If you're buying local, you're growing your own community."

Sabrosa Foods Inc.'s mission is to produce healthy, flavorful, all-natural gourmet condiments which seems to be no problem for Duane. His simple-but-powerful recipe is bound to please anyone who likes salsa, including those people with acid reflux or heartburn  troubles.

Today we had the pleasure of sampling the Sabrosa Medium Salsa. It is described as a medium all natural, no preservatives, roasted bell pepper based salsa perfectly Ph-balanced to help keep acid-reflux and heartburn at bay. The medium has a great flavor with just the right touch of heat. We found this to be exactly the case!

When you first open the jar you are confronted with the mouth watering arouma of fire roasted peppers. Unlike your standard tomato salsas, Sabrosa Salsa is based on the peppers not the tomatoes so the flavor is quite unique. In fact I enjoyed the Sabrosa Salsa's bold flavor much more than your typical, watery, grocery store brand.

The first test of any salsa is of course the chip test. Sabrosa Salsa is wonderful simply dipped with chips, however upon fist taste your will realize the unlimited potential culinary uses the condiment can provide. Used as a topping to cheeses, an ingredient in recipes, or as a pepper tapenade, the bold flavor of the fire roasted peppers will stand up to many possible combinations.

We used our jar as a topping to some freshly made Chile Rellenos. The medium salsa elevated this dish to another level of flavor complexity,  in fact we enjoyed it so much that used it to flavor up the refried beans that accompanied the entree.

I think if you try the Sabroso Brand Fire Roasted salsas you will agree that the flavor and versatility is far beyond that of your current chip dip. Oh, we almost forgot; low acidity means no heartburn with this tasty condiment!

You can find Sabrosa Salsa at many retail locations in Pennsylvania and Virginia or at their site www.sabrosafoods.com

Gourmet Sauce Business Thrives in Soft Economy.

Our good friend Gary at The Black Market Condiment Company could use your vote! Click the image and vote for BMCC today and everyday until they win the Home-Based 100 contest. No registration is needed so vote daily to show your support!

Black Market Condiment Company are purveyors of gourmet-style condiment products including pepper sauces, dry rubs, marinades, grilling sauces, grilling sprays and more. All of our products are all natural, contain no additives or preservatives, are gluten free and vegan friendly.

We are a true home based start-up company in the truest sense. Founded in December 2005 in our kitchen, Black Market has already had it's fair share of bumps and bruises and almost didn't happen at all. In our first year of business our contract packager built all of our products wrong and would not make good on their mistake. After a lengthy (1-year) attempt at arbitration, we decided to cut our losses and liquidated our entire inventory for nickles on the dollar. We then spent the next 14 months, and a bunch more money, working with a new contract packager who flawlessly took us from point A to Z of the process and in March of this year delivered three delicious pepper sauces that are now on the shelves of major and independent grocers all across the California Central Coast. With the sauces selling very well, we are now in the process of initial talks with a handful of distributors with the goal of moving into the northern, central and southern California markets in the next six to nine months, and other states in the southwest corner of the U.S. in the next year.

There were many times that we would have liked to have thrown in the towel and called it quits, but the desire to succeed at something we are passionate about outweighed any sort of adversity and in the end has only made us a wiser and stronger company.

Recent press release:

New Paso Robles Condiment Company Launches First Products

PASO ROBLES, California – June 08, 2009 – Black Market Condiment Company, a new Paso Robles based producer of innovative gourmet-style condiment products, announced today the launch of the first three products from their Original Black Market Brand line of pepper sauces.

The first three products to be released are their fiery roasted garlic pepper sauce, chipotle pepper sauce, and black pepper blend pepper sauce. All three contain no additives or preservatives, are all natural, gluten-free, vegan friendly and in the medium heat range. Being gourmet-style products, they are fairly complex and are made with only the finest ingredients, perfect for beef, chicken, lamb, pork, seafood, veggies, and of course, taco night.

Original Black Market Brand pepper sauces are currently available at all central coast Albertsons stores, select Spencer’s Markets, Meridian Vineyards, and New Frontiers Natural Marketplace, with more stores being added weekly. They are also available online at www.originalblackmarketbrand.com.

“All three of the Black Market pepper sauces have been very well received by local consumers,” says owner Gary Gannon. “We are thrilled to finally have our products out there and available to the consumer. Everyone who’s tried them absolutely loves them. They become instant fans and repeat customers,” he added. “We’re going to begin doing tasting demos at the stores that carry our line so that those who haven’t tried our products can have a taste and see for themselves why people are excited about them.”

Black Market Condiment Company is committed to providing high-quality and creative new products to those who wish to bring a new flavor dimension to their meals. Future product releases will include a full line of gourmet-style marinades, grilling sauces, dry rubs, and grilling sprays.

Things Are Heating Up For California Caterer.

Do you remember that Top Chef Quaker Oats Challenge I asked you all to vote on a while back? Well here's the skinny:

Our fellow Foodie friend Maurice "Ben" Larimer made it to the finals and then he won the cook-off event with his Oatmeal Crusted Chile Relleno. He used a combination of Poblano/Pasilla peppers to keep things lively! The Chiles are stuffed with an Oatmeal Goat Cheese, Mango, and Grilled Chipotle Shrimp Stuffing, and are topped with a Green Chile Ranchero Sauce. Even the description is enough to get your mouth watering! “Top Chef Winner Hosea loved the dish”, says Larimer, “and so did Annie from Quaker Oats and Nikki”

The grueling day began at 7am with a walkthrough of the small outdoor kitchen. At 9am the dinner bell sounded and it was off to the races; only 45 minutes to complete the entire dish. Ben tells us that his best time so far was 47 minutes during his home trials. It seems as though Ben had found his groove and managed to complete and plate the dish with 2 minutes left to spare. I can’t imaging cooking Chile Rellenos start to finish is such a short time. Incidentally, Chef Larimer was the only male contestant out of the ten semi-finalists.

This cook-off is scheduled to air on bravotv.com on Monday, April 6th in its entirety. So be sure to check that out!

When Maurice “Ben” Larimer is not whipping up prize winning dishes in record time he puts his 21 years of culinary experience to good use at CocoMoe’s Catering in Red Bluff California.

With his passion for food and perfection Ben has acquired a reputation for amazing food, and an incredible sense of what foods fit best for your event. His experience dates back to 1986 when his first job was a dishwasher/prep cook in a small restaurant in Oklahoma. From there he has apprenticed under 2 separate chefs 1 Spanish, 1 Italian for a total of 4 years. After working in the industry for a number of years, Ben decided to give catering a try.

CocoMoe’s has catered for many celebrities including the likes of, Brooks & Dunn, Reba McEntire, Trace Adkins, Colin Raye, The Beach Boys, Jesse Colin Young and The Youngbloods, George Thorogood and The Destroyers. Also businesses and groups such as the Redding Rodeo Association, Shasta Regional Hospital, Wal-Mart Redding , and their most important accomplishment to date, over 11,000 Marines at 29 Palms Marine Base. As well as many residents of the Northstate here in California.

To learn more about Larimer and his catering business, you can log on to www.cocomoes.net

Rediscover America's Legend - Tabasco!

By: Courtney Phillips

You can find it at any dinner across the heartland of America and in almost any refrigerator or pantry, but not many people know the history of this definitive American legend. Myth surrounds its early history, with some of the early rumors proving true according to the historians and curators at the McIlhenny Company,

The Legend Begins

It was a man by the name of Edmund McIlhenny who is credited with the development of the recipe and process that created the spicy red concoction focusing on a natural fermentation of the liquid instead of an accelerated boiling process. In 1868 he grew his own commercial crop of peppers for his first official batch. In 1869 McIlhenny sent out 658 bottles of liquid heat to sell to grocers and markets in the southern gulf coast.

Selling for one dollar a piece he labeled the bottles “Tabasco,” a word of Mexican Indian origin meaning “place where the soil is humid.” In 1870 he secured a patent for the name and the rest, as they say… well you can finish that one.

Today

The brand is still in heavy production five generations later, being produced on Avery Island, Louisiana, where half of the factory’s 200 workers still live. Many are the descendants of the factory’s original workers and all working today for Paul McIlhenny, the sixth generation descendant of the inventor.

The Tradition

The recipe remains unchanged and the ‘mash’, or main pulp and spices for the recipe, is still made in much the same way as the original, although the quality of some of the ingredients has been improved over the years. The sauce is aged in white oak barrels for as long as 3 years and only at the permission of the family, who supervise the process very closely, is it allowed to be mixed with vinegar before being bottled.

Fun Facts and Secrets

One fact you may not know about Tabasco brand hot sauce is that every drop is aged in barrels which come from the Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg, TN. The company purchases used barrels that Jack Daniels brand whiskey has been aged in and subsequently uses them to age their hot sauce. The bottles that Tabasco goes into were not all that original at their start either. According to legend Edmund McIlhenny originally used discarded cologne bottles to package his first few batches, a fact confirmed through the company’s own historians!

This post was contributed by Courtney Phillips, who writes about the culinary school ranking. She welcomes your feedback at CourtneyPhillips80 at gmail.com

Review: Dave's Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce

So Hot It’s Spooky! That’s the catch phrase pasted across the top of the Dave’s Gourmet Ghost Pepper Sauce. You would think that would have been enough to have me steer clear of this torturous elixir. But something drew me in, something eerie and unexplainable. Perhaps it was the lost souls whom have succumbed to the ghost pepper itself?

Initial Impression: FEAR! While I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghost, I am afraid of the ghost pepper or Bhut Jolokia as it is known is the Tezpur region of India. This big daddy of hot pepper sauces looks harmless while trapped in its bottle, but even it slightly pinkish hue reminds me that something is wrong here!

Ingredients: Ghost pepper/Naga Jolokia peppers, hot pepper extract, salt, vegetable oil, roasted garlic pulp, acetic acid.

Extract??? Dave, are you trying to say that 1 million Scoville units of tongue blistering heat is not enough? This is a truly sadistic endevour!

Appearance: This is a very smooth reddish sauce with a slight pink hue. Upon closer inspection you can see tiny red globules of chile extract forming in the neck of the bottle, it’s hard to keep that extract in suspension so you had better shake this well before you use it!

Aroma: Wow. This is a really great smelling sauce. When I first uncap the bottle and take a slow smooth smell It makes my mouth water. The Jolokia peppers have super sweet melon like aroma. It is slightly smoky and has a little twang on the nostrils, something you would expect from vinegar. Interestingly, the is no vinegar in this sauce.

Taste: The very first flavor to hit me is uhhmm PAIN, no wait it’s sweet and smoky and you can actually taste the garlic in the back for a second, then the PAIN! Wow, this is some hot stuff! Interestingly enough you go from a few seconds of pain to completely numb. My gums are still tingling, but I guess the endorphins have kicked in and blocked the pain cuz’ it’s gone. I think this is actually one of the best tasting super hots I have tasted. The bitter extract taste is not present in this sauce as in other super hots. I think I can find a few uses for this super hot sauce.

The Food Test: Are you kidding? The food test is everything I eat until the fire in my face goes away.

Conclusion: This one is a doozy! I love the fragrant aroma and the smoky melon like flavor. This has more than enough heat for the serious Chile-head and is almost forgiving enough for a supervised beginner to bungee jump their tongue. Have your cream cheese or ice-cream ghost buster nearby just in case you need a rescue party. Who you gonna call?

Packaging 9/10 – Typical DG Packaging
Aroma 9/10 – Fragrant and Enticing
Appearance 9/10 – Thick and pinkish
Taste 9/10 – Smoky Melon Pain
Heat 10/10 – Respect the Ghost

Overall 9/10

The Year of the Ghost Pepper!

Did you know that 2009 is the year of the ghost? No, not on the Chinese calendar, on the Chile-head calendar.

It seems that there is finally enough of the incredibly hot Bhut Jolokia pepper commercially available not that a plethora of ghostly hot products have hit the market running.

The Naga Jolokia (also known as Bhut Jolokia, Ghost Chili, Ghost Pepper, Naga Morich) is a chili pepper that grows primarily in Assam state of India, but also in northeastern India (Nagaland, Manipur), Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. In 2006, it was confirmed by Guinness World Records to be the hottest chili in the world, replacing the Red Savina.

In 2000, scientists at India's Defense Research Laboratory (DRL) reported a rating of 855,000 units on the Scoville scale, and in 2004 an Indian company obtained a rating of 1,041,427 units through HPLC analysis. This makes it almost twice as hot as the Red Savina pepper. For comparison, pure capsaicin rates at 15,000,000–16,000,000 Scoville units.

In 2005 at New Mexico State University Chile Pepper Institute near Las Cruces, New Mexico, Regents Professor Paul Bosland found Naga Jolokia grown from seed in southern New Mexico to have a Scoville rating of 1,001,304 SHU by HPLC.

In February 2007, Guinness World Records certified the Bhut Jolokia (Prof. Bosland's preferred name for the pepper) as the world's hottest chili pepper.

Last year Dave’s Gourmet, famous for their Insanity Sauce released the first 2008 Ghost Pepper Private Reserve in the well know wood coffin caution tape wrapped packaging. This year the Return of the Ghost Pepper Private Reserve 2009 is making its debut and apparition like disappearance. Hundreds of the ghoulish hot sauce has been pre-sold prior to its release and current inventory is flying off the shelves. We anticipate that in a very short time you will have to hire yourself a ghost hunter to locate this spicy specter.

While we don’t have the actual Scoville rating of the 2009 Private Reserve the addition of Jolokia peppers insures that these will be some of the hottest reserves ever made by the spicemeister.

In other ethereal hot sauce news from Dave’s Gourmet, Ghost Pepper Naga Jolokia Hot Sauce, the newest member of the insanity line has just been released. This sauce is “So Hot It’s Spooky”, and it says so right across the top of the label. A quick review of the ingredient declaration shows that Jolokia peppers are the primary ingredient in this sauce, and if that’s not enough for you it’s spiked up with hot chile extract. In case your taste but are not completely flambéed roasted garlic is added to round out the flavor. Don’t be fooled though, the primary flavor in this new hot sauce is PAIN! This stuff should have no problem getting your endorphins rushing to ghost bust your horrifying agony.

Who You Gonna Call?

For The True Chipotle Fanatic!

With so much chipotle content I decided to split off the blog and create "The Smoky Chipotle". Dedicated to everything chipotle; The Smoky Chipotle will present products, reviews, recipes, and restaurants that glorify the wonderfully pungent smoky chipotle pepper.

Click over to The Smoky Chipotle for the best chipotle content on the net. While you are there share some of your smokin' hot chipotle stuff with all the other chipotle enthusiast. Whether it's the pepper, the restaurant, a product, or a recipe, we want to hear what you have to say!

See you at The Smoky Chipotle

New Habanero is Naturally Pest Resistant!

It’s bright orange, nematode resistant, and hot. Make that very hot!

It’s TigerPaw-NR, a new, groundbreaking habanero pepper developed and released recently by scientists at ARS’s U.S. Vegetable Laboratory in Charleston, South Carolina. It’s bound to make an impression on consumers whose desire for pungent peppers is on the rise.

Geneticist Richard Fery, who developed TigerPaw-NR with plant pathologist Judy Thies, says the pepper—named when a fellow scientist saw a picture of its fruit and claimed they looked like tiger paws—will interest casual gardeners and serious growers alike.

“Not only is it among the spiciest ever developed at ARS,” he says, “it’s also highly resistant to many important species of root-knot nematodes.”

How spicy is TigerPaw-NR? It scored a scorching 348,634 on the Scoville Heat Scale, placing it among the elite of the world’s hottest peppers. The Scoville scale shows peppers’ relative heat in terms of their content of capsaicin, the compound that produces a burning sensation on the tongue. Jalapeños fall into the 3,500-5,000 range of this scale, while habaneros rate 100,000 and higher.

But TigerPaw-NR’s true uniqueness lies in its nematode-resisting abilities. “All habanero-type cultivars currently available to commercial growers and home gardeners are susceptible to nematodes,” says Fery. These microscopic, soilborne worms are major pests of many other crops worldwide.

Read More on the Tiger Paw-NR Habanero...