Spirited or mellow … sauce choices - recipes - The Good Foods of Summer: A Special Section

Sunset, July, 1990

Give variety to the season's procession of grilled meats, seafood, and poultry by basting them as they cook with one of these barbecue sauces. When foods are served, offer more of the sauce used as a baste to add to taste.

Your choices are a spirited, sweet-tart, thick red sauce and a mild, mellow, thinner red chili blend. Both sauces keep well in the refrigerator, ready to use within a couple of weeks.

Look for the crinkly, dry, red-black pasilla chilies and long, smooth, shiny, and dark red California (also called New Mexico) chilies in Mexican markets and some supermarkets.

Uncle Bob's Barbecue Sauce

Spicy and sweet, this red sauce makes a good glaze for beef, chicken, and pork (it's especially good on pork baby back ribs); 1 cup sauce makes enough to baste about 3 pounds meat.

To prevent charring or burning sauce as meats cook, place meats on grill over indirect heat. On a charcoal barbecue, no coals should be directly beneath the meat (push coals equally to each side of the fire grate); on a gas barbecue, there should be no flame beneath the food.

  3 medium-size (about 1 3/4 lb. total)
      onions, chopped
    3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
    1 tablespoon salad oil
    2 cups catsup
    1 cup each cider vinegar and dry red
      wine
    1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
    1 tablespoon dry mustard
    1 teaspoon ground ginger
    1/2 teaspoon each cayenne and pepper

In a 5- to 6-quart pan over medium-high beat, mix onions, garlic, and oil. Cook, stirring often, until onions are limp, about 10 minutes.

Add catsup, vinegar, wine, brown sugar, dry mustard, ground ginger, cayenne, and pepper. Stirring, bring to a boil on high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally until sauce is reduced to 4 cups, about 1 1/2 hours. Use sauce, or cool, cover, and chill up to 2 weeks. Makes about 1 quart.-Bob Reynolds, Moraga, Calif.

Per tablespoon: 27 cal.; 0.3 g protein; 0.3 g fat, 4.5 g carbo.; 90 mg sodium; 0 mg chol.

Red Chili Sauce

A cup of this chili sauce makes enough baste for about 3 pounds of meat; try on beef, chicken, or pork. Because the sauce contains no sugar, you can cook meat directly over the hot coals.

Offer extra sauce, lime, and salt to season individual servings.

  8 dry pasilla chilies (about 5 oz. total)
   8 dry California (New Mexico) chilies
      (about 2 oz. total)
   3 cups boiling water
   2 cloves garlic, chopped
   1 teaspoon pepper

Break off and discard stems from pasilla and California chilies and shake out seeds. Rinse chilies and place in a bowl; add boiling water and let stand until chilies soften, about I hour.

With a slotted spoon, lift chilies from liquid and place in a blender. To blender, add 2 cups of the liquid, garlic, and pepper; whirl until chilies are very smoothly purEed.

Use sauce, or cover and chill up to 2 weeks. Makes about 4 cups.-Marie E. Torres, San Jose, Calif.

Per tablespoon: 10 cal; 0.4 g protein, .5 g fat; 1.8 g carbo.; 1 mg sodium; 0 mg chol