Hot sauce

I've been on a hot sauce kick lately, ever since I had the homemade stuff at Dame's Chicken and Waffles.  His is still better than mine, but he won't give up the recipe, so I'm stuck inventing my own.  This is the best I've come up with so far -- not bad if I say so myself.  And it's a great use for all the dried peppers I made the last two summers and didn't know what to do with.

Cut the top quarter off of

1. 1 head garlic (whole)

Drizzle with olive oil, and roast for about 1 hour at 300 F.  (I did this in the toaster oven and it worked fine.)  Remove from oven and let cool.  This is a lot of garlic, but roasting makes it mellow and sweet.  It helps lend body to the sauce too.

Meanwhile, stem and seed

1. 10 medium cayenne peppers, dried

Best method I've found is to break off the stem end and the tip, then root around in the middle with a toothpick.  Might be good to wear gloves while you're doing this.  You'll invariably miss a few seeds, but try to get most of them.  They don't blend up all that well, and the add a lot of extra (unwanted) heat.  Add

1. 1 cup water

Bring to a slow boil, uncovered, and reduce until only 1-2 T of liquid remain.  (Peppers should be fully rehydrated.)  Remove from heat, let cool.  Seeding the peppers makes me sneeze, and the fumes when boiling can be pretty assertive.  Oh, and wash the pot thoroughly after -- apparently I didn't the first time, and the next dish (chocolate sauce!) had a real kick to it...

Transfer garlic and peppers (with liquid) to the food processor.  Add

1. 1 c cider vinegar
2. 2 oz. roasted red peppers (from a jar)
3. 1 t salt
4. 1 t sugar

Process until smooth.  Strain through a coarse-mesh strainer into a Mason jar.  Refrigerate for a few days to allow flavors to blend.

If you're like Dame, serve it with waffles and fried chicken.  Or blend with mayo for a spicy cole slaw dressing.  Or whatever else you like to do with hot sauce...

Carolina-style pulled pork barbeque

This is a really easy recipe for pork barbeque that produces a reasonable imitation of the real thing. I got it from my friend Bryan Arendall, a true grill master. Since Carolina BBQ is going to be hard to find in Seattle, I'm really glad to have this recipe.

It's important not to get too large a piece of meat: 5 lbs would be about the limit of what my crockpot can handle. Removing the bone from a picnic ham was hard work and not something I would like to try again.

The key to NC barbeque is the sauce, made primarily of vinegar and cayenne pepper. I don't have a recipe for homemade sauce yet, but Scott's Sauce (www.scottsbarbecuesauce.com) is awfully good. Using some generic, tomato-based sauce in this recipe would really change the results (not for the better, in my opinion).

Start with

1. a 5 - 10 lb. Boston butt or picnic shoulder

Make sure it will fit in your crockpot! Start on the small side if you're not sure. 5 lbs is all mine will hold. Season liberally with choice of spices, such as

1. garlic salt
2. black pepper
3. cayenne pepper

Place meat in slow cooker and add

1. 32 oz vinegar-based Carolina barbeque sauce (enough to cover)

Cook on high for 1 hour, then reduce heat to low and cook for one hour per pound of meat, up to a maximum of 8 hours. (Adjust for your cooker as experience dictates.)

Remove meat from sauce and shred with two dinner forks, removing fat. Ladle over some of the leftover sauce to moisten. Serve on big fluffy hamburger rolls with coleslaw and extra sauce on top. Feeds a crowd!