Culinary Disasters

Ok I have to admit this sauce actually started to scare me.  I was constantly adjusting the sauce and it never tasted right.  Luckily the last 2 changes I made by adding in the can of diced tomatoes and the molasses brought the sauce together.  I had bought extra mangos and habanernos just in case everything took a nasty and horrible turn for the worse and I had to redo everything.  So now I have a couple mangos and habaneros to find a fate for.  Anyone have any great ideas? 

Even though there is a diced habanerno in this sauce it is not real spicy dish.  You can taste the heat from the pepper but at no point was I sweating or reaching for a glass of water.  In fact the heat and the sweet were very balanced.

I used this sauce on some pork chops but feel free to toss it with some chicken wings or even on top of some chicken breasts. 

For this sauce you are going to need:

• 2 mangos cut into medium dice
• 1 shallot cut into medium dice
• 1 habanero cut into small dice with the seeds discarded
• 1 2 inch section of ginger cut into medium dice
• 1/2 cup of white wine
• 1 TB of white wine vinegar
• 1 small can (14.5 ounces) of diced or whole tomatoes
• 1/4 cup of molasses (I used a blackstrap)
• 1 TB of unsalted butter
• Kosher salt and black pepper

In a large sauce pan over medium heat melt the butter and add in the shallots with a pinch of salt and pepper.  Cook till softened about 3 minutes.

Add in the diced habanero and ginger and cook for another minute.

Add in the diced mango and cook till softened (about 10 minutes) stirring occassionally.

Increase the heat to medium-high and add in the wine and vinegar.  Reduce the wine by 1/2 (about 5 minutes).

Add in the can of tomatoes and the molasses and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat, cover, and let the sauce cook for a good 30 minutes.  Normally I would say taste the sauce occasionally and make changes but since we are blending the sauce I would not do any taste adjustments till the sauce has been blended.

After 30 minutes remove the sauce from the stove and either place in a food processor or a blender.  If you do the blender please make sure to do a low pulse and hold on tight to the lid.  Hot liquid + blender + not holding down = new color in your kitchen and a lot of cursing as you clean up.

I used half this sauce on some pork chops and froze the other half for another day.  Add the sauce to the meat only in the last couple of minutes of cooking so you don’t burn the sugar in the sauce.

Tags: sauce, chicken, pork, All //