Friday, 26 September 2014

Sweet Chilli Sauce from Maepranom, Thailand

What: Sweet Chilli sauce/dip

Price: £1.89 (a bargain for 5oomls!)

Where can I buy it: This was in my local Asian food store, it's run by Thais, which may help with the amazing range of Thai food they get in, but most have a wide range and may have this one in stock...

Summary:

Can a sweet chilli sauce ever be more than just a sweet, orange jam with bits in?  Well not if you buy the usual Blue Dragon fair widely stocked in all the supermarkets.  

But from the local Asian food stores the 'real' stuff is available and after trying two others I went for this bottle and it's the best yet; there's a lovely little hit of heat from the chillies blended beautifully with a sweet, viscous sauce.  

It's perfect for spicing up prawn crackers and it has the oomph to compliment any dish you care to serve it with.

And it must be good; it's even received Royal approval because none other than Her Majesty the Queen of Thailand has her face emblazoned across the bottle.  Any condiment good enough for Royalty has to be worth a go!

Tuesday, 23 September 2014

Clash of the Titans - Tabasco vs Frank's Red Hot Original vs Tabasco's Chipotle & Cola sauce

What: Tabasco, Frank's Red Hot Original, Tabasco's Chipotle & Cola sauce

Price: £2-£3

Where can i buy it: These came from Sainbury's

Summary: 

Frank's sauce has just established itself in my Condiment Cupboard!  Plenty of fiery heat AND rich Cayenne pepper flavours.  Perfect on Pizza.

Tobasco sauce is still #1 for pure unadulterated heat and can't lose it's place at the altar of great condiments.  Hotter than Franks and always great on pizza if you like some serious Zing.

Chipotle; promised so much, delivered so little.  Hard to know where next for this under performing sauce.

Full review:

Here at TCR we LOVE pizza but we love it even more with a great condiment and today we decided to pitch good ol' Tabasco sauce against Frank's Red Hot Original and Tabasco's Chipotle & Cola sauce.

Pizza is a good test, for a condiment to work it has to either pack enough punch to power through a pizza or add an extra, tasty flavour.  Weak condiments need not apply!
First off, the obligatory naked taste test (NTT).  Here at TCR we sample every glorious condiment on it's own to get a feel for the 'real condiment' free from any interfering flavours.  Once we're on close personal terms we can put them into to battle with our favourite foods...

At the NTT stage a clear favourite emerged; Frank's.  This condiment boasts both a kick of heat AND some gorgeous cayenne pepper flavours.  

Tabasco sauce came roaring back though with a reminder of what it feels like to be kicked in the condiments with it's fiery heat.

The Chipotle & Cola smelt amazing but had a fraction of the taste, but could it come alive once it was  added to some pizza?
Actually, no.  It was a real disappointment; it made no dent on the pizza's flavours, it went first so our taste buds weren't reeling from the stronger chilli sauces.  in fact it had pole position on the grid but failed to even start.
Next up was Frank's.  This comes in a larger bottle than Tabasco so you'd expect it to have less kick, and whilst this turned out to be true, it rode nicely on the wave of flavours from the pepperoni pizza adding a delicious finishing touch of spice and cayenne flavour.

And now Tobasco; the old favour didn't disappoint in the face of the new condiment competition.  It packs such a punch it's hard to think of pizza without it.





Saturday, 20 September 2014

Hot Chilli Pesto from Filippo Berio

On Special Offer now at Waitrose for
£1.09 in selected stores-a bargain!
What: Hot Chilli Pesto from Filippo Berio

Price: £1.09 (Special Offer price today at Waitrose), £2.19 normally.

Where can I buy it? Anywhere.

Flavour summary:

Good strong chilli kick that retains the flavour of the tomato and red peppers that comprise this offering from supermarket shelf staple Filippo Berio.  It has the rare quality of putting the tomato and pepper flavours across your taste buds first before the chilli kicks in, rather than just being a hot sweet blast of too much flavour all at once.

Add it sparingly if you are sensitive to chilli heat, try it on your finger first if you're unsure...

Rating: 8

Tastes great with..?

We've just tried it neat and it would be an awesome dip with some Ciabatta and olives.  Of course it's intended as a pasta style sauce for meat and/or veg but the label recommends soups, jacket spuds, sandwiches...whatever you like a bit of piquant too really.

Tuesday, 16 September 2014

Welcome to Condiment Review!


This is a blog for anyone interested in preparing and/or eating food.  Condiments make great food even better and the diversity is huge, from simple accompaniments through to sauces & marinades.

Not all food benefits from condiments, but many do and this is for people to use and interact with the information available, the free recipes, ideas, suggestions and add their own input.

If you have a great condiment to tell everyone about or a killer recipe of your own let us know!