Hot sauces are a staple in my cupboard and I’m always on the look out for new ones to add to the fray. I’ll drizzle it on most things, even breakfast – scrambled eggs with a splash of Tabasco sauce is a sure-fire way to kick-start the day. I’d say I have a medium threshold for heat, and the heat from a vindaloo curry is about as far as I’d like to go. I see no point in trying hotter – I like my food to be pleasurable, not painful, experiences.
A lovely hot sauce on the market, and at the (Malby Street) market, is African Volcano peri peri sauce. African Volcano is the creation of Master Chef Great Britain, Grant Hawthorne. Hawthorne was born and raised in Cape Town and adapted a recipe given to him by a Mozambique-born woman. They come in two varieties and medium in strength: one a marinade the other a sauce. Both are gold winners of the 2012 Great Taste Awards, and it’s easy to see why.
Chicken was an obvious choice to test them on, but after a taste I figured it was robust enough to try with meat – I chose lamb.
The lamb was marinated in the marinade overnight and the following day, salt added, then simply chargrilled with the sauce on the side. Both products have varying amounts of dried and fresh chilli, with garlic, olive oil and other seasonings thrown in to the mix. The marinade is punchy and rich, and exactly what you need in a marinade, whilst the sauce is a bit more subtle and actually quite creamy in texture and very smooth. On first taste you get a hit of aromatic flavours closely followed by a bearable eruption of heat. It’s good – very good. As an ex-graphic designer my only niggle is the cosmetics – the packaging could do with a bit of a makeover, more bold like the sauce, but that doesn’t distract from the beauty that’s within. Buy it!
African Volcano sauces are available to buy in 250g bottles at the Maltby Street food market in Bermondsey, London, every Saturday: 9am-2pm. A donation of 30pence from every bottle sold supports the ‘Habitat for Humanity’s Youth Build’ project in Cape Town. For other stockists and more information visit the website: www.africanvolcano.com.
Many thanks to African Volcano for the samples.
