Blistering Smoky Barbecue Sauce

Isn’t it annoying how smug some people are about their special barbecue sauce recipes?

Here we present you with our own finely honed version. I know we’re as annoying as anyone else, but we’ve had some practice.

There are two ways of introducing a strong smoky flavour to barbecued food. Either use smoky flavourings in your marinade, such as smoked paprika, chipotle chillies, smoked garlic, or even ‘liquid smoke’ which you can pick up easily in some delis or on-line.

…Or, more heroically, on a charcoal barbecue (but not if you are shackled to a gas barbecue), introduce soaked hardwood chips to the glowing coals and intensify the flavour from the emitted smoke by placing a lid (a wok lid is great) or foil over the food.

We have found this recipe to be the most popular addition to our food among those who have enjoyed Blistering events:

Makes 500 ml to marinade 1kg of chicken or meat…and to serve as a sauce, with some left over for later.

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp smoked paprika (to taste)
• ½ tsp chilli flakes (to taste)
• 1 x 400g tin plum tomatoes
• 100ml orange juice
• 3 tbsp apricot or plum jam
• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard

To Prepare

Heat the oil in a large non-reactive pan and add the onion and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes to soften and brown slightly. Add the spices and cook for a minute, stirring before adding the other ingredients. Simmer for 20 minutes. Cool and whiz in the blender. Keeps in the fridge for weeks.