Spice is the Variety of Life. Athula's Sauces are superb

Spice is the Variety of Life. 

Athula's Sauces are superb.

Spicy Veg

Three ways (at least) to spice up up your veg and meats.

A few weeks back, Athula of Athula Fusion Foods, gave me a couple of bottles of his new range of #srilankanstyle sauces, now available in selected SuperValu Ireland stores.

It is not too hard to work out what to do with the Athula Tomato Ketchup which is flavoured with Sri Lankan spices, spices straight from Athula's own farm in Sri Lanka and used in both sauces.  

Nuts

His Tomato Ketchup is sweet, acidic, mildly spicy, and fragrant with a thick, pourable texture "goes excellent with various foods". We tasted the ketchup and immediately gave it the thumbs up, a winner for sure. The "Devilled" Sauce though is a step up in heat (even though pineapple has been added to tone it down a little).

So we got the old brain box working (lots of recipes on the net, of course) and came up with a few combinations that worked out very well indeed. This first one is very simple. Called to the local SuperValu here in Mayfield and bought a pack of Pecan Nuts (though many other nuts will do equally as well). 

Hot Nuts

1 - Select the amount of nuts you want. Using a small bowl, pour in a fifty fifty mix of the two sauces for your first attempt. You'll probably add more of the Devil in future attempts! Use just enough sauce to coat the nuts.

2 -Spread them onto a baking sheet.

3- Preheat the oven to 140-160 degrees, and bake for around 30 minutes until the sauce dries and coats the nuts. 

This is a beauty, perfect with a bottle of beer or just as a snack. And don't worry if you have too much. Use the remainder on the day after. 

Hot Veg

You'll like these spicy vegetables. Use Sweet Potato, Peppers, Carrots (that have been blanched in advance), Cauliflower, and Parsnips, either all of them or just one or two. It looks as if the "softer" ones, such as cauliflower and sweet potato, pick up the sauce best. Again experiment with the amounts and proportions of the sauces until you have settled on what suits you. 

Toss the veg in olive oil, shake on salt and pepper and then toss in the sauce, same as the nuts. And then marinate for about an hour.

Again lay them out on a tray and cook in the oven for about 25 minutes (can also be done in the BBQ but time will vary!) and then enjoy. Can be used on their own or as a side dish.  Super tasty and delicious.

Hot Chicken Tonight!

Here's another simple recipe, this based on a tray of chicken wings. These need to be prepared in a marinade of grated garlic, grated ginger, a dash of olive oil, and enough of the sauces (again we used both, we used three Devil to one of the Ketchup) to coat them. Once coated with the sauce(s), keep in the fridge for half an hour or even longer if you have the time. By the way, the Devil is hot but not off the scale hot!

Then transfer them to a hot oven and cook for about 30 minutes. Have them on their own as a mid-day snack or use a salad and make a main course from them, a very tasty main course!

If you get through two or three of these recipes, you'll have a good idea of the proportions of the sauces that suit your palate and you will be good and ready to move on to the tempting dish that Athula himself made when launching his new range at the Cork Summer Show. Check out his Devilled Chicken Sri Lankan Style recipe and video here.

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