PaSu Farm BBQ Sauce

This is BBQ season and many of us are looking for a good sauce for our meats and fish. The ones available from the food stores are so overloaded with sugar and artificial flavours to the point that they actually destroy the delicate and succulent flavours and all you taste is the cloying sauce.

Sauces are not marinades and should be added after the meat is cooked. A sauce should complement the flavour of the food you are eating and yet have some of its own integrity.

This South African sauce is very close to the expectations we have of a good Canadian BBQ Sauce, only I think it is far superior. It will keep two weeks in our commercial fridge and freezes very well. If you do freeze, then use a flat shallow pan, remove the sauce when it is frozen and wrap in cling film and break off what you will need the next time you BBQ.

As with all sauces the ingredients can be adjusted to suit your particular expectations.

15ml (1Tbs) Cooking oil
3 medium to large onions finely chopped
3 Cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 Kg of ripe tomatoes peeled and finely chopped
15ml (1Tbs) fresh lemon juice.
15ml (1Tbs) of balsamic vinegar
15ml (1Tbs) brown sugar
15ml (1Tbs) of freshly chopped basil 5ml (1tsp) of dried basil
5ml (1tsp) of nutmeg – optional
15ml (1Tbs) of fish sauce - optional
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat the cooking oil in a pan and fry the onion and garlic until translucent. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes. This will compliment all meats and fish.

Here are a few ideas to enhance the flavour to suit your taste buds:

Zest and chop finely the rind of the lemon you are going to squeeze. For those of you who like your sauces hot then add either chili powder or chop up fresh jalapeno. You can also add curry powder to give it an eastern flavour.