Recipe #44

Last weekend, Matt and I went with a couple of friends to the Temecula Wine and Hot Air Balloon Festival. It was fun, ridiculously hot, but fun! We walked around, shopped, and sampled some local wines (Temecula is known, not just for Indiana Casinos apparently, but also for their wines. Who knew?). We waited for the hot air balloons to return for the evening Balloon Glow, where the balloons are inflated, but tethered, and they “fire up” together. After dusk, the flame lights up the entire balloon and it is really amazing to see.

One thing that they apparently added this year were Wine pairing and Beer pairing sessions where high-end chefs prepared dishes that were paired to local winery and microbrew selections. I would have loved to participate in one of these, but $75 a ticket was a little rich for my taste.

Like I said, it was oppressively hot while we were there, and we reached a point where we were melting so we decided to stop in a shaded, grassy area to rest a bit. As we all basically collapsed onto the ground, I started to read the little booklet they had given us when we walked into the festival.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that in that booklet were printed the recipes for the wine and beer pairings! I started to look through them and came across one I KNEW I had to make when I got home. Have you ever run across one of those? That you knew you just had to make? I couldn’t wait to try such an involved recipe that was from a professional chef that was brought to a festival such as this one…I have gained a lot of confidence in my cooking over the years, and with the recent conquering of frying, I couldn’t wait to challenge myself again.

Recipe #44

Sriracha Ketchup

As with any recipe, it’s important to gather everything you need….

As you can see I added in the ketchup, and then the sriracha…

I admit, I put my own twist on the recipe and decided to branch out a bit. I mixed it with a spoon instead of the rubber spatula that was called for.

After about 30 seconds, my hard work finally paid off!! And I was ready to impress Matt with my new culinary levels. I accompanied the sauce with hot dogs that were infused with cheddar cheese, encased in puff pastry shells.

The sauce was distinctly tomato with a hint of sweetness, followed by a distinct burn. It was … pretty darn good actually. And Dad, before you ask, it was to be paired with the Leffe.

So see, when you stretch and challenge yourself, cooking is a lot of fun!