Pickapeppa pack of peppers 28 February 2009

A few days ago, my good friend Elle wrote about a dip she likes to serve that involves Pickapeppa sauce and cream cheese.  Soften the cream cheese, make it look pretty by lifting bits of it up with a fork, and dump a fair amount of Pickpeppa sauce on top.  Serve with crackers or other sturdy chips.

Well, now, that sounded like something right up my alley.  My friend Judy had served something like it at my baby shower for Grace, only she had used jalapeño pepper jelly as a foil to the cream cheese.  With Wheat Thins on the side, it was to die for.  Seriously.  So I was eager to try out Elle’s Pickapeppa rendition, only I had a slight problem.

I did not have Pickapeppa sauce.

It’s a Jamaican thing, you see, and here in Newport, if it ain’t Portuguese, the likelihood of procuring said item is pretty darn low.  I can’t even get chorizo!  Instead I have to make do with chouriço, which is delicious in its own right, but it isn’t chorizo.

Elle, bless her heart, took pity on me and Priority Mailed me not one, not two, but three (!!!) bottles of Pickapeppa sauce from the bayous of Louisiana.  What kind friends I have!

Entonces (Kurt’s taking Spanish this semester, so the language has been creeping back into my speech lately), it was time to make Elle’s Pickapeppa dip.

Don’t laugh that I used tortilla chips.  It was all I could find!  Now Kurt tells me we’ve got water crackers from my party in the cupboard, but I couldn’t find them.

But doesn’t that look good?  If you haven’t had it, Pickapeppa sauce tastes somewhat like Worchestershire sauce, but sweeter and with a kick.  Kurt says it tastes like a sweet BBQ sauce.  Either way, it’s yummy.

I prepared all this in secret tonight while I was getting together my pot of homemade chicken stock so that Kurt would be completely surprised.  There’s nothing more that Kurt likes better than for me to bring him food on a whim while he’s sitting on the couch.  Well, there are a few things he likes better, but let’s keep this blog PG, shall we?

Let’s see what Kurt thought of this new flavor combination:

You can’t tell from this photo, but he really liked it! He was kind enough to share with me, and I can tell you that it’s a great combination.  The tortilla chips actually work quite well with the dip because they’re pretty neutral in flavor, but I can see other crackers working well with it too.  I’m definitely bringing this the next time I have a party to go to, and I have to whip up a contribution at the last second!

Speaking of going to parties, my friend decided to have us and another couple over for dinner.  She boiled bratwurst in some beer and had her husband throw them on the grill — my absolute favorite way of making bratwurst.  I brought some Colman’s mustard, which is spicy English mustard that’s really got a great kick to it, and works very well against the sweetness of the beer-boiled brats.

But I couldn’t just bring a bottle of mustard, could I?  Oh, no.  So I decided to make my roasted potato salad (recipe HERE).  B told me later that she felt a bit of trepidation when she heard I was bringing potato salad because it isn’t one of her favorite things to eat.  If you’re like her, and you aren’t a huge fan of potato salad, you owe it to yourself to try this version.  First off, the potatoes are roasted, and that just makes everything delicious.  Secondly, there are caramelized onions in it.  Then you add bacon!  How can anything not taste good if there is bacon involved??  And thirdly, the dressing isn’t an insipid blend of herbs with some mayonnaise.  It’s more of a honey mustard sauce.  All of these things together make for a heavenly combination that isn’t anything like your traditional potato salad.  You can also serve it both warm or cold, though I always serve it warm-ish.

The salad was obviously a hit because that was the first thing we ran out of at dinner last night.  I could have made a double batch, and I think it would have been eaten up with no problem!

And now I go to check on my chicken stock.  Man, I’m turning into a right Betty Crocker, aren’t I?