Friday, June 6, 2008

Dad's All-Purpose Barbecue Sauce


It's almost full bore summertime here in upstate New York and so I made up a batch of Dan's dad's barbecue sauce to have on hand for our grilling. Dan's father Gene isn't around anymore, but we smile and think of him and his post-retirement passion for cooking, especially barbecuing, every time we make a batch of his lip-smacking sauce.

This sauce is mellow and sweet (kind of like Gene was, come to think of it) with a nice tomatoey flavor that he used to enjoy on barbecued chicken and steaks. In the Wheat-Free, Meat-Free world, we slather this on portabellas, thick slices of eggplant or zucchini, and tempeh. I have tinkered with the original recipe to substitute out the high-fructose corn syrup-infused ketchup with tomato puree, but I feel Gene's eyes disdainfully boring down on me when I do I usually make the sauce as he handed it down, thusly:


Dad's Barbecue Sauce

1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 cup water
1 Tbsp. worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. honey
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 small onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. chili powder

Mix all ingredients together in saucepan. Simmer, covered, for 20-30 minutes.

Makes 2 cups of sauce.

2 comments:

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Anonymous said...

1 Tbsp. worcestershire sauce -- as an FYI, that is not vegetarian, although there are several recipes for homemade and one brand in the store.