Edible Vancouver Island Fall 2022

H ot sauces come in an incredible range of avour pro les and are great fodder for breakfast table debates: are you a vinegar-based a cionado, or do you prefer a more fruit-forward spice? Do you like your hot sauce to make you sweat, or just add a little extra avour to your plate? You would be hard-pressed to find a more dynamic condiment, and several Vancouver Island-based companies are crafting recipes that re ect the unique personality of the region through surprising ingredient combinations and creative business collaborations. SP I CE I T UP WI TH LOCAL I NGRED I ENTS Eben and Karita Sedun got their start in the hot sauce business after making a custom blend called Red Hot Monogamy as their wed ding favour. Since then, their Nanoose Bay based company, Vancouver Island Hot Sauce, has pursued several interesting collaborations with nearby businesses: their Owl’s Screech hot sauce is made with Arbutus Distillery vodka, and you can nd a hot sauce beer col lab at Longwood Brewery as well as Breath of Humbaba chicken tenders at Fern and Cedar Brewing. Breath of Humbaba takes its namesake from Humbaba, the monstrous guardian of the Cedar Forest in e Epic of Gilgamesh, one of humanity’s earliest known works of literature from ancient Mesopotamia. Made with B.C.- grown jalapeño peppers, this hot sauce has notes of lime, cilantro and lemongrass, with juniper berries and just a drop of Western Red Cedar tincture in the mix. “ ese ingredients add some earthy notes to a very citrusy sauce, and they give it that Island feel,” say Eben and Karita. Rob Schrier of e Cure Hot Sauce Company in Courtenay has a similar origin story: with 25 years of experience as a chef, he began crafting his own hot sauce called BlackHeart Heat for personal use when it became popular among his friends. e Cure o cially launched in 2021, and Schrier has sourced peppers from farms in the Comox Valley like RockBottom and Fitzgerald Farms. Schrier muses that one of his most surpris ing avour combinations was from one of his rst small-batch hot sauces, which contained locally foraged chanterelles that he fermented and combined with pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and hot peppers. is produced “a really nice earthy avour, with a medium heat kick. It made for a nice soup garnish, went well with pasta sauce, and, surprisingly, was a nice complement to a strong cup of co ee.”

Island Chef Pepper Co., based on the Saanich Peninsula, is also tapping Vancouver Island farms for ingredients whenever possible: garlic, jalapeños, bell peppers and hot chilis are either grown in-house or by small local farms, and they also source honey from local beekeep ers. Their Pineapple Express is a version of the classic pineapple habanero hot sauce, and their take is nished with beer from Category 12 Brewing. “[We] provide one of the hottest versions on this avour pro le,” says chef and owner Vincent Capitano. A SAUCE FOR EVERY OCCAS I ON Hot sauces are well loved condiments for a wide variety of foods, but what about classic cocktails, like our much beloved Caesars? Over at Salt Spring Kitchen Co., owner Melanie Mulherin reaches for their Morita + Espresso + Chipotle sauce to craft a memorable smoky mezcal Caesar. Also part of the Salt Spring Kitchen hot sauce lineup is the Habanero + Curry + Orange concoction, showcasing a curry supplied by another Salt Spring Island business, Monsoon Coast, as well as a Pineapple + Turmeric + Achiote blend. Mulherin admits she is one of those hot sauce fanatics who not only enjoys a variety of sauces, but collects them, too: “I have about 50 bottles in my fridge at any given time. I collect a bottle or two from every place I travel. So it was natural to add hot sauce to our line of preserves.” You might imagine your hot sauce lineup in a spicy ombre palette of yellow and orange, melting into red and maroon, but don’t neglect the potential of a tantalizing verde. Nellie’s is a catering and prepared meal service company on Salt Spring Island, and one of their recent feature garnishes has become so popular, it’s earned a permanent spot on the retail pantry at local bakery Francis Bread. is popular green hot sauce is zhug, which originates from Yemeni cuisine, and Nellie’s version incorporates Saanich-based Babe’s Honey, as well as cilantro, parsley and garlic sourced locally when possible. “Zhug is one of those sneaky sauces that really makes every thing better,” says Gracie Gardner, who runs Nellie’s alongside partner Henry Wright. “Put it on a plain piece of seared sh, so elegant. Dip vegetables in it, energizing. Put it on any sand wich, make a quick pot of clams and drizzle the zhug in it, or slap it on a fried egg…it just works!” Hot sauce as a category represents an incredible range of ingredients and avours, and these small businesses have created products that speak to the industrious and collaborative na ture of Island farmers and food producers.

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