Feel the Heat……

Have you ever eaten something so spicy that your tongue, and mouth, are on fire, you break a sweat, but you keep eating it? Not because you must, but because the pain, and taste, are just that good? Please, tell me that I am not the only person who is so crazy that they enjoy the burn of a spicy meal. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? (Ok, I just aged myself. My apologies to anyone who is under 30 years old.)

I have been looking forward to creating a Sweet Chili Sauce using Sugar 2.0 for some time now. I am a total sauce, dip, and dressing person, but when it comes to sauces they are usually so full of sugar that I just can’t justify eating them. I decided that since this is the case I had to create some sauces with Sugar 2.0 (Half sugar, half fiber, half the calories, non-GMO, organic, and ALL THE TASTE! You can find their story in the link above.) It took me four tries to get it right. The first time I wound up with chili pepper taffy. Yeah, not a real big request for taffy that hot. Then I wound up with sweet and sour sauce (keeping those notes for another time 😉 ) The next two batches were repeats just to make sure that it turned out the same twice. (Sometimes it doesn’t always do that.)

Believe it or not I had a really hard time finding the chilis I was looking for. Finally, I found Red Thai Chilis on Amazon. They are exactly what I was looking for, but let me warn you, they are HOT! I cut one up, washed my hands, touched my face, and knew it. When you are done cutting these bad boys up, double wash. And if you eat this at full heat just be careful. This pepper is only 150,000 skogel units (Yes, the heat of a pepper is measured in skogel units) Cayenne pepper is 50,000 skogel units, and a habanero is 300,000 skogel units, so that gives you some reference. After eating these I just can’t imagine going up to 300,000 units or higher. I was always told that the heat is in the seeds, so I ate a small bite of the pepper just to see how intense it was. Yeah, not all the heat is in the seeds. But because of the intense heat that these little peppers pack I’m going to give you three different measurements. You can ALWAYS add more. Once it is in there you can’t take it out.

While the sweet chili sauce is absolutely the star of the show you can’t just eat it by itself so I am giving you a baked veggie spring roll recipe to go with it. (Dip with care.) I must be honest, as far as the egg rolls are concerned I enjoyed them more after they sat in the fridge for a few hours. I just ate them cold. The egg roll wrap doesn’t have much taste without frying it, so straight out of the oven it leaves a little something to be desired. If you want the best results, taste wise, put them in the fridge and either eat them cold, or reheat them. However, you choose to eat them make a double batch, sit back, relax, and enjoy!

What is your favorite sauce?

Are you more of a sweet, or spicy, eater?

Veggie Spring Rolls & Thai Sweet Chili Sauce

By Angie Gouchenour

24 rolls

Ingredients

Sauce

¼ cup Sugar 2.0

¼ cup white vinegar

1 ½ dried chilis with 8 seeds (HOT), 1 chili with 8 seeds (Medium), ½ chili with 4 seeds (Mild)

2 Tablespoons water (Or you can use 1 T & 3 ½ tsp water and ½ tsp POM juice for color)

½ teaspoon corn starch

Directions

Combine the Sugar 2.0, vinegar, and chopped chilis together

Bring to a boil and boil 5 minutes

In a small dish combine the water (Or water and POM) and corn starch together

Drizzle into the hot sugar mixture and stir

Boil for 7 minutes and then remove from the heat (It will thicken up as it sits)

Spring Rolls

2 cups mushrooms julienned (I used baby bellas)

2 cups cabbage grated

2 cups carrots peeled and grated

2 Tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

2 teaspoons Sugar 2.0

Directions

Preheat oven 400’f

Mix all the ingredients together and spread them out on a parchment covered cookie sheet (It doesn’t have to be a thin layer)

Cook in the preheated oven for 20 minutes

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely

Reheat the oven to 350’f

Place 2 Tablespoons of filling in the middle of the egg roll wrap (spread side to side )

Fold the wrapper like an envelope (Corner nearest you wraps over and rolls once, fold each side in, then roll tight)

Place on a parchment covered cookie sheet

Cook for 12 minutes

Remove and place on a cooling rack so they don’t get soggy.