Winter Barbecue Sauce with Sausage Bites - Video Recipe!

Dearest friends, family and visitors to my blog – please be kind to me – for I am finally...cooking on film! Its possibly the most scariest thing I've done since agreeing to go para-sailing in Mexico a few years back but it was a lot of fun to do!

You can watch me here on Youtube or directly through Facebook

Over the next four weeks, I will be road testing four fabulous Russell Hobbs kitchen gadgets from their new Allure range and I have created some tasty recipes for you!

First up is my very special Winter Barbecue Sauce:

Which was made using this little beast - the Mini Ball Chopper:

The sausage bites are optional – the sauce tastes great so pair it with whatever meats or vegetables you fancy! The sauce has a perfect balance of spice, sweet and sour and is perfect for warming up a cold winters night!

The sauce takes 30 minutes to make, I oven baked some delicious ‘Jimmy’s Farm’ free range pork sausages, then cut them into bitesize chunks and speared with cocktail sticks. Great for serving up at parties!

Makes one large bowl of dipping sauce

1 medium red pepper, roughly diced
1 medium yellow pepper, roughly diced
1 red onion, diced
1 dsp of flora cuisine or olive oil
4 dates
1 bramley apple
Approx 2 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped, plus extra to garnish
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
160ml water

Sugar and Spice mix:
3 tbsp Natural dark Muscovado unrefined cane sugar
2 tsp smoked paprika
Scant tsp colmans English mustard powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic puree

Method:

Step one:

Firstly, place the dates in freshly boiled water and leave to soak.

Heat the pan over a moderate flame, add the oil, heat through and add the onions, stir then cover with a lid. After 5 minutes add the chopped up peppers, stirring occasionally and keep covered. You want them to gently cook, not burn or brown too much, add a little more oil if needed.

Step two

Peel, core and dice the apple. Remove the dates from their bath, stone and roughly chop then add them along with the apples to the pan, stir and re-cover, gently simmer.

Step three

After a further five or so minutes, the apple should be softening, stir in the vinegar, stir well and allow to evaporate, stir in the sugar and spice mixture, cover and simmer for a further minute

Step four

Add the water slowly to the mixture, stir gently, re-cover the pan and bring gently to the boil and simmer for a further 2-3 minutes,stirring occasionally then remove from the heat

Step Five

Transfer the mixture into the mini ball chopper, blitz in a couple of bursts to lightly blend the sauce - you don't want to puree it. Then simply serve in a pretty bowl garnished with a few extra thyme leaves!

The sauce can be frozen without any loss in quality, and thawed quickly in the microwave for emergency dipping!