Review - Race City Sauce Works El Verde Sucio The Dirty Green
Digg
Share
When the conversation arises as to who are the true flavor maestros in the spicy and gourmet food arena, I love to throw out names like CaJohn Hard or Johnny McLaughlin as prime examples of expert culinary craftsmen. Many other chileheads and general foodies who have eaten their products tend to agree with me.
When the chat swings around to who is truly gifted but vastly underrated, one individual who must be brought up is Chad Lowcock. Through his company, Race City Sauce Works, he has been charging along and doing things in his own unique style. He can devise off-the-wall flavor profiles that may resemble other condiments and sauces but possess a happening life all their own. A handful Chad's creations - Lucky Dog Smokey Habanero Honey Mustard, the limited edition 4 Year Reserve (yep, I had to break into this awesomely-intricate elixir!) and his Zen Sake and Kumquat Dipping Sauce - are proud mainstays in my refrigerator, with several others I would whole-heartedly recommend to those on the lookout for something other than the been-there, done-that sauces.
Another superb sauce of Chad's is one I acquired at this year's ZestFest - El Verde Sucio "The Dirty Green" Roasted Poblano & Green Olive Vinaigrette. I had taken a liking to the sauce at that event yet I did not feel it was anything to sing about from high on a mountain top. However, after some real-world usage, I began to see the versatility and value of The Dirty Green. It's now one of my favorite new products of the year.
Ingredients:
White wine vinegar, roasted poblano chiles, hatch chile, green habanero, roasted shallot, green olive juice, vodka, herbs, spices
Aroma:
5 out of 5. Rich, complex scents rise up from an opened bottle. First, there's the distinctive aroma of fresh, fruity poblano peppers which intermingle with onion-like tones, a mix of fresh chiles and a hint of white wine vinegar.
Appearance and Texture:
4 out of 5. Beautiful olive green hue, this solution is accented with thousands of shreds of chile peppers, seeds and specks of spices in a medium consistency.
Taste Straight Up:
4.5 out of 5. Nothing like you've ever had before, yet simultaneously you can pick out aspects of condiments and dressings to which this is similar. One familiar tone is that of a pickled jalapeno. Another might be a quasi-creamy vinaigrette with savory, peppery overtones. There are also smooth onion and almost nut-like qualities running across your tongue. It's bright and tangy yet low-key enough not to be mistaken for a smack-in-the-mouth chile sauce. I was dying to see what this would go on!
Taste on Food:
5 out of 5. Exquisitely delicious, lightly delicate yet bursting with colorful tones. My first experience with food using The Dirty Green was with a tortilla chip. Very good! Okay, so it's definitely not made for this purpose, both in it's consistency and taste, but I could imagine this sauce working well as an herb-enriched replacement for a green garlic sauce in a guacamole recipe or even as a quasi-liquid base in a dip or salsa.
Next was grilled chicken. I employed The Dirty Green as a finishing sauce for a boneless breast filet which had only received a light sprinkling of seasoning salt. Dear Lord, this was terrific! I could have easily launched into another two breasts with this Race City Sauce Works' fabulous product on there.
My next application was on some Saturday night Mexican. We dined on enchiladas, chile rellanos and rice. There was already some generic red chile sauce applied atop the first two items and I made a half-hearted attempt to scrape it aside to make room for The Dirty Green aka El Verde Sucio on it. Perfect! The subtle pepper, olive juice, vinegar and roasted shallot notes dance wonderfully with this south of the border-inspired cuisine.
On the enchilada, this Roasted Poblano & Green Olive Vinaigrette proved to be savory but not too heavy with the beef filling; on the chiles rellanos, this sauce felt lucioiusly smooth on the tongue as I was engulfing large bites of cheese and pepper; and with rice...well, you haven't had rice until you've doused it with The Dirty Green! A top-notch meal all around.
I marinaded a tilapia filet in The Dirty Green for an hour before cook time, and then put that bad boy on the grill over high heat. Minutes later, the fish was perfectly done and was then coated with more Dirty Green for an additional wallop of dazzling flavor. Another outstanding performance!
One last note: many of you (including me) may have images of a leafy salad conjured up upon hearing the word "vinaigrette". Well, I rarely eat this kind of rabbit food, so to see how The Dirty Green fares on this you'll have to find out for yourself.
Heat:
There's only a tingle of spiciness combined with the blustery tang of vinegar. On a heat scale of 1 to 5, this only barely crests above 1.5.
Label:
3 out of 5. I liked the label artwork, but since it was produced on a standard paper label the ink started to run at the first sign of moisture. And while the bottle shape and size looked uniquely cool, the abnormal height of the bottle might not fit probably on some refrigerator shelves.
Overall: 
El Verde Sucio "The Dirty Green" Roasted Poblano & Green Olive Vinaigrette is an outstanding product. For more info on Race City Sauce Works, go to racecitysauceworks.com.
Related Articles:
Spicy Food Reviews - Hot Sauce Reviews, Hot Snacks, Hot Wings, Seasonings, BBQ Sauces, Condiments, and More
Comments
2011-06-14 10:21:31
2011-06-14 14:12:25
Add Your Comment: