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Home Made Salsa Lizano (Costa Rican Brown Sauce)

http://gormandizewithus.blogspot.com/2013/02/home-made-salsa-lizano-costa-rican.html

(This goes with my beans and rice recipe)

Home Made Salsa Lizano (Costa Rican Brown Sauce)

Salsa Lizano is ubiquitous in Costa Rica. It’s used in cooking and poured liberally over food as a condiment. So, what is it? It’s a brown sauce made from vegetables and spices. It’s also not very readily available in Australia. I could have ordered it online from America and paid an absolute packet for a jar of sauce…. but I’ve always preferred making things from scratch anyway.
A quick google on the internet revealed several forums in which people were asking how to make Salsa Lizano at home only to be told by various people that you simply can’t make it at home. Well that sounded like a challenge to me so goshdarnit I set to it! Having never tasted the real stuff I guess I’m at a disadvantage for recreating it. But I used the ingredients of the sauce from wikipedia as a starting point and went from there. The sauce I made was delicious and it’s great to use in cooking for instant ‘WOW’ flavour. I couldn’t tell you if it tastes like the real thing though – somebody else will have to make it and tell me!


Ingredients
1/2 onion, chopped
1 small carrot, chopped
1 cup chopped cauliflower
1 tsp powdered vegetable stock
1/2 green chilli
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp blackstrap molasses
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp celery seeds
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp tumeric

To Make
1. Place the chopped onion, carrot and cauliflower in a saucepan and cover with boiling water. Bring to the boil and then simmer until the vegetables are cooked through and tender. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup of the water.
2. Stir the vegetable stock powder through the 1/4 cup hot water that you reserved.
3. Place the cooked vegetables in a food processor or blender. Add the vegetable stock and all the other ingredients (note: if you don’t want it hot you can remove some or all of the seeds/placenta of the chilli before adding it).
4. Purée until it forms a smooth sauce and then transfer into a bottle or a jar until needed. Store in the refrigerator.

Makes 1 medium sized bottle. Use in cooking or pour over just about anything for added ‘pow’ flavour.