Another batch of Monkey Gland Sauce completed in less than 1 hour.
The other day I posted about making jam and also promised at the time I would get around to sharing the Monkey Gland sauce recipe. There is nothing more South African than a good Monkey Gland sauce recipe and as I mentioned previously there is no monkey in this.
The origins of the name reportedly come from disgruntled French chefs who were upset watching their patrons pour tomato ketchup over their perfectly cooked steaks. They had to prevent this type of barbaric behavior and created a sweet tangy barbecue sauce and gave it the crazy nae of Monkey Gland sauce after a doctor back in the 1920's claimed that grafting monkey testicle skin onto human testicles could delay ageing and make you more horny. There was a public outrage with this medical "breakthrough" and these chefs went with the hype or as we say in the UK "are you taking the piss?" which they obviously were and why they used the name. There is also a cocktail that goes by the same name and must be from the same time line referencing this mad doctor. The stuff we learn when researching things for our posts is nuts (excuse the pun which was not intentional).
I know there are many meat lovers out there and this I highly recommend. I have been mulling over the idea of actually putting together a few South African hampers to send out to members in the HIVE community. This is still in it's infancy and this will happen later this year. There will be some type of contest and then those who I regard as HIVE friends will also be included. Just something different highlighting different flavors and food products from South Africa.
Monkey Gland Sauce
Ingredients
1 chopped onion
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
1 small can chopped and peeled tomatoes
1/2 cup of water
6 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 cup of tomato sauce/ketchup
1.2 cup of Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cup of Mrs Balls Chutney (spicy chutney if you have none)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
cooking oil for frying
Cooking process
Cook the onions and garlic using the cooking oil in a pot until lightly caramelized. I think the correct term is to sauté the onions, which is the same thing.
Add the rest of the ingredients and cook though stirring regularly and leave to simmer for half an hour. This is to ensure that the sauce thickens up and that is basically all it is. One process I failed to mention is we place the sauce in a blender for a quick spin mainly for the chopped onion pieces to be further reduced in size which were cooked right in the beginning. This is not necessary, but we find it to be better like this.
The canner/steamer which makes sure the jars are handled correctly and that they are sealed correctly which preserves the sauces/jams correctly. This only takes ten minutes at our altitude which this process all revolves around heat and pressure.
We bottle the sauce so we have enough supply for a few months and can be served on steaks burgers and chicken dishes. The sauce is a sweet and tangy sauce and is not something you will find everywhere in South Africa like we used to about 30 years ago. Funny how certain family favorites just have disappeared over time and it has to come down to people not cooking at home like they used to. People are generally lazy and if they cannot buy it in a bottle ready made they have no idea that this is so easy to make and is far better and tastier than all the other unhealthy options mass produced.
I mentioned the other day we have been asked to make this for a small chain of high end food stores and we are mulling this over as starting another project was not on the menu. We shall see as this would be one condiment in a range we would have to produce over and above the various jam range.
Let me know if you make this as this is actually a quick and easy recipe well worth doing and is very different.
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