Despite being a fairly well-heeled geezer, friend Ed is one of the most frugal people I know. Some might call him tight-fisted. I’ve even called him a cheap bastard on more than one occasion (well deserved every time).
Of course his frugality has served him quite well in life and business; despite having ‘made it’ some time ago, he can’t (or more likely simply refuses) to give up his spartan habits.
Ed would rather eat a sandwich from the cooler instead of a burger at Izaak’s (Craig). He’s forever pestering us to cook and bring one thing or another on the river (a thermos of chili and all the fixin’s on a crisp fall day does make for a great shore lunch). He insists we brew our own coffee and tea on the road and river. If there’s not a loaf or two of ME’s Beer Rye River Bread in the boat he’ll complain about it all day.
He’s even gotten on the small batch home canning and preserving kick with us and is forever experimenting with something in the kitchen. Go ahead, laugh if you will, but he’s now a pickle ninja.
One morning last summer he called me (in Washington) from the condiment aisle of his favorite grocery store in Bozeman; he was infuriated that a bottle of Heinz 57 steak (the big bottle) had headed north of 8 bucks.
The gist of the conversation was such that we needed to ‘get off our asses and come up with a steak sauce recipe’ to replace his beloved bottled steak sauce.
Though it didn’t rise to the very top of our list, I eventually did dig up this recipe and have been playing with the spices off and on again over the past few months to try and sharpen it a bit (for Ed of course). And yep, one of the key ingredients really is a raisin puree.
We’ve decided to call it CB’s (for Cheap Bastard) Homemade Steak Sauce and it’s passed the Ed test so far.
Get your cheap bastard on and make a batch before the blue wings get rolling.
1/3 cup raisin puree
1/3 cup white vinegar
1 cup tomato paste
2/3 cup malt vinegar
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon yellow prepared mustard
1 tablespoon apple juice concentrate
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2-4 turns of fresh ground pepper
Make a raisin puree. Puree 1/3 cup raisins and 1/3 cup water in your trusty food processor until smooth. Measure 1/3 cup into a medium saucepan.
Make a sauce. Add the remainder of the ingredients; whisk until smooth and blended. Bring to a boil over medium high heat; reduced to a simmer and let it slowly reduce and thicken until it coats the back of a spoon. Stir now and then.
Build the flavors. Cool, pour into storage containers and let the flavors deepen in the fridge for at least a day, though it gets better over the next week or so.
Enjoy.
