Watermelon BBQ Sauce

Summer=cookout=BBQ, we all know that. So, in celebration of the beginning of warm weather and grillin' time, I've put together a simple, yet different BBQ sauce to "WOW" the friends and family with. This isn't your everyday, run of the mill toxic sludge you get in the store. This is how it's made on the homestead, well kinda. This recipe is based on one of the basic four styles of sauce (tomato base, vinegar base, mustard base, and dry). Keep an eye out during the summer for variations on this and recipes with the other four.

1 small, seedless watermelon (it if's not, we can just strain it later) enough for 1 1/2-2 cups of puree)
1/4c spicy brown mustard
1/2c sugar
1/4c cider vinegar (not that distilled crap, get the good stuff)
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 small onion, chopped fine (about 1/4c)
2 tbsp whole butter
1c ketchup (organic if you can get it)

1. Start a pot on low heat. Add the butter and let it melt. Swirl the pot if you have to.

2. Add the onion and let it sweat, you don't want to get any color on this. The onions should barely be sweating and just lazily cooking away. stir them every 30 seconds or so for about 5-10 minutes, or until translucent.

3. While the onion are cooking, peel the watermelon, and rough chop it. if you have a blender or a food processor, puree it. (Strain out the seeds if you have one with seeds) If not, just crush it up in a bowl with you hands, you'll just have a chunkier sauce) Put this off to the side for now.

4. Add the sugar and vinegar to the pot. When all the sugar has dissolved, bring the pot to a boil and reduce the liquid down to about 1/3 of what it was.

5. Turn the pot back down and add the mustard and ketchup. When this starts to bubble lightly, add the watermelon puree/chunks and Worcestershire. When this starts to bubble, turn to flame down to low and let it cook for 30-40 minutes. Stir every few minutes.

When it's ready, serve it hot, cold whatever. It's going to be thinner than most BBQ sauces you are used to, but it's still sweet and tasty. I like it on pulled pork and turkey, but use it in place of anything you use for your normal BBQ sauce.

Roasted Corn Guacamole

Welcome back, let's start Round 2. Last week I put up a fairly wicked burger. This week, we're doing something to put on top of it, or dip your chips in, or whatever you want to do with it. It's quick, easy, and pretty damn tasty.

Roasted Corn Guacamole

3 large Haas Avocados
1 small red onion, peeled, cut into 1/2" rings
1 ear fresh corn
oil
salt and pepper
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 bunch cilantro
1 Roma tomato
Tabasco
2 limes

1. Preheat your oven to about 400. Take a bit of oil and rub the corn and onion rings, then season them with salt and pepper. Place them on any kind of baking pan and cook them for about 15-20 minutes, or until you have some color on the corn and the onions are soft.

2. When the onions and corn are ready, pop them in the fridge for a few minutes. This will cool them down enough for you to handle and cut later. Move to step 3 while you're waiting. CHOP CHOP.

3. Yup, step 3 is chopping the cilantro. For guac, I like to leave the chunks bigger. Just take a knife and push through the leaves a couple of times. You can cut it finer if you like.

4. Now that your vegetables have cooled, take a knife and run it down the side of the corn cob, to take the kernels off. Next, rough chop or dice the onions. You want the pieces to be between 1/2" and 1/4". Dice the tomato in the same fashion.

5. Avocados are next. These are easy. Cut them in half, cutting around the pit, and just twist them apart. ( Seriously, it's important to have nice, ripe avocados for this. If you don't, you might as well go to some crap chain restaurant and eat that pre-made garbage.) Now you're asking "How do I get the pit out?" Easy, take a knife, and hack into it SOFTLY. Just enough to embed the end of the blade, closest to the handle, into the pit. then twist it out. Take a spoon and scoop the avocado halves out. It doesn't matter if you break them up, you're mashing them anyway.

6. Here's the fun part, mashin' time. Take the avocado, place it in a bowl with the sour cream, cilantro, onions and corn. Then mash 'em up as much as you like. I like to leave it a bit chunky. I use the back of a spoon or a fork. You can use a potato masher, jack hammer, or any other implement of destruction you choose.

7. Cut the limes and squeeze them right into the avocado mix, season it with salt and pepper and add as much Tabasco as you like for a little kick. Mix the seasonings in, make sure everything is mixed evenly, and eat.

See? Easy. Feel free. I put this on everything. Chips, burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, you name it. See ya next week.

The Doctor