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Sauce is everything. They say red meat pairs with bold red wine. But what if that red meat is smothered in a ridonkulously spicy chili sauce? Most bold reds are higher in alcohol. And high alcohol paired with chili spice is not it.

So yes, it is true that red meat pairs with bold red wine. But if there’s a sauce involved, it really is all about dat SAUCE. Which is what I originally wanted to call this series. But then I thought of “Awesome Sauce”, which eventually became “Awesome Sauce for Saucy Bitches”. A name I still love, buuut it got mixed reviews. I get we don’t all identify as saucy bitches, which is ok. I guess.

I ended up asking the masses for input, and by an overwhelming 85% majority, we landed on something equally saucy, but totally different.

Introducing: LET’S GET SAUCED! My new series where I’m sharing simple, unique sauce recipes you’ll never stop making and probably drink straight from the jar, with delicious dippers (think dippable single-serving appetizers or snacks), and, of course, the perfect wine pairings. Because that’s what we do around here.

Starting with a sauce so jaw-droppingly phenomenal, you should 1000% quadruple this recipe because it is chuggable!!! And don’t even get me started on the incredible dipper and wine - I’m actually obsessed with both.

Let’s get into it.

This is actually a wine I’ve bought on multiple occasions but struggle to hang on to long enough to feature it. It’s that good.

Gilvesy Rajnai Rizling (Rhine Riesling) - A beautiful, aromatic, dry Hungarian Rajnai (meaning “Rhine”) Riesling that is just POPPIN’ with all the flavour/aromas and minerals!! It’s by an awesome producer (Gilvesy Winery) from the volcanic Badacsonyi Region. It’s so perfectly crisp, juicy, and refreshing, with such intense fruit and floral notes that you’d think it was sweet! Think fresh-squeezed lemon/lime, tart green apple, ripe white peach, honeysuckle, creamed honey - the list goes on!! It also has that classic Riesling petrol thing that I can’t ever get enough of, and then the MINERALS!! Salty, flinty - just freaking lovely.

With the layers of Asian flavours in this sauce/dipper combo (ginger, garlic, fermented bean paste, chili oil), plus that swicy thing going on, we want a wine that is equally intense in flavour to hold up to it. With that, we want it to have enough acidity to contrast the creamy sauce and fried shrimp toasts. Riesling is perfect here. It has all the flavour to balance the savoury spice, matching honey notes, lovely crisp acidity, and, on top of all that, the salty minerality with the shrimp? SO GOOD.

I have eaten these every single day since making them, and I guarantee I shall continue to do so for the foreseeable future. They are SOOOO GOOOOOOD. I did not by any means make these up. Shrimp Toasts are a traditional Cantonese dim sum treat and a half, and I kept my recipe on the traditional side because why mess with a perfectly good thing!

→ Full Recipe

I blew myself away the first time I whipped this one up. And the second time and third time. And I’m completely serious when I say every single person who’s tried it has asked me for the recipe. Or they’ve asked, “WOAH, who makes this? Where can I buy it?” That one was my dad, and I think he was kidding, but it makes me happy regardless. Imagine if you could BUY MY SAUCES?! Anyways.

There’s one very key ingredient in this one. I randomly picked it from T&T Supermarket one day, and I’m so glad I did!! I’ve been calling it Chili Garlic Fermented Bean Paste, which I think is somewhat of an accurate description, but it’s actually called Qiao Niang Fang Chili Oil Bean Paste. It’s quite spicy and savoury, and when combined with silky sweet honey butter, it’s like a whole new world of swicy-ness!!! FYI - I recently discovered the term swicy and I really like it ok.