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1
Place water, chili powder, cumin, garlic, sugar, molasses, salt and red pepper flakes into saucepan or in microwave.
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2
Heat until the mixture comes to a boil and completely dissolves into like a syrup-like consistency.
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3
Then, lower heat to medium-low or even simmer.
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4
Add tomato sauce and catsup, cover and let simmer, stirring occasionally, until the mixture turns a bit darker color.
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5
Don't heat on too high of heat or you may burn the tomato component of this sauce.
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6
Let simmer very low for long enough to make the sauce thicker (in other words on LOW heat reduce the sauce).
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7
When done, remove sauce from heat and let cool to almost room temperature.
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8
Add vinegar and smoke flavor.
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9
(Do not add while sauce is too hot as this destroys the vinegar's potency).
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10
Stir well and test for final balance of
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11
sweet/hot (sweet component should not be much in evidence, just add a tang to the sauce, the sour should not be pronounced.
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12
To adjust sweet, add sugar a tablespoon at a time if needed when you taste test it.
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13
To add tang, do the same with vinegar, spices, sweetness and heat.
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14
You can add a dash of Tabasco sauce.
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15
If sauce still isn't hot (spicy) enough, rather than add more red flaked pepper, add a dash or two of Tabasco sauce or Sri Racha Asian hot chili sauce.
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16
Place sauce in covered container to refrigerate.
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17
**Note: The amount of heat you like (red pepper heat) varies from person to person.
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18
So before using the full amount of the pepper listed in the recipe, you might experiment first on a half batch or quarter batch of this sauce and start out small on hot pepper and increase to where you like it.
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19
You should be able to taste the 'bite' of the hot pepper through the sweetness of the sauce.
