Katy McGuinness: A bit of sauce adds to the spice of life (2024)

The 1980s television ad for Heinz Salad Cream had the tagline: “Salads were made for it.” It turns out they weren’t, though. Research has shown the bottled sauce is mainly used on sandwiches these days, and it may be rebranded as Sandwich Cream, 104 years after its original launch. But that’s sauce for you — you never know where it is going to end up, even if you happen to be its inventor.

Chef Katie Sanderson is the brains behind White Mausu peanut rayu, made with peanuts, sesame, tamari, Korean red pepper, honey and crispy garlic. It is the cult condiment of the moment, and you’ll find it in Avoca food stores and independent retailers. “It’s a lazy sauce,” Sanderson says.

“Some people eat it straight from the jar. One of my friends says that they use it on ice cream, but that sounds a bit gross. Although, pumpkin seed oil with vanilla ice cream is one of those unlikely combinations that really works, so perhaps there’s something in it.”

Sanderson grew up in Hong Kong and developed what the label describes as a “devastatingly delicious invention that fuses Japanese, Chinese and Korean flavours” working in the kitchens of Dublin’s Fumbally cafe.

“We went into production two years ago and for the first year we were quite mellow, but in the past year we have ramped it up a bit,” Sanderson says.

“It’s an ‘everything’ product — great with eggs, rice, avocado toast and all the proteins: fish, meat, chicken. Instead of having to marinate, you can just add a dollop of the sauce. It’s just a good thing to have around, as it suits the fast way that we all live now.”

Sanderson’s partner, Jasper O’Connor, looks after the logistics. The rayu is made in a commercial kitchen in the Spade Enterprise Centre in Stoneybatter, where neighbours include Scéal Bakery. “When I used to do it myself, it would take me four days to make 200 jars,” Sanderson says.

“There’d be a big mess and I’d keep stopping to write emails or think about other projects. Jasper is much more efficient. He gets two people in to help and they make 1,000 jars in two days.”

Other products in development include a walnut miso and a chilli ginger pickle — Sanderson’s take on sweet chilli sauce, with a touch of honey rather than tons of sugar. “I love that people can buy our sauce, and that we are in their fridges and larders all the time,” she says.

Ian Marconi is the chef behind Paella Guys, whose stalls will be familiar to visitors of markets around Dublin. He also runs Jackrabbit, catering for events and parties. Marconi learnt his trade at Moro, a renowned southern Mediterranean restaurant in London, for many years and put on the Parlour Games pop-ups; his food is known to be big on flavour.

“Customers kept asking me where they could buy the various sauces and seasonings that we use, and then I had a bit of a lightbulb moment. I had already done the work to develop them and it was just a case of bringing them to market,” Marconi says.

The first products in the Jackrabbit range — three sauces and two seasonings — will be launched this week. Nutney is “slightly Asian with pumpkin seeds, two types of Mexican chillies, black rice vinegar, peanuts and soy”, says Marconi. He suggests stirring it through rice or noodles, drizzling it on salads and soups, spooning it onto grilled fish and vegetables, and using it as a dip. (I just had it for lunch with avocado.)

Tsumami features roasted black garlic, pickled chilli, Sichuan pepper and lemon juice, and it’s great with grilled chicken or as a barbecue sauce. Meanwhile, Pickled & Green packs a kick — it’s made with green chillies, coriander, lemons and “secret spices” — and works as a dip or marinade, or as a dressing for fish, meat or vegetables. It’s amazing on grilled corn.

Unlike industrially produced sauces and condiments, Marconi’s handmade products eschew additives, preservatives, emulsifiers and stabilisers.

“I preserve the sauces with oil and vinegar; I don’t use any emulsifiers or stabilisers, so they can separate in the jar but just need a good shake,” he says.

Jackrabbit’s Sesame Salt seasoning is good sprinkled on salads and egg dishes, as well as on grilled vegetables and fish. The smoked paprika-infused Signature Spice, meanwhile, can be mixed with oil to make a marinade and livens up sweet potato wedges no end. “The idea is that everything is multipurpose, and designed to go with anything,” Marconi says.

“You can apply them to a lot of very basic ingredients and they make food very tasty for minimal effort. If you have nothing in your house other than a chicken breast and some potatoes, you can still have a really tasty dinner. The idea is to keep them in the fridge and get into the habit of using them.”

Initially, the Jackrabbit sauces will be available at Poulet Bonne Femme, Green Beards, Cocu and the Spar on Leeson Street, Dublin 4, with more outlets to follow.

Kwanghi Chan, from Buncrana in Co Donegal, who worked with Martijn Kajuiter at the Michelin-starred Cliff House in Ardmore, Co Waterford, is another Irish chef who has diversified into making sauces for retail sale.

“Basically we are a condiments company,” says Chan. “I want home cooks to be able to improve the flavour of their food without too much effort.”

His ChanChan Hong Kong Street Sauce is miso-based and made with Korean chilli paste and Irish kombu seaweed soaked in a light soy sauce, with a dash of fresh lime juice. “We are big in the slimming world,” says Chan.

“Apparently the sauce is ‘syn-free’ [on Slimming World’s points table].”

Chan, a familiar face from TV3’s Six O’Clock Show, started ChanChan two years ago with one of his sous-chefs. They began by designing and printing the labels themselves, on a shoestring. One SuperValu store gave nine bottles of his sauce shelf space for a month, becoming the company’s first customer. Chan also produces 400kg of black (or fermented) garlic every two to three weeks.

“We wanted to use Irish garlic but we couldn’t get anyone to supply us, so at the moment we are buying in from France and Spain — none of that cheap Chinese stuff — and we have started growing our own in Drogheda, where we have two large allotments,” Chan says.

“We also have a good crop of shiso leaf, which is like a cross between basil and mint. The leaves go to Mika [Mickael Viljanen] at the Greenhouse restaurant in Dublin and to sushi chefs. I go and cut the biggest leaves for Mika myself and we use the smaller leaves to make vinegar, which we sell into La Rousse for restaurants; it is available in the Asia Market, and we sell it ourselves at local markets and food festivals,” he adds. “The vinegar is great in salad dressings; I mix it with equal amounts of sesame oil and add a dash of soy for saltiness. It can be used to deglaze cooking juices, too, to make a jus.”

He also makes ChanChan’s Spice Bag Seasoning. “You just need a little sprinkle at a time. It’s popular with people who are into training and going to the gym as an alternative to salt; it alleviates boredom with the food,” Chan says.

“It’s the seasoning that’s used for Peking duck; we bring the spices in direct from Hong Kong. They are stone-ground, so they really penetrate the meat and give great flavour.”

In a coals to Newcastle twist, ChanChan’s Hong Kong Street Sauce is stocked in four retail outlets in Hong Kong, and Chan has plans to expand the number of stockists in Asia; by the end of the year he expects to have launched another nine products. In Ireland, you’ll find ChanChan products in SuperValu and some branches of Iceland plus the Asia Market outlets.

There are recipes on chanchan.ie, and Chan will be appearing at festivals over the summer, including Taste of Dublin this weekend and Body & Soul next weekend, where he’ll be serving a spice bag-seasoned chicken salad, and slow-roast beef brisket with a dressing of black garlic and shiso.