Seafood Dipping Sauce

Plan Z Phase: This is a Z3(ZReboot) recipe.

My associate, Jennifer, brought me a recipe for dipping sauce. It was recommended that it be served with crab legs. I loved the idea of the sauce. Their recipe made way too much sauce, so I adjusted some items to make it more reasonable without having to invite a crowd to eat crab legs.

When I served it, I paired it with crab cakes. YUM. I can also see this being served with seared scallops. It will make a fun substitute for a cocktail sauce with shrimp too.

Servings: Makes about a cup.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbl of olive oil
• 2 Tbl of butter
• 3 tsp of minced garlic (Jar garlic will work.)
• 1/2 of a serrano chile, stemmed, seeded, and diced (Careful! Wear gloves if you need to.)
• 1/4 cup of onion
• 2 tsp of chili powder
• 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika (In my opinion this is the secret to this sauce.)
• 8 oz of crushed tomatoes (Save the other half of the can for another use.)
• Ground sea salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Tbl of fresh lemon juice

Instructions:

Heat butter and olive oil in a saucepan. Add the garlic, chile, and onion. Cook on medium-high until the onion softens. Three or four minutes will do it.

Stir in the chile powder, paprika, crushed tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Cook on medium-low until the sauce begins to thicken. Stir often. Transfer the mixture carefully to your blender. Let it sit until it cools. Add the lemon juice and whiz until blended. You can store it in the fridge until you want to serve it. It can be served warmed or cold.

Enjoy!

Cheers,