Red Wine Barbeque Sauce

I’ve got a large bottle of blackstrap molasses that has been sitting in my pantry, calling out to be used.  Due to its strong flavour, I’ve been hesitant in incorporating it in dishes as it’s very easy to overwhelm other ingredients.  Not to mention that in many recipes calling for molasses, the blackstrap variety is almost always not advised!  Which is a pity, as it’s choke full of nutrients and minerals.  With this red wine barbeque sauce, I’ve figured out how to make good use of the smokey molasses nuances to heighten its complexity.  Beets provide some body to the barbeque sauce in lieu of tomatoes to keep it nightshade-free and AIP-compliant.

The long slow simmer allows the sauce to reduce and mellow the red wine and balsamic vinegar.  You may wonder about the use of alcohol while following the AIP, but according to The Paleo Mom, cooking with wine is acceptable.  I’ve only started playing with smoked sea salt after going AIP and am really enjoying the taste it adds to various dishes.  In this case I’ve used hickory smoked sea salt, although applewood smoked sea salt would work fine as well.  If you do not have any smoked sea salt, ordinary sea salt will do, just that the savoury flavour will be less pronounced.

Ingredients (Makes about 1.5 pints/ 700mL)

• 1 tbsp bacon fat
• 3/4 cup or 1 small onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 inch ginger, peeled and crushed
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 1 cup beets, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 cups plums, chopped
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp smoked salt

Method

• Melt bacon fat in a medium saucepan under medium-low heat
• Cook onions in bacon fat until softened
• Add ginger and garlic and continue cooking for another 1-2 minutes or until fragrant (Make sure that they do not brown)
• Mix in the rest of the ingredients and stir to incorporate
• Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for approximately 70 minutes, uncovered, or until beets are soft and sauce is reduced
• Transfer to blender and blend until smooth or remove saucepan from heat and blend directly in the saucepan with a hand held immersion blender (watch out for splatters!)
• Cool and store in a clean glass jar in the refrigerator