Memorial Day Barbecue? Here's the sauce!

It's barbecue time again, so I'm proposing my Carolina-style sauce with Lapsang Souchong — it's my take on a super delicious way to have pork or chicken...or tofu!

Why choose a mustard-and-vinegar-based barbecue sauce to make with the Lapsang Souchong? Because the chemicals in LS hit the cool to cold receptors in the mouth, as do those in mustard, onions, garlic, and thyme. So rather than getting the kick from something like a chili pepper, this sauce gives you a kick from hitting the cold receptors, along with the tang of the vinegar.

Of course you can add a pinch of chili pepper if you like (and my daughter likes...) — just that it tastes less...how can  I put it...like Lapsang Souchong and more like something you would expect, with slightly muddled flavors due to the activation of TRPV1, the capsaicin receptor.

Here are the ingredients:
1 cup prepared mustard (a grainy kind)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup of Lapsang Souchong tea
2 tbsp. butter
1/2 Vidalia onion, chopped
1 tbsp chopped garlic
A couple of sprigs of thyme
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup brown sugar

Here's how I made it:

Boil a cup of water, add 2 tablespoons of Lapsang Souchong tea, and let brew for 6 to 7 minutes, to get all the smoky pine flavors out of the leaves. 

In a small saucepan, sautée chopped onion and garlic in butter until onion is translucent. Add mustard, vinegar, sugar, lemon, and thyme to the onion garlic mix. Add a quarter of the tea. Bring to a simmer, stirring, for 5 minutes. Taste. If not smoky enough, add a little more tea, stir and taste again. 

At this point you may want to add a little more sugar to balance the acidity that is highlighted by the tea. If you add too much sugar, then add a little more tea to get back the smoky tangy flavor. In fact, you should play with the proportions of this sauce to make it just right for you. 

Note that I didn't add any salt — the mustard I used had enough, but you may want to. No pepper either, but you may want to "kick it up a notch" as Emeril used to say, by adding some fresh ground pepper. My thought is that the meat or tofu should already have enough pepper.

Simmer some more, say 5 to 10 minutes, with stirring, then use or refrigerate. I expect that the sauce will get better after a night or two in the refrigerator, but I wouldn't keep it longer than 5 days. With luck you shouldn't have any left by that time! Note that you probably will have made more LS tea than needed for the sauce — enjoy it!

Here's the sauce in my saucepan — was stirring it with my rice paddle…