Flavour Nugget #52: A fun and addictive fully-devilled sauceWhen life gives you lemons, punch it in the face.
You know how, last week, I said I couldn’t believe how hard life was life-ing? My head has been swirling! The numbness of unexpected life events is a weird sensation, like having a lucid dream and taking a Turbo Mitsubishi at the same time. My nervous system has valid questions. One thing I’m feeling quite determined about, though, is looking after myself physically, because this hasn’t always been my default, and I’m too familiar with the aftereffects. I’m too old and - sod it - too wise, to go down the path of pummeling my emotions into submission with junk and booze. I’ve done it one hundred too many times. We all know that exercise and eating decent food will help us navigate life better, but doing it is another matter. How to manage it when you just can’t… manage it? Walking is good. Putting one foot in front of the other is as basic as it comes, and sometimes it’s all we’ve got, literally and metaphorically. Plod, plod, plod. Progress will be made. Movement can only drive us forward.
My mate and I spent time this week chatting about what 'luxury’ actually means (long story), and it got me thinking that, actually, a luxury might be taking time to cook something that will nourish me and then putting that food in my body. Gen Z would call this ‘self-care’, I know, and I don’t have any issues with that term whatsoever, but I think I’m taking a slightly different perspective. There’s something a bit too routine about the words ‘self-care’ for my mental state this week; I want to feel actively thoughtful. I want to make some considered yet ball-bustingly insightful moves towards treating the living shit out of myself. Which is how I arrived at this devilled sauce. It is fully charged. A spicy sluice. The foundation is really a peppercorn sauce, but I wanted to take it in a different direction with the added sriracha and mustard to make something fully rounded in its attack, and I wanted to sack off the whole flour and butter stage at the beginning. So this is easy and full throttle. It’s tangy as anything and flecked through with nubbins of pepper, which are numbed a little from their simmer yet still potent as a snakebite. One of the best ways to eat this is over steak, of course, but it is also fantastic on soft-boiled eggs and/or potatoes or, as you see here, on chicken. There are few comforts as effective (for me) as a roast chicken, and this feels like a new way to eat it; the tongue-tingling equivalent of riding a zip wire, as if I needed extra stimulation.
Fully Devilled Sauce 200ml beef stock Transfer one-third of the peppercorns to a pestle and mortar and crush them roughly. Combine the cream, beef stock and all the peppercorns in a pan, bring to the boil and allow to bubble and reduce by half. Add the garlic, Worcestershire, sriracha and mustard, mix well and allow to cook gently for a few minutes to remove any rawness in the garlic. Taste and season with salt, if needed. Stir through the parsley.
I’ve not had time to read anything else this week, and only finished this guy due to the fact that there were but 50 pages left. I’m hoping for more calm, less adrenaline in the week ahead. SUPERSIZE ME! Another peppercorn adventure for paid subs in the form of steak and peppercorn noodles. It’s based on Cantonese black pepper beef, only fierier and with carbs. It’s real POW! Get involved. Until next time, Flavour Fans x
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Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Flavour Nugget #52: A fun and addictive fully-devilled sauce
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