The longer I have kids, the more spicy I want my food

There's hope for my kids. They occasionally taste a tiny drop of hot sauce and then down their milk, but generally they respond to spicy foods as vampires to garlic.

Thus, we generally add our spice at the table (three kinds of hot sauce at most meals). The longer I'm not allowed to spice my food as I cook, the more I crave the hot stuff.

Recently, I made Broiled Chicken with Spicy Jamaican Jerk dipping sauce out of Cook's Illustrated New Best Recipe cookbook. The chicken was soaked in a brine and turned out delicious and since the spicy dip was on the side, the kids enjoyed the chicken sans sauce.

But what happened after the meal was much more interesting. (Not talking romance or indigestion, although look out because the sauce is rather strong).

The next day, clams were on sale. So the next night we had steamed clams in some white wine. We tried the leftover Jamaican Jerk dipping sauce on the clams. It was amazing. The next day I had it on spaghetti with marinara. Incredible.

So, now I'm convinced that this so-called sauce is an improvement on just about any meal.

Here's the recipe. FYI, it's more of a chunky garnish than a sauce.

1 T lime juice
1 T brown sugar
1 medium garlic clove (unpeeled)
1 medium habanero chile
2 medium scallions, white and green parts (minced)
1/2 medium onion (minced)
4 t minced fresh ginger (minced)
1/2 t dried thyme
pinch of ground allspice


Stir together lime juice and brown sugar until dissolved.

Meanwhile, toast the garlic clove and habanero in a small dry skillet over medium heat, shaking frequently until blistered. Then peel and mince garlic and seed and mince habanero.

Combine garlic, habanero, scallions, onion, ginger, thyme and allspice in a bowl and add the lime-brown sugar mixture.

Then store in the refrigerator and put it on whatever you want--but be sure to try it on steamed clams.

Oh and, all due respect to Cook's Illustrated, but I'd love to come up with a better more stand-alone name for it. Any ideas?