Worcestershire Sauce

Mr. Wonderful cooked me dinner one night: Cajun BBQ shrimp. I don't know why they call it BBQ shrimp when its sauteed and covered in butter sauce, but that's what it's called.  The recipe called for Worcestershire Sauce. Since I refuse to eat anything with any amount of corn syrup, even a miniscule amount, I had to make my own. Commercial Worcestershire Sauce also contains soy sauce, definitely not paleo. I searched through about 10 recipes, one dating back to 1876 (which was reprinted in 2009 in the NY Times). Food Renegade has an easy homemade Worcestershire sauce recipe. Mine is slightly less easy. In all the research I did, tamarind was one of the original main ingredients so I thought I needed it to be authentic. I don't know where to find tamarind paste, but I do know my local supermarket sells tamarind (aka tamarindo). It has a tangy flavor, so I can see why many recipes would use lemon or lime instead.

This goes great in marinades for all kinds of meat, especially steak. I also mix a table spoon of it into ground meat whenever I make burgers.

8 tamarind pods (yields about 1/4 cup tamarind paste)
1/2 cup shallots finely chopped
1 tsp coconut oil
2 cups cider vinegar
1/4 cup coconut aminos
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 Tbsp Brewer's yeast
2 oz anchovies, drained
1/4 cup honey

Boil about 1-2 cups of water. Peel and devein the tamarind pods and put pulp in a bowl. Pour boiling water over tamarind pulp and let stand for 10 minutes. Once soft, separate seeds from pulp by pressing through a sieve or mesh strainer. Discard the seeds, keep the pulp.

Saute shallots in coconut oil. Once caramelized, remove from pan and put in blender. Add all of the other ingredients to the blender. Might be a good idea to chop the anchovies first, but they creeped me out, so I through them into the blender whole so the wretched creatures would be out of my site. Liquify all the ingredients and refrigerate. Should make about 3 cups.