Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Chili Garlic Hot Sauce

Hot Sauce

We go through hot sauce in this house like nobody's business. Adam is a spice fiend, and it's rubbed off on me to the point that I now have preferences from dish to dish. I'll eat a fried egg with a healthy dose of Frank's, a burrito with a splash of Tabasco, or a side of Adam's breakfast potatoes with a sprinkle of Cholula. Speaking of which, somebody remind me to tell you about Adam's breakfast potatoes at some point, because they are gooood.

233/365: Scotch Bonnet

A couple of Saturdays ago while Adam made potatoes to go with our eggs, I browsed my google reader and came across Melissa Clark's Good Appetite column on homemade hot sauces. I loved the idea of a chili garlic sauce sweetened with sweet peppers instead of sugar, and we had a heap of sweet red peppers coming ripe in the garden. Plus, habaneros are crazy cheap, like a quarter a piece, so this huge jar of sriracha-like sauce cost us a buck plus pantry ingredients. And hey, it was fun!

Carmen

Chili Garlic Hot Sauce
adapted from Melissa Clark in the New York Times


I know everyone is always saying you should wear plastic gloves when chopping hot peppers. For milder chiles like jalapenos, I don't usually do so (oooh, living on the edge!). In fact, I don't even have plastic gloves. But when chopping four habaneros, I thought it was good advice, and I improvised by sticking sandwich baggies on my hands before I got started. A little goofy looking, but it worked. Oh, and try not to breath in chili-vinegar fumes, that stuff will sting your sinuses like no other.

4 hot chili peppers, preferably habanero
3/4 pound sweet red peppers (2-3 red bell peppers or similar)
3 huge or five regular garlic cloves
3/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt


Roughly chop the chilis (wear gloves or baggies, please!), sweet peppers and garlic. Combine in a medium pot with the vinegar and salt, and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until peppers are tender. Transfer carefully to a blender, or use an immersion blender, and blend the sauce until you have a mostly smooth puree. Pour into a jar (I got a little more than a pint) and stick it in the fridge. 


The original recipe says to wait three days before eating, but we ate some the night I made it and loved it.


Makes about 2 cups (one pint, though I got a tiny bit more than that), and should keep in the fridge for at least a month.

Chile Garlic Sauce

Plus, look how awesome my timing is: September first is sweet and hot peppers day and the first week of Fall Fest 2010! Did you play this week?

6 comments:

  1. Hot sauce sweetened with chili peppers? Sounds good to me!

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  2. This sounds delicious and I love the color!

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  3. Perfect. I have three habaneros feeling incredibly lonely right now & now they have somewhere to go!

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  4. I've always wanted to make my own hot sauce & this looks so awesome. I always use gloves cuz i'm a scaredy cat - plus I wear contacts & that mistake would be painful!

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  5. ah! I must do this asap! I hope the hurricane does hit Boston tomorrow night so I have a reason to stay in & cut up peppers with sandwich bags on my hands.

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  6. Oh my gosh, Jeannette, I wear contacts too, and I tried to put them in the other day after chopping like a POUND of jalapenos (baggies and all). Big mistake. Huge. Painful.

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