Hi y’all!
So this past year my boyfriend and I have become obsessed with hot peppers. This obsession has led to our very own pepper farm. We have Jalapenos, Habaneros, Caribbean Reds, Bananas, Cayennes, Chilis, Serranos (both red and green), Tabascos, Garden Salsas, and even some Bell Peppers. Well these plants won’t stop producing! We have a pepper overload! What do you do with an abundance of hot peppers? MAKE HOT SAUCE!
(By the way, this is only a portion of our peppers.)
So I did a little googling and came across some hot sauce recipes. The first one is for Caribbean Reds. Caribbean Reds (a.k.a Scotch Bonnets) are extremely spicy peppers. They score a 100,000-350,000 on the Scoville scale. For comparison, a Jalapeno scores a 2,500-8,000 on the same scale. This Caribbean Red plant is our best producer. We get about 2-3 fresh peppers a day!
So back to the hot saucing…
I gathered ingredients from a few recipes and this is what I came up with:
12 Caribbean Reds, stems removed and finely chopped (I left the seeds in)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1Tbsp of vegetable oil
2 cups of water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup of lime juice
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped carrots
Note: If you cook with peppers, you know hot pepper hands all to well. Fingers on fire, along with everything they come in contact with. Don’t even think about taking your contacts out! Well, after years of searching I have found a promising elixir to pepper hands. A very simple elixir. After you chop the peppers (immediately after), pour a dollop of olive oil onto your hands and rub thoroughly. After a few minutes wash with soap and water. Done!
1. Heat up the vegetable oil in a small sauce pan. Add the onions and garlic. Saute the onions about 5 minutes and add the Caribbean Reds. BEWARE: open all of your windows and ventilate your kitchen! I couldn’t even breathe over the saucepan without nearly coughing to death because of the hot pepper fumes. It was difficult to stay in the kitchen. Once the onions are soft, add the carrots and water. Let the mixture simmer until the carrots are soft. About 20-30 minutes.
(Note: I threw in one Garden Salsa Pepper for fun, hence the random green pieces)
2. Once the carrots are soft, let cool a few minutes. Throw this mixture, along with all the remaining ingredients, into a food processor or blender. Puree until smooth.
3. Throw pureed mixture back into saucepan and cook on low for 20 mins. I added about 1/2 cup of water to this mixture as it cooked. It didn’t look like enough hot sauce for me!
Pour your hot sauce into a sterilized jar/bottle and keep in the fridge. Yum!
Now the second recipe I found looked so unique, I made only a few small changes. See the link at the bottom to get the original. This recipe called for Habanero Peppers.
Such beautiful little peppers. Habaneros are cousins to the Caribbean Red, and are very similar in taste. They are a tad less spicy, but not by much.
The ingredients:
8 Habanero Peppers, stems removed chopped up
4 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 medium onion, quartered
4 cloves of garlic, 3 smashed and 1 minced
2-3 Tbsp olive oil (make sure you have an extra for pepper hands!)
1 Tbsp Turmeric Powder
1/4 cup cilantro, lightly chopped
3/4 cups of apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp salt
ground black pepper
1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Place the onion, tomatoes, and smashed garlic on baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Make sure every piece gets hit. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for about 10-15 minutes until all items are roasted.
2. Meanwhile, heat up a tbsp of olive oil and the minced garlic in a small sauce pan. Add the peppers and saute while the vegetables are roasting.
3. Now throw the roasted vegetables, Habanero Peppers, and all the other ingredients into a food processor or blender. Puree until mostly smooth. This hot sauce is a bit more chunky than others.
Pour into a sterilized jar/bottle and keep in the fridge.
The Caribbean Red hot sauce is on the left. The Habanero hot sauce is on the right. For the middle hot sauce, I used the same recipe as the Caribbean Red hot sauce with different red peppers. I used Chilis, Serranos, Tabascos, and Cayennes.
They all turned out delicious. Now I refuse to eat any meal without one of these hot sauces covering my plate. Please leave comments with your hot sauce recipes and variations!
Habanero Hot Sauce Original Recipe
La Terre Living 