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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Very hot "hot sauce"

For the first time on my blog I will be talking about something my husband did in "Hanaâ's Kitchen" :o) He was growing tired of the store-bought hot sauce, which always tastes too vinegar-y and never hot enough. After a two year hiatus, he made a huge batch of hot sauce last weekend. Normally his homemade hot sauce consists of jalapeno peppers and/or Thai peppers. This time, it's Thai peppers and to kick it up a notch or 10, he added Piquin Chili Peppers. We bought them at Penzeys a couple weeks ago. At 140,000 Scoville units, they're the hottest peppers Penzeys carries. And so, last Sunday, about 2 gallons of very very hot "hot sauce" was born :o)


My husband doesn't use a recipe. He just makes it up as he goes. First, he starts by cooking the peppers in seasoned water for several hours. Seasonings include: salt, cumin, and garlic powder, as well as extra virgin olive oil. Do this outside on the side burner of your grill, if you have one, unless you enjoy coughing all day and having watery eyes :o) Process it in the blender in batches (carefulyl, as hot liquid expands). Add some vinegar to it. Filter it through a sieve to remove some of the skin and seeds. Taste it and adjust the seasoning, if necessary. Then bottle it.

That's me going for a taste test...

After tasting it, my husband asked: "does it need more salt?". Needless to say, I was in search of ice cubes by that time, even though everybody knows water offers temporary relief only, and that I should have grabbed the milk jug. After I numbed my tongue and lips with the ice cube, I told him I couldn't tell if it needed anything, because it was so hot. So kids, don't do this at home. Put hot sauce in food and don't eat it with a spoon :o)

Our 2010 hot sauce batch, all bottled up

8 comments:

  1. www.aspecialcake.blogspot.coomMarch 31, 2010 at 5:50 PM

    I especially like the hot sauce in the honey jars! make sure they don't melt from the hot pepper...
    Lovely post!

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  2. What a fun thing to make at home! The thought of trying hot sauce without food leaves me in pain.

    I see you're making the lemon coffee cake from BFAO in April. I'm planning on making it for Easter brunch; I'll let you know how it goes.

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  3. @Anat: it's a good thing the hot sauce is red, so you don't accidentally put it on toast, thinking it's honey :o)

    @Margot: although it's a lot of work to make it at home, it's worth it. The taste of homemade beats any store bought hot sauce. I'm looking forward to hearing about your experience with the lemon coffee cake. If you're planning on posting it next Tuesday, let me know and I'll add a link to your post from mine; no strings attached :o)

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  4. Oh my, you guys eat really spicy! Ice cubes is not really effective, but that's what I always go for too, I think it's b/c the coldness seem to make the burn feeling go away, but after the ice melts off, I realize it still burns! I heard once that you should eat carbs to get rid of the hotness, don't know if it's effective.

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  5. Wow Hanaa! It scares me to even thinking about making a big batch of superhot sauce at home. You are a brave girl indeed. My husband is into sausage making, which sometimes involves hot spices, and I'm a wimp as far as that goes. You are a very supportive wife! ;)

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  6. I love hot, spicy food but your husband seems like a chile head to me! I bet his sauce is wonderful.

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  7. I had this recipe for a while in my cookbook, its 2 pages long... and I been wanting to make it forever. Now that I read your post, it has given me the final push to do so.

    I cannot wait to try it.

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  8. And I just realized that my last comment was for the pull apart Coffee cake and not the hot sauce.

    :::slapping forehead::::

    sigh!

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