sauce time! (Mindy, this is for Keith)

[Guest guest]

I just bought the makings for this year's batch of hot sauce: Winn-Dixie

is having a pepper sale. All the hot ones are $1.69 a pound, and the

habaneros are big, fresh and fragrant, so I cleaned out the bin. The

jalapeños are the wimpy " almost heatless " kind, but the serranos are

good, so I'm using those this year instead; I love their flavor anyway.

 

 

My recipe is super-simple; too much so, I'm sure, for many of you on

the Chile-Heads' List, but maybe it'll get somebody making sauce who

hasn't had the nerve before. At least, I hope so; homemade sauce is

SO much better than most storebought. Anyway, here it is:

 

1 1/2 to 2 lb. good habaneros

1 1/2 lb good HOT jalapeños (or serranos)

Enough pickling-strength vinegar brine -- to each quart

of water, add 1 c. vinegar and 1/4 c.

salt

 

Remove caps and split the peppers. Seed them if you want, but

don't remove the membranes. I like the habs ripe and the jals

or serranos green, but suit yourself.

 

Cook, covered, in enough of the brine to get 'em done without

burning, but not enough to cover them. First, though, open the

windows, turn on the exhaust fan and put a towel under the door

if you live in a building with a shared hallway; no sense being

responsible for somebody's asthma attack, and besides, all the

chileheads in the building will show up wanting samples. :-)

 

When the peppers are fully tender but not mushy, and have cooled to

where they won't melt the rubber gasket of a blender, blenderize

the living tar out of them in batches, along with the liquid. This

really does take a blender at top speed, not a food processor.

 

Put the sauce in clean jars, leaving an inch of headspace. Then, twice,

 

freeze them solid overnight, take them out and let them thaw fully.

This breaks the remaining intact cell walls so the sauce doesn't

separate.

 

The next step is crucial to the flavor, though it scares some people

(unjustly, I assure you):

 

Remove caps and let jars sit, covered with a loose-woven tea-towel

or two or three layers of cheesecloth, for two to three weeks in a

warm room or on a screened porch. This allows the good

microorganisms, the ones that improve flavor, to get going;

rest assured, no other kind will survive the combo of chiles

(they're germicidal), vinegar and salt. Many Koreans leave vats

of chile paste in the backyard all year long. If you made sauce

last year and it's still good, putting a dab in each jar can help

start the process quickly. If a white bloom appears on top, just

stir it in; it's the friendly stuff.

 

Then bottle, label and store. Will keep unrefrigerated for several

months unrefrigerated, or for a year in the fridge.

 

Keep on rockin',

Rain

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