Habanero Hot Sauce Master Recipe
Habanero Hot Sauce
Turnin’ up that heat
This week I decided to make a batch of habanero hot sauce with some of the habaneros I have sitting in the freezer from last season. I use this master hot sauce recipe as a guideline to make almost all of my hot sauces because I believe it creates the perfect base for you to create your hot sauce masterpiece.
Ingredients
1 pound stemmed fresh or frozen chiles
2 tablespoons salt
1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar
Note:
So I use this master recipe as a base. You can use any type of chiles in this recipe, or even try blending together a whole mix of different peppers. It is fun to play with the different color sauces you can create.
Try jalapeno, serrano, thai chiles, fresnos, or habaneros.
Habanero Carrot Hot Sauce Ingredients
1 pound stemmed habaneros
2 pounds grated carrots
2 tablespoons salt
1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar
Instructions
Directions
Step 0
Find a pair of food-safe gloves. If you are handling, cutting, and transferring a bunch of super-hot chiles… you will thank yourself in a few hours when you have long forgotten about this project and go to rub your eyes…
Step 1
Pulse the chiles, carrots, and salt in a food processor until everything breaks down until small chunks. Transfer carefully to a glass jar or container.
Step 2
Loosely screw on the lid and let sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours to slightly ferment.
Step 3
Stir in your vinegar put the lid back on loosely, and let the jar sit at room temperature undisturbed for 1-7 days. The longer you let it sit, the deeper the flavor.
Step 4
Puree the mixture in a high powdered blender until completely smooth. Set up a fine-meshed sieve on top of a funnel, and place it over a clean glass bottle. Pour the hot sauce in the sieve. Let it strain completely. Discard the mush in the sieve and voila! you have your hot sauce. Enjoy.
Other Flavor Ideas
The sky is the limit on flavor combinations. Try using some of these fun ingredients: Sichuan Peppercorns, fresh fruit—like prickly pear fruit, peaches, pawpaws or mangos, herbs, beer or wine, ginger… the list goes on-and-on…
How to Use
It is hard to think of a meal that doesn’t brighten for the better with a little tinge of heat added to it. But some of my favorite uses are on breakfast plates, over shellfish, and in cocktails. Having a bunch of people over to the house? Make a bunch of small batches with different flavor combinations and it becomes a fun taste-testing activity. Just remember to keep them well labeled, and write down your ratios, so you remember what you did for the next batch.