DIY habanero hot sauce

[Freq Band]

I don't know why, but this song is appropriate....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYuSKoKO4bQ

 

[riggler]

Here I was going to post Ward Beck stuff and I get snagged by this thread. Well, off to the store this weekend. We have a farmer's market thing going on this weekend where you can get fresh stuff!

 

[Autophase]

Think I'm going to take this to the next level soon.
I've been growing a chilli plant the last few months and it now has fruit on there, 16 at last nights count with more appearing each day. I think in 2 weeks the first ones will be ready to pick.
So I'll knock up some hot sauce with my own chillis, true DIY style.
Kinda the equivalent of DIY audio using your own hand wound transformers.

 

[rob_gould]

At the local fruit and veg market I picked up half a KG of habaneros last weekend, half red and half yellow, with the intention of making more habanero sauce. 

I thought I'd post a photo of the end result here, and whadayaknow - by coincidence it's almost a year to the day since I started this thread with the first round of sauce.  That batch barely lasted a couple of months if I recall correctly!

Anyone else been indulging in the hot stuff lately?!

 

[emrr]

I've been rationing the last bits, ready for more!

 

[JohnRoberts]

I can't get fresh habanera where I shop, so I have a pile of dried habanera in the cupboard that I can add extra heat with when needed. I have gotten into the practice of mixing multiple hot, but not habanera hot, peppers into stews and chili dishes I cook. I'll add jalapeno, serranao, and anaheim peppers into the same dish together, because they actually have different flavors. Perhaps it's just me, but with habenara I get mostly their heat and little distinctive flavor.  I'm sure they have flavor but for me the heat overpowers it (I still use them just sparingly).

JR

 

[emrr]

John, this approach helps get the flavor:

http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=48742.msg615948#msg615948

 

[JohnRoberts]

Yup, as I mentioned earlier in this thread I don't generally cut the heat out of hot peppers. Since the only habanera I have regular access to are dried, I can't de-heat them even if I tried.

I can use one (dried) habanera to large pot of chili or stew and it doesn't overpower me, but I still get more of a heat than flavor sense from them even when diluted... perhaps there is something about the drying process that affects the flavor tones differently than the heat.

JR

 

[emrr]

I think drying does make for a different experience. 

 

[0dbfs]

The carrots that Rob added to his sauce are important for Habenero's. Helps bring out the flavor. Removing the veins and seeds lowers heat and increases flavor too. Sorta like a compressor that "makes-things-louder". Flame roasting also releases some heat (grill or gas burner/tongs).

I've been using poblano's.. Roasting and peeling them then cooking into a green-chili sort of stew. Add Jalapeno's or other (roasted/peeled/de-veined-and-de-seeded) for heat and flavor. Poblano's have a little heat but more flavor.

I'll make a med/large pot of this with a tomatillo or two (and a couple/three bags of mostly poblano's) and a red-tomato or two.. Then slow cook some pork in that for a while. Maybe some other spices depending....

Sorta like a marinara but with peppers ad meat.

I use a tomato press for the chili's to process and remove skins. You'll need a ton of peppers.

My buddy in New Mexico uses the green chili's they have out there for this dish and similar. I can only get fresh poblano's here in nashville.

Had it both ways and it's killer.

Now I've got to make a batch.

Cheers,
jb

 

[emrr]

I can see carrots being a good thing.

 

[justanalogue]

Rob,

I like the Grolsch flip top bottles you use!
My seeds won't sprout so no peppers this year....

Willem.

 

[tv]

Awww ... some like it hot! Just be careful when you get your next G.A.S. attack ...

 

[rob_gould]

Yep, carrots and onions sweated long and slow at the start really sweeten things up and gives a good base flavour.  The classic French trio of onion, carrot and celery did occur to me but celery seemed like it might be a step too far.

Rob,

I like the Grolsch flip top bottles you use!
My seeds won't sprout so no peppers this year....

Willem.

Willem, yes - there's a double benefit to using the Grolsch bottles of course!

I also struggled  to get my chili seeds to germinate.  Especially for the habaneros and the more exotic types, they were getting too cold at night even in a propagator.

So I decided to cheat a bit.

I looked at heated propagators and they start around €60 and go upwards from there; a bit too much of an investment for me.  So I hunted around for another solution and found these :

http://terramania.nl/terramania/index.php?item=warmtematten---m-27_4-cm-breed--vanaf&action=article&group_id=10000015&aid=3688&lang=NL

I balanced it on the base of the propagator (it doesn't quite fit neatly inside unfortunately) and put the lid on top.  It's water resistant, rigid enough to hold the weight of a few seed pots and best of all keeps the propagator at a steady 27 - 30 degrees day and night.

So I put some more habaneros in just to see if the plan will work.  Nothing so far but it's only been 3 - 4 days.  I doubt even if they do grow that I'll get any fruit as I've started them far too late in the season really, but it's more a test to see whether germination rates improve.

 

[alexc]

The Merciless Peppers of Quetzlzacatenango!

 

[matriachamplification]

Seems like it has been a while since we've had any cookery related threads on here and I've really enjoyed other peoples in the past, so when I decided to have a crack at making habanero chilli sauce this afternoon I thought it would be fun to take a few pics and share the results.

I didn't follow one specific recipe, but read quite a few different ones and took the best ideas from each.  The result is decent - needless to say it is really hot!  But there's really good flavour in there too so I am pleased at how it went.  Next time I'll make a much bigger batch and give them away to anyone daft enough to accept one! 

Ingredients :

A lot of garlic :

Dice 400g tomatoes, 3 carrots, an onion and two red peppers and sweat with the garlic for 20 - 30 mins :

Remove chilli stems and cut in half, but leave seeds and white membrane in for maximum potency!  This was about 300g I think

Chop the habaneros roughly.  I took the safe option and went for latex gloves for this operation! :

Give the habaneros a quick blitz as the stuff in the pan continues to sweat :

Add the cooked ingredients and blitz again :

The concoction now gets another round in the pan.  About 200ml of cider vinegar and the juice of four limes also went in.  It is starting to look, and smell, the part now :

Add salt :

Add sugar :

Add cumin :

At this point I gave it a big stir, waited a couple of minutes and checked the seasoning.  A little bit more salt, cumin and a small splash of cider vinegar got everything nicely balanced.

Following a nice slow 30 minute simmer, this was the end result - just under 1.5L in total.  There are no photos of the bottling process because without a funnel, things got a little messy to say the least! 

Apparently these bottles (first sterilised in the oven) will keep the sauce edible for as long as a year though I doubt it will last that long ;D

Anyone else got any recipes or tips they'd like to share?  I can see sauce making being a regular occurrence now I've discovered how easy it is and how good the results are!

Cheers

Rob

Hot Sauce REVIVAL!

Love the recipe. Will try some experimentations with your base