Kortni’s Kitchen: Hot Sauce
This week has been anything but normal for me. On Monday I decided to make hot sauce. You know how everyone makes cookies and hands them out to friends and neighbors. Well, instead of cookies I thought I would be different and make hot sauce. The hot sauce turned out great, but my house smelled like chillies for 3 days. Though this recipe comes with a warning, all joking aside – wear rubber gloves while working with the peppers. I did not heed my own warning and for literally 24 hours it felt like I was holding fire in my palms. They were all tingly and hot to the touch. This happens because the oil in the peppers seeps into your pores and turns your skin to fire. I tried everything you could find on the internet, and the only thing that helps is time. If you are up for the challenge, the recipe is simple enough.
Ingredients: Just Putzing
Habanero Hot Sauce
- 12 orange habanero chiles, stems removed
- ½ cup roughly chopped carrot
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 5 garlic cloves, unpeeled
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 2 tsp salt
- ¼ tsp sugar
Sriracha Hot Sauce
- 20-25 jalapeno peppers (mix of green/red), stemmed, seeded and roughly chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
- ⅓ cup apple cider vinegar
- 4 tbsp tomato paste
- 4 tbsp honey
- 1-½ tsp salt
DIRECTIONS
To make your habanero hot sauce:
1. In a dry pan at medium heat, roast your garlic, turning occasionally to toast and blacken on all sides.
Kortni’s Kitchen: Hot Sauce
2. In a medium saucepan, add the carrot, onion, habanero, vinegar and water and bring to a simmer.
- Since you will be blending everything later, you don’t have to make everything perfect. I would still try to make things small though, because then it’s easier to blend.
Kortni’s Kitchen: Hot Sauce
3. Cook for 10-20 minutes until the carrots are tender.
4. Put everything into a blender, including the (peeled) garlic, salt and sugar. Blend until very, very smooth.
- I used an immersion blender. They are smaller than a blender and work the same.
Kortni’s Kitchen: Hot Sauce
5. Feel free to strain the sauce to get out the thickest pulp and the seeds. Adjust with water to your desired consistency. Allow mixture to cool.
Kortni’s Kitchen: Hot Sauce
6. Pour hot sauce into jars and seal (I poured mine into 5oz bottles. I got 2 full bottles and a partially filled third bottle).
- To pour into the bottles, I strained the liquid and poured it into a liquid measuring cup. You want to be careful not to spill any of the liquid, since you don’t get a lot of it.
7. Keep refrigerated!
Kortni’s Kitchen: Hot Sauce
To make your sriracha:
1. Place all the ingredients in a blender (or food processor) and purée until very smooth (there should be no visible bits or chunks).
Kortni’s Kitchen: Hot Sauce
- I couldn’t find red jalapenos, so I used all green. This made my sriracha green instead of red. Other than the color though, the taste was still the same.
2. Pour the pureed mixture into a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Kortni’s Kitchen: Hot Sauce
3. As soon as it starts boiling, reduce the heat to low so that it is just barely simmering.
4. Cook for 30 to 35 minutes, stirring every now and then. The sauce will thicken and the foam will subside as it cooks.
Kortni’s Kitchen: Hot Sauce
- It is at this point that I would open a window or two if you can so that your house doesn’t smell like chilies for a few days.
Kortni’s Kitchen: Hot Sauce
5. Once cooked, take your pot off of the heat and allow to cool slightly.
Kortni’s Kitchen: Hot Sauce
- I decided to strain this sauce as well. I think hot sauce should be thinner rather than thicker. If you can handle the heat, you can use the solid part of the hot sauce as a salsa or spread.
6. Transfer the sauce to jars or bottles (I just barely filled three 5oz bottles).
7. Keep refrigerated!
- With the bottles I used, you put them over boiling water to seal the tops and make them look professional.
Kortni’s Kitchen: Hot Sauce
In the end, I had 5 and 1/2 bottles of hot sauce, which was the perfect amount for one for each of my co-workers. I tried both types of hot sauce before I bottled them up, and they are definitely hot. Though the hot sauce only took a few hours to make from start to finish, I have to be honest, I don’t think I would make them again. It could be because I personally don’t like hot sauce, or because I didn’t heed my own warning and burned my hands. If you enjoy hot sauce though, I am positive this is something you would like.
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Kortni’s Kitchen: Hot Sauce
