Hot Sauce and Chili Pepper Heads thread

[Scott the Pirate]

Habanero Hot Sauce

Recipe from Season 5 of “Mexico--One Plate at a Time” with a few modifications.

Ingredients:

3 - 5 cloves garlic, unpeeled.
½ cup peeled, roughly chopped carrot.
½ cup roughly chopped white onion.
12 medium orange habanero chiles, stemmed.
1 cup apple cider vinegar (I omit the vinegar and replace it with an additional ½ cup of water because I hate vinegary sauces).
2 teaspoons salt depending on your taste.
¼ teaspoon sugar again, depending on your taste.

Directions:

Roast the garlic in a skillet over medium heat, turning regularly until soft and blackened in spots, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool and peel. Alternately, if you’re grilling or barbequing before or while making this sauce, just wrap the cloves in foil and toss them into the coals for a few minutes. It really brings out the flavor. Again, cool and peel.
In a small saucepan, combine the carrot, onion and habanero chiles with the vinegar and 1 cup water (or the 1½ cups water if you hate vinegar). Cover and simmer over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes or until the carrots are almost mushy. If you don’t want to burn out the eyes, sinuses and lungs of yourself and your family, I suggest doing this outside on the grill. The fumes are nearly lethal. When I walked into the kitchen in the midst of this process I felt I’d been hit with mace or, more accurately, pepper-spray. Start a chimney of charcoal and put your ingredients in a cast iron or aluminum pot over the coals. Again, if you love your family, cook this sauce away from them.
After the carrots are tender, pour everything (remaining water included) into a blender jar and add the roasted garlic, salt and sugar to the mix. Blend until smooth. Thin with a little additional water if you think your hot-sauce is too thick. Taste your sauce and season with additional salt or sugar if you think it necessary. Pour into jars or bottles and store in the refrigerator (or freezer depending on how much you make) until you’re ready to add some fire/pain to a dish.

Mine turned out “Rather salty, kinda sweet…holy sh*t! Gaahhh! Get it off my tongue!!!”
In other words "Awesome"!

[TwistedSister]

Scott, it will only keep for so long in those jars.
I would suggest buying canning jars and lids, sterilize jars, fill to about 1/4" from the top of the jar, and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes to seal the jars. If you don't have the rack to submerse the jars in boiling water to seal, you can always put the jars ontop of a steamer and cover for 10 minutes.
This way you can make large batches and keep them on the shelf without worrying of it going bad.

[Scott the Pirate]

My recipe only made about 1 & 1/2 cups.

[bacon]

isn't it a sad feeling when you sit down to have your eggs only to discover that, yes, indeed, you did run out of hot sauce

[Scott the Pirate]

Yes.

[anthrobabe]

isn't it a sad feeling when you sit down to have your eggs only to discover that, yes, indeed, you did run out of hot sauce

The Bee Gees had a song for that moment--- Tragedy

[Almighty Doer of Stuff]

Tragedy!
When hot sauce is gone and you can't go on!
It's tragedy!
When your eggs are dry and you don't know why!
It's hard to bear, with nothing to burn you... uh... but fire in your hair?

[Roy Hunter]

with nothing to burn you... uh... but fire in your hair?

Nice Michael Jackson tribute there, ADoS...

[Scott the Pirate]

We made the best pizza last night! We put a little pasta sauce and a lot of bbq sauce with "bomb sauce stirred in) on the crust, added some freshly pressed garlic and some finely chopped onion, put cubed chicken breast on it and covered the whole thing with grated parmesan, thin strips of provolone and finally fresh mozzarella (the super soft kind that comes in a ball), baked until bubbly. We used too much of the hot sauce and the sweat poured off us!

[The Gavin]

A quick list of my favorites, in an order that shifts slightly from day to day

1. Sriracha/Cock Sauce/Vietnamese Ketchup. Hell Yes On All Counts
2. Half Moon Bay's Iguana Sauce. Lots of flavors and varieties.
3. Brother Bru Bru's African Hot Sauce. Smoky, rich, and spicy. Bit of an acquired taste.
4. My own personal Pico-de-gallo, from my own garden
5. Dave's Insanity Sauce-DO NOT INGEST, feed to your masochistic/overly macho friends. 2 drops in a vat of thick stew makes it juuust right. 3 drops will kill you. This bottle actually has a LEGAL warning, not a fake funny spoof warning. It's a good cooking sauce because it's so concentrated, but it's the strongest shit I've ever encountered.