Wednesday Food: Jalapeño Hot Sauce

Continuing with last week’s homemade condiment theme, today marks my first experiment with hot sauce.  A neophyte at best, I aspire to call myself an enthusiast or even one day a connoisseur of the expansive and colorful world of hot sauce.  For now I must work with what modest information I have gathered.

Everyone reaches for hot sauce for different reasons: heat, sharpness, smokiness, or just a kick of concentrated flavor.  I favor none of these qualities above the other, and find it necessary therefore, to stock a variety of bottles with different virtues for any given occasion.  There is no substitute for Tabasco, which has a clean hot and sour taste, fairly mild with no smokiness.  Though in terms of commercial hot sauce I prefer Cholula as it’s thicker and has more flavor than vinegar-based hot sauce.

Vinegar, along with the type of pepper of course, determines what kind of hot sauce will be produced and is predominant in Louisiana Styles (Tabasco, Frank’s, Louisiana) and those found around the Caribbean (Susie’s, Grace’s Hot Pepper).  On the other hand, Southwestern hot sauces rely more on spices and Asian hot sauces are generally thicker, often with the addition of garlic (Huy Fong’s Sriracha and Chili Garlic are Americanized hybrids of Thai and Vietnamese sauces).

To make hot sauce at home, you must first decide what approach to take.  Tabasco for instance, is a mash of peppers that is salted, aged in oak until the required level of fermentation is reached (3 years), then combined with vinegar and strained.  If this was the style you wanted you might use fresh chilies and simply process them with vinegar and salt.  I wanted hot sauce with more depth of flavor and viscosity, so I cooked the peppers with onion and garlic and added cumin and fresh oregano before blending it with vinegar.

Part of the inspiration to use jalapeños came from my patio, where a small jalapeño plant has finally produced five 1 inch peppers.  Success!  They’re also available everywhere and mild, so you can easily control the heat.  What you have in the end is a beautiful rich green condiment that awakens the senses with a vinegar kick, warms with spices, and finishes with a comfortable heat at the back of the mouth, demanding you consume more.

Warning:

Avoid touching your eyes or face after handling peppers because they will make you weep all day and hate life, and try not to inhale too much over the sauté pan as it will screw up your lungs.

8 jalapeños, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup onion, minced

fresh oregano or cilantro, chopped

1 tsp cumin

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

Saute peppers, garlic, onion and 1 1/2 tsp salt over medium heat until softened.  Add 1 cup of water and cook until water is reduced, about 15 min.  Add fresh chopped herbs and cumin, and cook about 1 more minute.

Pour the mixture into a processor or blender and turn on.  Slowly add vinegar and blend until very smooth.  Use a jar or recycled hot sauce bottle to store.  Makes about 1 cup.