Aren't they just sexy? The bright red colour, the wide, blocky shoulders. Mmmmmm. These are crimson hot peppers that we grew last year. When they are ripe, they are picked, washed, bagged, and thrown in the freezer. Here they are just starting to thaw and the frost that settled because of the high humidity is starting to melt. Then, throughout the winter, we make fresh hot sauce. This recipe was given to Bill by a colleague of his many years ago. It keeps in the fridge for several months.
Vijai's Hot Sauce
1 lb fresh hot peppers (any variety)
4-6 cloves of garlic
1 medium onion
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp oil
white vinegar as required for thickness
Blend all in a food processor until smooth. Keep refrigerated.
That's it. Pretty simple, eh? And oh so yummy. The heat level, of course, depends on the heat of the peppers. We have made this out of a variety of peppers and the best ones are always the ones that have a touch of sweetness. Sometimes, if the peppers were particularly hot, we would replace some of the hot peppers with an equal amount of sweet red pepper. We put it on eggs, in spaghetti sauce, and my particular favorite, on extra old cheddar.
6 comments:
Jackie's right. A dollop of this on a slice of extra old cheddar is pure delight. But I think my favourite is on an omelet that has mushrooms, sweet red peppers and onions in it, then folded over a few chopped tomatoes, some grated cheese, and crumbled, freshly cooked bacon. The hot sauce is the perfect garnish.
One of the great things about this simple uncooked sauce is that because you can mix the pepper varieties you can get a huge range of flavours and heat levels. It's an endless taste experiment. But for normal daily use the Crimson Hot peppers are the best choice, for sure.
Jackie's hubby
oh goodness! i can't wait to try it!
made the hot sauce, yummmy!
Glad you liked it!
Ok, I'm gonna have to make some now...
Can your hubby come over and make me one of those omelets?? Sounds AWESOME!
If it wasn't a days drive to get there I'd be glad to make you an omelet. I love to cook. And a lazy brunch with a lovely omelet is a great way to spend a Sunday morning.
Speaking of food, I first caught Jackie's attention with food. She worked in a health food store and I cooked things with ingredients I bought there and brought them to her to sample. Then a while later she was invited to dinner. I think it was the "mushrooms in puffed pastry" that I took her on a cold February day that clinched it.
Once we started spending serious time together she was fed a constant stream of lovely meals. I don't get to cook as much these days because of the time demands of my job, but I still love to when I can. But Jackie now makes most of my old recipe collection, and the really cool thing is that our kids have been raised on this food so they are keen to eat all kinds of exotic things I never saw as a child. My father was a "meat 'n' potatoes" man and my mother was not in the least adventurous in the kitchen, so it was a replayed menu, week after week, and I never got anything interesting or novel in the entire time I was home.
But having done my first degree in Chemistry, I was able to apply it to great advantage after I lived on my own. At that point interest in new foods really took off. For my entire adult life I've always been interested in trying out new foods. Few things in the world are as much of a delight as good food and wine in the right company, and when you live with the best company in the world, and someone who is appreciative and interested in new foods, it just doesn't get any better.
Jackie may be a really great weaver, but the way to her heart was directly through her stomach. :-)
Post a Comment