Hothead habañero
this is the original sauce i made that was successful (read: edible). it has a tremendous amount of garlic in it, which is more or less the base for the sauce. it’s not overpowering though, because of the peppers, and oddly they balance each other out. this is fantastic on eggs.
ingredients
3 habañero peppers
2 jalapeño peppers
1 serrano pepper
1 baby carrot
1/2 of a sweet red bell pepper, chopped and de-seeded
the biggest bulb of garlic the supermarket has (10-20 cloves; the more, the better)
1 tbsp. olive oil
kosher / sea salt
distilled white vinegar
preparation
using the flat side of a chef’s knife, smash and extract the garlic cloves from their white flaky encasing. sprinkle a liberal amount of salt on the cutting board to soak up extra garlic juice, bathing each clove in sodium goodness. if you think you used too much salt, you didn’t.
dump the salt-encrusted garlic into a medium-hot skillet and saute them with the oil for 10 minutes or so, stirring frequently. you want it to make your house smell like garlic, but not for them to turn brown and crusty.
de-stem and chop the chili peppers (i use gloves for this, because if you touch the peppers and then forget later, and touch your eyeball, you will curse the existence of this recipe). leave the seeds in. this is going to be a hot sauce, so don’t remove the things that make it hot. throw them in the pan with the garlic, making sure to sear all the sides and to generally cook them gently until the vapors start to make your nose and eyes involuntarily shut. take the pan off the heat.
dump the garlic/pepper mixture into a blender. add the vinegar in small increments until there is enough liquid for it to successfully blend it into a liquid mixture. this result is satan’s pee-pee. it should be a nuclear-yellow color that doesn’t look natural. far too hot to use for any normal person other than to prove manliness. taste-test it but don’t say i didn’t warn you. throw in the baby carrot and red pepper to reduce the heat to human proportions and to add a vague hint of sweetness to match the hellfire spiciness.
blend until there can be no more blending. optionally add more vinegar for desired consistency. carefully pour mixture into glass bottle that can be sealed and refrigerate.
December 20, 2009