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fermenting Habanero/Fresno Fermented Sauce

Hi All

My first fermented sauce went extremely well and now I'm going to try again with a few more ingredients.

What I have on hand are:
Sweet Onions
Garlic
Carrots
Dried Sungold Cherry Tomatoes
Apples
raisins
Orange Bell Peppers
Fresno Peppers
Habanero Peppers
Molasses
Brown Sugar
Palm Sugar
Ginger
Soy Sauce

And brine from a 3 week old batch of kimchi to add as a starter.

Any suggestions for addition or exclusion using these ingredients based on what works for you?
 
Okay... I'll leave out the raisins and add a couple of tablespoons of honey instead. For the rest:

2 pounds of mixed peppers... a dozen Fresnos, 20 Orange Habaneros and the balance Orange Bell Peppers
4 cloves of garlic
2 medium sweet onions
3 good-sized carrots for consistency in the sauce
2 tbsp kosher salt
2 tbsp thinly sliced fresh ginger
1 cup of dried cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup of brine from the Korean Radish kimchi I made a month ago to innoculate the mash with lacto-bacteria.

Ran the vegetables through the food processor to make a mash, added them to the half gallon glass jar I use for fermenting, stirred in the starter, 2 tbsp honey and enough water to top the jar up to within 2 inches of the top. This time I'll leave the lid on the jar until I'm done fermenting.
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Mash starting to bubble today... I put a plastic bag full of water in the top of the jar to hold the mash down under the surface of the brine, but the brine is being pushed out by the gas generated during fermentation. Good thing I put the fermenting jar into a casserole dish to catch any overflow!
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Wow Rick that's ferments really active...good starter used! As far as any type of raisens, tamarind, or guava pulp, any dried fruit, I use all of these at some point during my hot sauce making. I never tried any during a ferment...sounds like a good idea. Thats where my favorite kitchen tool comes in place, the food mill. As you know the final result is a smooth sauce with all the flavor, but none of the grit.

What's the temperature where the vessels stored at? Last week I brought a San Fran starter culture (about a qts worth in a 1/2 gal container) into my grow room which is running 85 deg. I didn't check it for a couple of hrs...the lid blew off and what a mess to clean. Alot of it dried, I ending up using a paint scraper in a wet rag to remove the globs.........ha. I just fed it, I should have none better. Good luck with your ferment. The Fresno is often over looked, its a great pepper with some surprising heat.
 
Hi Greg, Thanks for stopping by!
I've been sold on food mills for some time... My Mother and Grandmother have used them for years when making applesauce or tomato sauce. I like using them for hot sauce too.

The temperature on the kitchen counter where I'm fermenting the mash is around 72 degrees. I haven't got the lid cranked down tight on the jar so the gas can escape but I'll leave it on so dust and other contaminants can't get into the mash. This is my first use of Fresno chiles, so I'm not too sure what I'll get in the end, but I wanted to add the red color and Annuum flavor to the Habaneros so they don't dominate the sauce. Cheers!
 
Great looking mash there Rick, love the colors and that's a good ingredients list. I use Golden Raisins in my Jamaica Me Hot Sauce and they go int o the ferment jar. The really great part is that you can, if you have a good pallet, pick out the flavors of the sweet ingredients like Raisins but they're not sweet and that reminds me I need to get a batch of Jamaica me going. The only thing I dont usually add to the fermentation jar are the dried tomatoes. I like the little touch of sweet they add at the end. Can't wait to see how it comes out. How long are you going to let it run for?

Cheers,
 
Great looking mash there Rick, love the colors and that's a good ingredients list. I use Golden Raisins in my Jamaica Me Hot Sauce and they go int o the ferment jar. The really great part is that you can, if you have a good pallet, pick out the flavors of the sweet ingredients like Raisins but they're not sweet and that reminds me I need to get a batch of Jamaica me going. The only thing I dont usually add to the fermentation jar are the dried tomatoes. I like the little touch of sweet they add at the end. Can't wait to see how it comes out. How long are you going to let it run for?

Cheers,
Hi Bill
Thanks for having a look and chipping in. I think I'll let it run for about as long as the last one... I figure I'll have run through the Yucatan Habanero sauce about the time the new fermented sauce is ready to process. Thanks for the earlier tip about keeping the lid on the jar... it's the end of week one and no sign of Kahm yeast in this batch. It's bubbling away merrily, and the gas is buoying up the mash so there's some separation. I'll keep it on the kitchen counter until it stops bubbling and the mash sinks, then I'll put it down cellar to age a bit before processing.
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That looks like the perfect blend of ingredients Rick. I may have to try and replicate that if you don't mind. Do you think I could substitute the honey with agave nectar?
Just need to purchase a food mill. :banghead:

Mash looks superb!!!!! :clap:
 
That looks like the perfect blend of ingredients Rick. I may have to try and replicate that if you don't mind. Do you think I could substitute the honey with agave nectar?

Just need to purchase a food mill. :banghead:

Mash looks superb!!!!! :clap:
Thanks Jamie I appreciate the input. This sauce will be a lot hotter than the last I hope!

If you want to make a sauce like this one, have at it! I don't see why you couldn't use Agave Nectar... I didn't use raisins this time around because I wasn't sure how they would taste after lacto-fermentation, but with Bill's endorsement, I think I will next time. I should have known... they make Balsamic and wine vinegars from grape juice.
 
It's day 30 and time to process the ferment. I took out the plastic bag full of water out of the top of the jar and got this...
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Cooked the mash to soften it and ran through a food mill. Added soy sauce, sesame oil, Hoisin sauce and a fair amount of honey because it tasted fairly bitter when first sampled. Note to self... next time add the ginger after the ferment , not during! And lose the tomatoes too.
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Simmered about 20 minutes and ran through the blender for 15. Reheated to a gentle simmer and poured into sterilized bottles. Capped, and set aside upside down to cool.
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Have shrink sleeves on order from Salsa Lady, I just have to come up with a label. That's enough for one day...
 
Rick, I’m still playing catching up around the forums and just read the thread, Awesome job Mon!!! Next time don’t let anyone talk you out of raisins, they’re highly underrated in cooking IMHO. Oh and thanks for the idea as I’ve not tried them in any of my sauces so I’ll be including them in a sauce next time myself :)
 
Rick Sauce looks Fantastic and has a great color. Good processing notes too. Yeah, Ginger is a hard one to get right. It's really easy to get too much or too little. Before you just leave it out try using half the amount and still add it to the ferment. Tomatoes I always add after the fermentation is done. While I have used fresh ones I pretty much just use Sun Dried now as they have alot more concentrated flavor and I'm not adding a bunch of extra water to the sauce that'll need to be compensated for. Just a couple of thoughts there. How'd teh heat/flavor come out?

RM
 
Hi Bill, Thanks for weighing in...
I was shooting for something that would come out close to the sauce in Ojingo Bokkum, which is compounded of green onion, garlic, hoisin sauce, gochugaru, dark sesame oil and lots of fresh ginger. I think the ginger needs lots of sweetness to balance it, and the fermentation took all that away. pH was good though... it came out at 3.2 without adding any other acids.
 
[font=Arial']Yep with a Fermented sauce you’re going to lose any sweetness from the fermented ingredients and have to sweeten it on the back end. A lot of times when I want to add some sweet, even if it's just a touch I'll use some Agave Nectar or Honey. I prefer to stay with the natural sugars as opposed to using white refined sugar. It’ll add a touch to the overall flavor profile but I have never found the addition to be a bad thing. Keep making those sauces Rick.[/font]
 
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