I've been playing around with an idea to make a fermented char roasted Chocolate Habanero sauce. I'm a big fan of charring prior to use in cooking. I find it softens some of the sharper profiles, and brings out a natural sweetness. My favourite Salsa is based on charred sweet peppers, chillies, onions and eggplant (see photo below).
I use two methods for charring - either placing the chillies directly on or just over hot charcoal or using a trivet on the stove top with a gas flame. You do need to be careful when charring chillies with thin side walls, but you can be pretty brutal with sweet peppers and can take the skin to the completely black stage.
My garden season for chillies is at an end, so I did a final harvest of my Choc Habs, and I decided to try a fermented sauce rather than freezing them.
Recipe is:
750g Choc Habs (Some ripe, some green, some semi ripe)
125g Purple Salad Onion
25g Garlic
25g Salt
25g Starter (I used the juice from another actively fermenting sauce)
Some of the prepped habs:
I cut most of the stem off (leaving the top green bit on for extra flavour) and lightly charred them on the stove top.
I did the same with some purple onions, but taking them to the really black stage, and then removing all of the charred skins before adding to the whiz.
For the garlic, I wanted a slow roasting, so I just wrapped them in their skins, in some Aluminium Foil and into an oven at 175 deg C for 45 minutes then squeezed their insides out into the whiz.
All ingrediants (except the starter) were blended. Since the ingrediants are hot, you get a fair bit of steam coming off, and I can assure you I had a few nasal cleansing moments.
Scraped all of that out into a jar with an air-lock, and placed it into the fridge to cool to room temperature.
Note: The color in the following photos is not reflective of the rich deep brown colour in the jar, but a result of crappy photography and an iphone flash.
After cooling, I took it out of the fridge and added the starter, and stirred, replacing the lid with airlock of course.
It's been a couple of days and I have a nice active fermentation going on:
You can see the small flecks of charred skin in the mash. I'm hoping this will add a nice smokey note to the finished sauce.
I did a taste test before it went into the jar and it was great.
So : Have I made a major mistake and wasted a whole heap of Choc Habs or does anyone else char their peppers prior to fermenting?
Cheers
Luke
I use two methods for charring - either placing the chillies directly on or just over hot charcoal or using a trivet on the stove top with a gas flame. You do need to be careful when charring chillies with thin side walls, but you can be pretty brutal with sweet peppers and can take the skin to the completely black stage.
My garden season for chillies is at an end, so I did a final harvest of my Choc Habs, and I decided to try a fermented sauce rather than freezing them.
Recipe is:
750g Choc Habs (Some ripe, some green, some semi ripe)
125g Purple Salad Onion
25g Garlic
25g Salt
25g Starter (I used the juice from another actively fermenting sauce)
Some of the prepped habs:
I cut most of the stem off (leaving the top green bit on for extra flavour) and lightly charred them on the stove top.
I did the same with some purple onions, but taking them to the really black stage, and then removing all of the charred skins before adding to the whiz.
For the garlic, I wanted a slow roasting, so I just wrapped them in their skins, in some Aluminium Foil and into an oven at 175 deg C for 45 minutes then squeezed their insides out into the whiz.
All ingrediants (except the starter) were blended. Since the ingrediants are hot, you get a fair bit of steam coming off, and I can assure you I had a few nasal cleansing moments.
Scraped all of that out into a jar with an air-lock, and placed it into the fridge to cool to room temperature.
Note: The color in the following photos is not reflective of the rich deep brown colour in the jar, but a result of crappy photography and an iphone flash.
After cooling, I took it out of the fridge and added the starter, and stirred, replacing the lid with airlock of course.
It's been a couple of days and I have a nice active fermentation going on:
You can see the small flecks of charred skin in the mash. I'm hoping this will add a nice smokey note to the finished sauce.
I did a taste test before it went into the jar and it was great.
So : Have I made a major mistake and wasted a whole heap of Choc Habs or does anyone else char their peppers prior to fermenting?
Cheers
Luke
