I've made sauce before, back in FL, where I had fresh peppers, fresh herbs, veggies, plentiful dishes and so forth... But this was my first batch here at Grad School/Seminary... It was quite a different experience...
It started this morning when I was making an omelet before class, and finished off my last bottle of sauce that I'd brought from Florida (Assorted smoked super-hot, and hot peppers, a pickle, pickle juice instead of vinegar, an abundance of garlic, a couple cups of coriander, blended, cooked, salt to taste, a hint of black pepper, blended, bottled). I went into crisis mode... Well not really... I went to class, took notes, and then stopped by harris teeter (grocers). I was considering trying to make do with store bought sauce... They had a few interesting candidates - I purchased one that was made up of nearly pure naga morrich according to the label. Turns out they should have listed vinegar first... But I digress.
I got home, and promptly made a sandwich and put some of the sauce on it.
I was incredibly disappointed. There were two flavors of note - and I will list them in order of strength. Vinegar, and salt.
Un-daunted, I pulled out the fresh ground pepper paste I bought from Justaguy a few weeks ago, grabbed some garlic, smoked pepper powder (mostly bhut - but contains about a dozen varieties), onion, and a pan and set to work...
My first thought was to pour out the old sauce, and just re-use the woozie, but it occurred to me that I don't have any vinegar... Not wanting to make a second trip to the store, I decided to include the naga sauce in what I was about to make.
I started with garlic... saute'd (no oil) 10 cloves of garlic. and an onion (both diced as small as possible). set those aside for a moment, and poured in justaguys paste. I then got out my pepper powder (link goes to the sales thread... its the same stuff I've been selling, and that grantmichaels uses in his cooking in the cooking forums) and poured in 6oz of pepper. I put the sauce pan on medium stirred for a while, getting all the lumps out, and then added the saute'd garlic, onions, and two tablespoons of garlic and onion powder. I added the store sauce to this mix. stirred, and simmered. As you can imagine, the sauce was quite thick, so I thinned it a little bit with water, and simmered till It was a little thinner than I wanted. I then remembered that I had not put any salt in, and discovered I had no funnel... Un-daunted I pressed on, salting to taste (I like things a little salty, but not more than most I suspect). When it came time to fill containers, I started with Justaguys ball jar that he sent full of paste. I was able to fill it with no problems, sealed it, sterilized the lid etc. The woozies were going to prove to be more difficult...
It was quite a scene... I was wishing one of my room-mates had been home to take some pictures... I was holding the glass woozie with one hand, and trying to pour the sauce down the mouth with a teaspoon in the other. I was getting sauce everywhere (despite being over the sauce pan, it was running down my arm and so forth - you get the idea). I eventually cut a paper plate into square-ish shape, and made a funnel. which worked well, until the paper gave out (more mess).
In the end, I have 4 containers of sauce (picture coming soon... my cell phone turned off as soon as I tried to take a picture) sitting on top of my fridge cooling... My left arm is on fire (gloves only cover so much..), and the house has enough pepper powder in the air to make a mortal man cry (gonna be interesting when my heat hating roommate gets home, hoping the air clears a bit before then).
But the sauce has a really good taste I think - garlic-y, smoky, with a bit of the wonderful flavors of the 7pot and Naga Morrich. There is still a note of vinegar, but its not dominate in the taste or smell. All in all? I consider it a success, even it was all done in my roommates pan. *chuckle*
Pepper powder I used:
View attachment 1331
Final Product.
It started this morning when I was making an omelet before class, and finished off my last bottle of sauce that I'd brought from Florida (Assorted smoked super-hot, and hot peppers, a pickle, pickle juice instead of vinegar, an abundance of garlic, a couple cups of coriander, blended, cooked, salt to taste, a hint of black pepper, blended, bottled). I went into crisis mode... Well not really... I went to class, took notes, and then stopped by harris teeter (grocers). I was considering trying to make do with store bought sauce... They had a few interesting candidates - I purchased one that was made up of nearly pure naga morrich according to the label. Turns out they should have listed vinegar first... But I digress.
I got home, and promptly made a sandwich and put some of the sauce on it.
I was incredibly disappointed. There were two flavors of note - and I will list them in order of strength. Vinegar, and salt.
Un-daunted, I pulled out the fresh ground pepper paste I bought from Justaguy a few weeks ago, grabbed some garlic, smoked pepper powder (mostly bhut - but contains about a dozen varieties), onion, and a pan and set to work...
My first thought was to pour out the old sauce, and just re-use the woozie, but it occurred to me that I don't have any vinegar... Not wanting to make a second trip to the store, I decided to include the naga sauce in what I was about to make.
I started with garlic... saute'd (no oil) 10 cloves of garlic. and an onion (both diced as small as possible). set those aside for a moment, and poured in justaguys paste. I then got out my pepper powder (link goes to the sales thread... its the same stuff I've been selling, and that grantmichaels uses in his cooking in the cooking forums) and poured in 6oz of pepper. I put the sauce pan on medium stirred for a while, getting all the lumps out, and then added the saute'd garlic, onions, and two tablespoons of garlic and onion powder. I added the store sauce to this mix. stirred, and simmered. As you can imagine, the sauce was quite thick, so I thinned it a little bit with water, and simmered till It was a little thinner than I wanted. I then remembered that I had not put any salt in, and discovered I had no funnel... Un-daunted I pressed on, salting to taste (I like things a little salty, but not more than most I suspect). When it came time to fill containers, I started with Justaguys ball jar that he sent full of paste. I was able to fill it with no problems, sealed it, sterilized the lid etc. The woozies were going to prove to be more difficult...
It was quite a scene... I was wishing one of my room-mates had been home to take some pictures... I was holding the glass woozie with one hand, and trying to pour the sauce down the mouth with a teaspoon in the other. I was getting sauce everywhere (despite being over the sauce pan, it was running down my arm and so forth - you get the idea). I eventually cut a paper plate into square-ish shape, and made a funnel. which worked well, until the paper gave out (more mess).
In the end, I have 4 containers of sauce (picture coming soon... my cell phone turned off as soon as I tried to take a picture) sitting on top of my fridge cooling... My left arm is on fire (gloves only cover so much..), and the house has enough pepper powder in the air to make a mortal man cry (gonna be interesting when my heat hating roommate gets home, hoping the air clears a bit before then).
But the sauce has a really good taste I think - garlic-y, smoky, with a bit of the wonderful flavors of the 7pot and Naga Morrich. There is still a note of vinegar, but its not dominate in the taste or smell. All in all? I consider it a success, even it was all done in my roommates pan. *chuckle*
Pepper powder I used:
View attachment 1331
Final Product.
