Turbo's Slog (Hot Sauce Log with a silent H)

[turbo]

Instead of having a different for each sauce I want to share with folks, I decided to make a Slog...a Hot Sauce Log with a silent H.
 
Roasted peppers with strawberry and mango ferment (take 1)
 
Haven't made any hot sauce all year because I've been going through last year's surplus.  So for my first sauce of the year I figured I'd go with a ferment.  I've been jonesing something charred and fruity.
 
Ingredients:
roasted habaneros, rocotos, and red chilis
one red onion
3 inch hunk of ginger
head of garlic (7 cloves)
1 mango
1 pint of strawberries
 
I think/hope that the fruit will add enough sugar to sustain a good ferment. 
 
Once its finished fermenting, I'm guessing it'll be pretty two dimensional and need a little something else for richness / complexity.  I'm thinking a bit of red wine and/or apple cider vinegar and/or soy sauce would really level out the sauce.  We'll see when the time comes.
 

 
Everything all ready to go in the food processor for a whirl tomorrow morning. 
 

 

[jblo]

Cayenne Garlic Sauce
 
Cayenne really are one of my favorite tasting peppers, I just love the taste of a well done cayenne sauce.  They may not have much heat, but their flavor just so wonderful.
 
I didn't bother to grow my own cayennes this year, but my local farmers market has a farmer from Eastern Washington who usually has a great supply of cayennes, especially once we get into September.  This week I went and picked out a small selection of red and yellow cayennes, and two unknown purple peppers (bottom right of the picture) because I'm running out of last year's cayenne sauce.  I also put in an order for 2 pounds of Maule's cayenne peppers, which are thick and long and great for smoking.
 
For this sauce I also tossed in 2 Scotch Bonnets and 2 Congo Trinidads to get the heat level a bit higher.  
 

 
All chopped up and ready to cook
 

 
Tossed in a teaspoon of salt, a quarter of a Walla Walla sweet onion, and a full head of garlic.  I love me some garlic!  Then poured 1.5 cups of water into the pot and brought it to a low boil and let it simmer until most of the water was boiled off, about 35 minutes.  This leaves the peppers nice and soft and will blend up really easily.
 

 
Once the peppers were cooled, I blended them with about 1/2 cup of white wine vinegar and 1/4 cup water until really smooth.  I prefer a very smooth sauce; no seeds for me.  So I squished the sauce through a sieve to get rid of the seeds.
 
The end product has a great consistency; nice and thick, not runny at all.  This was the first time I boiled the peppers, onions, and garlic like that and I think maybe boiling them for that long helped bring out the natural pectin in the garlic and onion.
 
Oh, and it tastes great!
 

I do nearly this same sauce.  It's so simple, yet one of my favorites.

 

[turbo]

Cayenne Apple Ferment (update 1)
 
Kicked off my second ferment of the season this week with a cayenne apple hot sauce.
 
Ingredients

• whole mess of red and yellow cayenne peppers
• 5 Congo Trinidad peppers to add some heat
• 1/2 a tart apple
• 1/3 sweet onion
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 tbs agave syrup
• 1 tbs kimchi liquid
• distilled water
• 3% salt by weight

I got all the veggies and fruit in the jar and mixed in the salt, then realized I didn't have any distilled water.  So I put the lid on the jar and procrastinated going to the store to get some for a day and a half.  The next night when I finally got around to finishing things up, I took the lid off the jar and took a whiff.  It smelled SO good.  Just sitting there for a day coated in salt pulled a some water out of the peppers and fruit and the combination was really aromatic.  Can't wait to see what this one turns out like
 
[Two Days Later] The fermentation kicked off fast in this one.  Must have been the kimchi juice. 
 

 

[turbo]

Smoked Cayenne Garlic Sauce
 
This one is one of my favorites.  Just like the previous Cayenne Garlic Sauce, but I smoked the peppers for 14 hours with pecan and cherry wood.  This year I put a bowl of water on the lowest rack of my smoker and it really helped keep the peppers from drying out.
 
This is my absolute favorite sauce to top pizza with.  I've always wanted to make buffalo wings with this sauce but I didn't make enough to want to waste a whole cup of it in one shot.
 

 

 
Can I get a bump?  I have another sauce to post.

 

[tctenten]

Sauce looks great.

 

[turbo]

Smoked Habanero Plum Sauce
 
I got into hot sauce making 5 years ago, and I have been working on a recipe that has just the right amount of heat, but really rich deep flavor.   Last year I finally got it right and this is the recipe. 
 
Ingredients

• 30-40 red habaneros
• 3-5 sweet red peppers (not sure what they were, got them from the farmers market.  Really sweet, nice thick flesh, and stained everything they touched red)
• 5 dried guajillo peppers
• 5 dried pasilla negro peppers
• 5 dried ancho peppers
• 3 large purple plums
• 1/4 cup rum
• 1/2 sweet white onion (walla walla onions are the best!)
• 1 head of garlic
• 3 inches of ginger
• 2 tablespoons jerk seasoning
• 3 tablespoons salt (to taste)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• white wine and malt vinegar, enough to thin the sauce and mixed for your taste preferences

First thing is to smoke the habs and sweet peppers for 14+ hours.  I used a mix of pecan and cherry wood in my 40 year old Little Chief smoker.  Every year I think about getting a new smoker, but that Little Chief just works like a charm.
 
This is half the habs I used.  Not sure how many, didn't count.
 

 
Getting ready to go in the smoker.
 

 
After 14 hours.  I can't tell you how good this smells.
 

 
Cut up the plums and cook them on med-low in the rum until the plums start to break down.  This step smells so awesome!
 

 
Take the dried peppers and pull their stems off, tear them in half and shake their seeds out.  Put them in a bowl and fill it with cold water.  I put another, smaller bowl on top and fill it with water so all the peppers will be submerged.  Steep for 2-3 hours.
 
Put everything but the habs, and the dried peppers in the blender, and blend until smooth.  Pour into large bowl.
 
Put reconstituted dried peppers in the blender and add enough vinegar so it'll blend smooth.  Pour into the same large bowl.
 
In batches, put the smoked peppers into the blender and add enough vinegar so it'll blend smooth.  Pour into same large bowl.
 
Once everything is blended in and the big bowl, use an immersion blender and process the hell out of it until its nice and smooth.  Taste and add salt (or soy sauce) if it needs any.  If its too thick, add more vinegar, apple, or orange juice depending on your taste preference.
 

 
I put this guy in a big jar and let it sit for a couple weeks to let the flavors steep and blend.  At that point I'll cook it down for about 40 minutes on a low simmer, adding more liquid to get the right pH and viscosity, run it through a sieve to strain out the seeds, then can it.
 

 

[boostdemon]

wow that sounds incredible. Are you fermenting it in the jar or putting it in the fridge?

 

[turbo]

wow that sounds incredible. Are you fermenting it in the jar or putting it in the fridge?

 
No ferment going on here.  I use vinegar to thin the sauce out, so I don't think it would ferment if I tried.  I just let it sit in the fridge for a couple weeks to lets the flavors develop and meld together.

 

[turbo]

Strawberry and mango pepper ferment (take 2, update 2)
 
The ferment stopped a couple weeks ago and I finally got around to doing something with it.  It had a white layer of slimy yeast on top, which I just scraped off.  The smell was pretty off putting.  I don't know if it's because of using wine or because of the yeast, but it kind of smelled somewhere between plastic and petroleum. 
 
But I processed it anyway.  Blended it, strained it, boiled it.  After boiling the bad smell was gone (yay!) so I tested the pH and tasted it.  The pH was 3.4 and it was REALLY sharp...very acidic but not sour or bitter.  I ended up mixing in 1/2 cup apple juice (pH 4.0), 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon salt, and 4 teaspoons honey to balance out the flavors to something I liked.
 

 
It didn't really make all that much sauce, just 4 small jars (only 2 shown), but it tastes pretty good.
 

 
In the end, I'm not sold on the whole fermentation thing.  The sauce tastes good, but I'm one of the odd ones that likes vinegar.  But I'll keep playing around with fermentation.  This was my first time and I used wine, so it wasn't really a good experiment.  I need to play around with fermentation couple more times to see how I like it.  Right now I've got a Cayenne Apple fermentation going, and I have a ton of fataliis that I'll probably use for one.

 

[turbo]

Cayenne / Aji Lemon Jelly (or Holly Crap That's Good!)
 
I've been collecting a LOT of Aji Lemon peppers that my wife is starting to get pissed about the refrigerator being too full of peppers, and not enough room for real food.  I've been wanting to try a hot pepper jelly so I figured I'd give it a shot.  
 
I followed this recipe loosely, but changed a few of the ingredients up.  The sugar, lemon juice, and pectin are the same
 
Ingredients

• 40'ish Aji Lemon peppers, de-seeded
• 2 large Cayenne peppers, de-seeded
• 1 green apple
• 1/4 sweet onion
• 1 inch hunk of ginger, grated
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped up
• 1 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup fresh pressed apple juice

I chopped the peppers, apple, and onion in a food processor.  Then tossed all that into a pot, and added the ginger, apple cider vinegar, apple juice, and cranberries.  Simmered it for about 10 minutes and hit it sparingly with an immersion blender.  Not enough to liquify everything, just break stuff down into smaller chunks.  Then I added the sugar and cooked it at a simmer for another 20 minutes, added the pectin and stirred for a minutes, pulled it off the heat, filled my jars and processed them for 10 minutes in boiling water.
 
It really turned out beautifully; its sweet, hot, savory, sour...just a really balanced blend of flavors.  I ate half a jar right away on top of cream cheese covered crackers. 
 

 

[bpwilly]

Love the color that your jelly came out with.  Nice pictures!

 

[turbo]

Love the color that your jelly came out with.  Nice pictures!

 
Thanks!  I tried a couple times to get a good picture and couldn't get enough light on the jelly to see all the little bits in there.  Then on a whim I put them on the window sill and it was perfect.  I just got the new iPhone 6 and it has a really good camera.  It takes way better pictures than any of my point and shoot cameras.
 
How are your plants handling this rain?  I've lost a couple branches that were heavy with peppers, that got overloaded when they got wet.  I'll definitely have to put a tomato cage around each plant next year.

 

[turbo]

I has some of my Cayenne Aji Lemon pepper jelly on English muffins for breakfast this morning, and had to snap this shot.  I can not say how much I LOVE the flavor of this jelly.  I bet it would be great on ham or pork chops...mmmm...pork chops...ooooooo.....
 

 

[tctenten]

Looks great. I would assume the heat is tolerable, with those peppers?

 

[turbo]

Looks great. I would assume the heat is tolerable, with those peppers?

 
Yup, this is a fairly friendly jelly.  The heat is there, but fades pretty quick...especially if you put it on top of cream cheese.  I've finally picked enough Aji Lemons to do a second batch, but this time I'm going to toss a few fatalii in as well to kick up the heat a bit.

 

[juanitos]

keep up the good work son

 

[laynlow]

Great thread!   Thanks for sharing it all!!

 

[bpwilly]

 
Thanks!  I tried a couple times to get a good picture and couldn't get enough light on the jelly to see all the little bits in there.  Then on a whim I put them on the window sill and it was perfect.  I just got the new iPhone 6 and it has a really good camera.  It takes way better pictures than any of my point and shoot cameras.
 
How are your plants handling this rain?  I've lost a couple branches that were heavy with peppers, that got overloaded when they got wet.  I'll definitely have to put a tomato cage around each plant next year.

Turbo,
Sorry for the slow reply.  I have been kind of missing from this forum the past week or so.  The plants are handling the rain OK.  The only damage has been to the Chocolate Habs, have had a few loaded branches break off, but since the season is winding down, That is OK.  I have made a few more big harvests and each time think it will be the last, but I still have a load of peppers that are ripe or almost ripe.  I am thinking I will make one more final pick and then pull the plants, as my freezers are full and I have way more than I can possibly use for some time.
 
Last year I did put in some rope on each side to help support the plants, but this year I skipped that step and it shows.  I do have tomato cages on any plants my dogs can get to, just to help discourage them from breaking the plants.  One of the dogs seem to like to chew branches off any of the plants on the deck every so often.

 

[rghm1u20]

Cayenne / Aji Lemon Jelly (or Holly Crap That's Good!)
 
I've been collecting a LOT of Aji Lemon peppers that my wife is starting to get pissed about the refrigerator being too full of peppers, and not enough room for real food.  I've been wanting to try a hot pepper jelly so I figured I'd give it a shot.  
 
I followed this recipe loosely, but changed a few of the ingredients up.  The sugar, lemon juice, and pectin are the same
 
Ingredients

• 40'ish Aji Lemon peppers, de-seeded
• 2 large Cayenne peppers, de-seeded
• 1 green apple
• 1/4 sweet onion
• 1 inch hunk of ginger, grated
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped up
• 1 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup fresh pressed apple juice

I chopped the peppers, apple, and onion in a food processor.  Then tossed all that into a pot, and added the ginger, apple cider vinegar, apple juice, and cranberries.  Simmered it for about 10 minutes and hit it sparingly with an immersion blender.  Not enough to liquify everything, just break stuff down into smaller chunks.  Then I added the sugar and cooked it at a simmer for another 20 minutes, added the pectin and stirred for a minutes, pulled it off the heat, filled my jars and processed them for 10 minutes in boiling water.
 
It really turned out beautifully; its sweet, hot, savory, sour...just a really balanced blend of flavors.  I ate half a jar right away on top of cream cheese covered crackers. 
 

Where did you add the lemon juice??? I added togheter with the sugar, not sure if is right or no.
OK, should start with this: thank you for the recipe! Turned out great! I had only 20 lemon drops, used about half of other ingredients (more or less...), I was a bit affraid yesterday evening about the thing I used for jellyfication, ate alot like this, but this morning was so hard that could slice it! And really nice balance of flavors. Thank you!

 

[turbo]

Where did you add the lemon juice??? I added togheter with the sugar, not sure if is right or no.
OK, should start with this: thank you for the recipe! Turned out great! I had only 20 lemon drops, used about half of other ingredients (more or less...), I was a bit affraid yesterday evening about the thing I used for jellyfication, ate alot like this, but this morning was so hard that could slice it! And really nice balance of flavors. Thank you!

 
I added the lemon juice just after the sugar was mostly melted.  Glad you liked it!

 

[rghm1u20]

Haha! Liked it, and also liked how people looked at me when told them I made hot pepper jelly! I shared a bit with a co-worker, he told me he and his wife like it too. Sent her some lemon drops, she told they are great, and not so hot. OK sent her now some african birdseye and a Fatalii. Let's see! Because if she want even more, will send her a red 7 Pot BS. Maybe will see her soon here at THP!