Heat in the Freezer

My husband decided sometime last year that he wanted to grow hot peppers in our garden. I think he was doing some comparing with Uncle Shebo’s (otherwise known as Kevin) garden down road. He picked Habaneros. Not being a huge fan of being in pain while I eat, I hadn’t cooked with Habanero peppers before, and I wasn’t excited to try.  So, when 80 little orange fireballs came in from the garden, I knew my horizons were going to broaden.

The thing was, the recipes I found for salsa would call for, say, HALF a pepper in the whole recipe.  I needed something that would make a bigger dent in our, um, bounty.  I found a Rick Bayless (Mexican food expert) recipe for hot sauce that used 12 peppers in one recipe (the most of any I found) and I knew that was the one.   I put them in a zip top bag in the freezer until I got around to making it.

I didn’t get around to it until Christmas, but Vince finally got to eat his peppers.  Vince’s Smokin’ Hot Sauce (or Rick Bayless’) went over really well.  It was really good in black beans and rice, but, surprisingly,  it was great in Martha Stewart’s mac n cheese!  He loves it on almost anything that isn’t ice cream (but he did say just yesterday that he thought Habanero ice cream would be awesome! yah.) so we ran out within the month.  The freezer still held plenty of icy peppers, so I made hot sauce round #2 today.  We’ll have to see about the ice cream…

Habanero Hot Sauce Adapted from Season 5 of “Mexico One Plate at a Time”

5 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1/2 cup peeled, chopped carrot (one medium)
1/2 cup roughly chopped yellow onion
12 medium orange Habanero chiles, stemmed
1 cup apple cider vinegar (or you can use white)
About 2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar

Roast the garlic in a skillet over medium heat, stirring regularly, until the skins brown in spots and the cloves are soft. Cool and peel.

Place carrot, onion, Habanero, vinegar and 1 cup water in a saucepan.  Partially cover and simmer over medium-low heat until the carrots are tender.  It should take about 10 minutes.  Pour into a blender , add the garlic, salt and sugar.  Blend. If you need to thin the sauce, add water.

Pour into jars or bottles and store in the refrigerator.  Add a little for a lot of heat!