Blogging Ottinger (tim)Making Sauce of the Last of the Peppers
I’d been given a supply of about eight green bell peppers and a small supply of 4 habeneros (beautiful, bright, like pumpkins) and hand ful of small jalapenos. I roasted them all, pulled off the dark skins, and dropped them in a blender with some onion, garlic, and generous amount of salt. This made a fairly hot, and somewhat bland mash. To the mash I added some oil, vinegar, and lime juice. I let this cook up a bit in a covered pot, and added a little sugar, cayenne powder, and black pepper. Finally, I poured all of this into a strainer over another pot to catch the sauce.
I gave in to the temptation to use a little bit of food color, because it was an odd yellowish, pale-greenish, orangish color which was not particularly appetizing. A very little bit of green set it right.
Although I know you should let it sit and “merge”, I went straight to the teaspoon test. It is milder and a bit more bland up-front than I expected, though it’s a nice flavor. About the time you swallow, you get the tingle in your mouth. It’s a decent bit of habanero burn once it gets started, though not long-lived. I suspect it will go nicely with pork or chicken. I’m waiting to see what it’s like when it’s had some fridge time and the flavors have blended a bit better.
This is the first one where I did not pour the ingredients together and let them sit for days or weeks. To grind and strain right away probably lost some of the best flavors, but I’ll give another opinion on it after it’s sat a while. I hope the color doesn’t intensify and the sauce doesn’t separate too horribly.
Note: the color intensified horribly, and the sauce separated horribly.
Comment by Tim — 2006-February-24 @ 02:41