Homemade Hot Sauce

Homemade Hot Sauce

Another employee sale from from Frieda's. Thanks, Hanna! The last time my friend let me shop with her friends & family discount, I made some healthy, fresh recipes from the specialty produce.

Hanna dropped off a 10 pound box of Fresno chili peppers. That weighs as much as my dog! What do with them?!


I don't typically use fresh peppers in my cooking. Not because I am against heat; I just don't find the need to use them. For kick, I frequently use crushed red pepper or cayenne.

The peppers were not very fresh (hence the flash sale), so I Googled food blog recipes for applications that would not be successful with semi-fresh ones. 

I came across a recipe for homemade hot sauce. Since, we were grilling meat for dinner, it was the perfect opportunity to multi-task the grill.




Recipe: Homemade Hot Sauce (Credit: Look I Made That)

• EVOO
• 1 lb Fresno chiles (about a dozen)
• 15 TBSP distilled vinegar (slightly less than one cup)
• 1 TBSP water
• 1 TSP kosher salt

Steps

• Trim the stems off of the chiles, leaving the base that the stem attaches to for added flavor. 
• Drizzle EVOO to coat peppers. 
• Grill peppers until you get a nice char. You can also use the broiler. 

• Puree in blender with enough vinegar to keep them moving. You can also use a food processor.
• Strain them through a fine sieve, smashing the whole time to get as much of the pulp as possible.

• Add the water, salt and the rest of the vinegar. 
• Put in fridge to chill for a few days. It tastes good fresh, too. But, the flavor develops more over time. 

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Cooks Notes:

• It will have a watery consistency like Tabasco. 
• Each pound of peppers produced about a half pint's (small mason jar) worth of sauce. I made three batches.  
• We used it on grilled steaks, chicken, and omelets. 

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When do you enjoy hot sauce with your food?