The last couple of years, I have been trying to grow a salsa garden. Last year I had tomatoes, mostly cherry tomatoes, and few peppers. So I didn't get to can much salsa. This year, I have an abundance of chilis. I thought it would be fun to experiment with making hot sauce. It is a much loved condiment in our household. I did some research and based my experiment on a mexican hot sauce recipe from Hub Pages. Of course I didn't really follow their directions and totally forgot to add the garlic. My husband and one son are totally into hot sauce, so when my husband asked who my target audience is for the hot sauce, I said the two of them. I would also like to enjoy some, but knew it would be a bit over for my taste. So here is what I did for this round. Of course it should be different every time based on how hot the chilis are.
HOT Sauce
2 lbs tomatoes
1/2 cup vinegar
3 serranos
2 jalapenos
8 habaneros
salt & pepper to taste
I roasted the tomatoes, serranos, and jalapenos in a 400 degree oven for about half an hour. The tomatoes had been cored and halved and the chilis left whole. After roasting, I removed the stems from the chilis and pulsed the roasted veg. in the food processor. I then added 4 habaneros, vinegar and salt & pepper. My taste testers and I agreed that it was good but not as assertive as we would like, so we added 4 more habaneros and adjusted the salt.
Then we heated it on the burner on the grill outside to protect our eyes and lungs from the influence of the chilis in the house. Once it came to a good bubble, we packed it into 4 ounce jars and water bath canned it. I ended up with nearly 8 jars.
Other than wishing that I'd remembered the garlic, this was a successful experiment. We may do it again, as the habanero plant is doing really well this year.
