Habanero Sauce 2004
This is the basic recipe I use for my habanero sauce. I found it on the web, but I modify it for my own taste. It's patterned after a commercial sauce called "Inner Beauty" which was one of the first habanero sauces to be marketed when this whole craze started.
You can find mango in cans if you can't find good fresh ones - a good fresh one should have a strong aroma. I also add some canned pineapple. Adjust the amount of peppers to your taste. This being an american recipe, chile powder means "mexican chile powder" which can mean almost anything. It's usually a mix of several different kinds of chiles may have cumin, oregano, etc. I skip that ingredient, you can add other chiles (fresh, powdered) to your desired taste.
The curry is important - I use a Madras style curry powder - go to your local Indian grocery and buy some good stuff - it needn't be hot, its the aroma you want. The cheap mustard is a good part of the taste - don't buy Dijon, get a big bottle of the bright yellow stuff.
You can put everything into a blender, or if you don't have one use a "Mouli" hand grinder. It's advisable to wear rubber gloves, unless you like to have your hands burning for 3 days.
Keep in mind this was written years ago, and is NOT the hottest sauce in America. It's really good though. It tastes pretty mild and a little sweet, but then you notice your scalp is wet. I like it - your tastes may vary. The key is to improvise, and taste it while you're making it and adjust appropriately - sweeter, hotter saltier, etc.
Home-Style Inner Beauty Hot Sauce
12 Fresh habanero chiles -- roughly chopped, seeded
1 Ripe mango -- peel, pit, mash
1 c Cheap yellow prepared mustard
1/4 c Brown sugar -- packed
1/4 c White vinegar
1 tb Prepared curry powder
1 tb Ground cumin
1 tb Chili powder
Salt and freshly cracked
Black pepper -- to taste
This style of hot sauce, widely used in the West Indies, is
basically habanero peppers (also known as Scotch Bonnets),
fruit, and yellow mustard, with a few other ingredients thrown
in. Use this recipe as a guideline. Habaneros are at the top of
the chile pepper heat scale, so feel free to substitute other
peppers of your choice.
Funnel the sauce into an old pint liquor bottle, then let your
imagination run free as to what whopper you can lay on your
guests regarding its origins. If you're having trouble, here's a
start:
"One day in Jamaica I was in this dingy bar and met this old
guy who..." and you take it from there.
Mix all the ingredients together and stand back. This will
keep, covered and refrigerated, until the year 2018. Be careful,
though: If it spills, it will eat a hole in your refrigerator.
If you ever want to dispose of it, call the local toxic waste
specialists.
WARNING: Hottest sauce in North America. Use this to enhance
dull and boring food. Keep away from pets, open flames,
unsupervised children, and bad advice. This is not a toy. This
is serious. Stand up straight, sit right, and stop mumbling.
Be careful not to rub your nose, eyes, or mouth while working
with habaneros. You may actually want to wear rubber gloves
while chopping and mixing -- these babies are powerful.
Recipe By: Big Flavors Of The Hot Sun by Schlesinger &
Willoughby
Here's most of what you'll need. Notice the 2 frosty "Doppio Malto" (Double Malt) beers in the foreground. This is important! The plant is one of my overwintered orange habs with some golf-ball sized peppers. I only included one of the plants for the shot.
Here's another shot with the peppers cut off the plants. I also included 2 Red Savinas which were ripe. I also intend to make some sauce with only Red Savinas when they are ready. There are about twenty peppers in the bowl - enough to kill an army. The little bottles are 125 ml, which we saved from tomato juice that we buy here with pop-off type tops (as opposed to screw on tops). Then I bought some corks with plastic tops to seal them. Also shown, cheap yellow mustard (I used one bottle) , Ship Brand Madras curry powder, canned mangos and pineapple. I find the canned stuff is just as good for making sauce - some of the juice can be included if thinning is needed.
Not shown, sugar and spices. In place of the chile powder called for in the recipe, I used various powdered chile that I had in the spice cabinet. The sauce has to be tasted along the way, for salt, heat, sweetness, etc. That's why you need the beer(s) .
This blender holds a liter and a half, so I've got a good liter plus. Yeah, I guess I could have looked at the markings on the container to measure it, but after 2 Doppio Malti and a burning tongue, who cares? And BTW, it's fucking HOT! But the beauty of it is, that it isn't really painful like eating a raw hab. It's hot, but a little sweet too, and it will have you sweating like a pig in no time. This batch is the hottest that I've made.
Here's the finished product down in the cantina - with labels. Six bottles of 125 ml, and one old bottle from grappa at 500 ml = 1.250 liters. The labels are adpted from a chinese firecracker pack.
© graffito studios - Milano