Making Hot Garlic Pepper Sauce is easy, but growing peppers is even easier and about one of the only things we can grow in Florida during the summer heat. Peppers like it warm and we love them hot, right? Well, this “we” does, anyway.
So as I’m harvesting my abundance of peppers, I’m thinking, What in the world am I going to do with all these peppers? Excess harvest is a common problem among gardeners. We love to grow, but can’t always consumer our fresh produce in a timely fashion. We share, we donate, we can, we freeze… But as a creative type, I like to mix it up a bit. Then it hit me. Hot sauce. We buy it by the jar for everything from chicken wings to stir-fry. Gazing upon my rows of peppers, I thought, Why not make it myself?
Genius! With renewed passion, I snipped the mass of peppers and headed straight for the kitchen. One of my favorite hot pepper sauce for wings is Thai garlic-pepper sauce. But how to make it?
After rummaging through several pages of recipes, the core concept became clear. Combine peppers, garlic, vinegar, and sugar. Done.
For my recipe, I removed the stems and chopped 20 red cayenne peppers with 5 red jalapeno peppers totaling about one cup. Add 5 medium cloves of garlic, 1 TBSP sugar, 2 TBSP of white vinegar along with several dashes of salt and pepper (I use pink Himalayan salt) and blend well. I use a small Cuisinart style blender.
Once thoroughly minced, I simmered it stovetop for about 5-10 minutes on medium heat. I turned my heat down to low about midway through the process so as not to dry out the sauce too much. One thing I love about this recipe is that you can modify it in so many ways. For instance, try using rice vinegar in lieu of white vinegar, Thai chili peppers instead of cayenne.
Because it’s summer, I made a Mango Habanero Pepper Sauce using my ultra hot habanero peppers combined with mango. Add a bit of scallions, carrots, sugar–delicious! And the only way I can eat them because they are extremely hot. Enjoyed this one over grilled snapper and Mahi-Mahi.
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