Hot sauce
I've been on a hot sauce kick lately, ever since I had the homemade stuff at Dame's Chicken and Waffles. His is still better than mine, but he won't give up the recipe, so I'm stuck inventing my own. This is the best I've come up with so far -- not bad if I say so myself. And it's a great use for all the dried peppers I made the last two summers and didn't know what to do with.
Cut the top quarter off of
- 1 head garlic (whole)
Drizzle with olive oil, and roast for about 1 hour at 300 F. (I did this in the toaster oven and it worked fine.) Remove from oven and let cool. This is a lot of garlic, but roasting makes it mellow and sweet. It helps lend body to the sauce too.
Meanwhile, stem and seed
- 10 medium cayenne peppers, dried
Best method I've found is to break off the stem end and the tip, then root around in the middle with a toothpick. Might be good to wear gloves while you're doing this. You'll invariably miss a few seeds, but try to get most of them. They don't blend up all that well, and the add a lot of extra (unwanted) heat. Add
- 1 cup water
Bring to a slow boil, uncovered, and reduce until only 1-2 T of liquid remain. (Peppers should be fully rehydrated.) Remove from heat, let cool. Seeding the peppers makes me sneeze, and the fumes when boiling can be pretty assertive. Oh, and wash the pot thoroughly after -- apparently I didn't the first time, and the next dish (chocolate sauce!) had a real kick to it...
Transfer garlic and peppers (with liquid) to the food processor. Add
- 1 c cider vinegar
- 2 oz. roasted red peppers (from a jar)
- 1 t salt
- 1 t sugar
Process until smooth. Strain through a coarse-mesh strainer into a Mason jar. Refrigerate for a few days to allow flavors to blend.
If you're like Dame, serve it with waffles and fried chicken. Or blend with mayo for a spicy cole slaw dressing. Or whatever else you like to do with hot sauce...
