Kickass Hot Sauce

I struggle as I make the decision to publicize my prized hot sauce recipe. I'm sure some in my family will think that I am crazy (I'm instant messaging my brother right now and he's not happy about me making this public) for just giving it out instead of trying to sell it, but I think that sharing what little of my own self-made recipes will help others try making their own.

So here's main the story. I love my little backyard garden. It's mostly herbs and peppers (hot and cold). For some reason, I got a wild hair up there to use my home raised herbs and hot peppers and make a hot sauce. I looked on the good ol' interweb for some ideas and and how to achieve a good product. I didn't like what I saw in any one specific recipe, so I kind of went and made my own thing. (I'm sure on the internet you'll find something that is exactly the same as my recipe, but I've found that it's kind of hard to find anything truly original anymore - but I did come up with this myself without any major help from any other recipes) More on this story later down after how to make it. I believe this recipe yields approximately six to eight cups. You'll need a food processor or at the very minimum a blender and large saucepan.

Brian's Kickass Hot Sauce

Ingredients:

3 Habanero Peppers
2 Jalapeno Peppers
1 Serrano Pepper
1 Hand full of Cilantro
3 Sprigs of Oregano
1/2 White Onion
2 Large Tomatoes
4 Cloves of Garlic
1 Tablespoon of Mustard Powder
2 Tablespoons of Salt
1 Teaspoon of Pepper
2 Cups of Distilled Vinegar
The Juice of One and a half Lemons
The Juice of One Lime

Directions:

Give a nice rough chop up all of the solids nicely so that when you put it in your food processor or blender. No need to go overboard chopping manually because the food processor will take care of the rest. Put all of the solid ingredients along with the one cup of lemon and lime juice into the food processor. Along with that, put in the first of the two cups of the vinegar and blend for about one minute. Stop the blending and clear the sides of the food processor/blender while adding the second cup of vinegar. Restart the blend until it is liquid.

Now, using a fairly large pan (I use my 4qt saute pan, myself) pour the contents into it and bring the sauce to a boil. Let it boil for a few minutes while stirring constantly then reduce the heat to a simmer. Reduce the sauce for about 15-20 minutes and you're almost done! Just mix in the final lemon juice in and you're finished.

There are some seriously hot ingredients in this, so this may irritate some people's breathing, so be careful in that respect. Make sure wherever you cook this at, it's very well ventilated and wash your hands VERY thoroughly after handling any of the peppers. After it is I usually fill up one squirt bottle container with the sauce then put the remaining sauce in a storage container of some sort for later use. (I have one great friend who kills for a nice bit of it when I make it)

Now, as far as heat goes, it is reasonably hot. But, overall, I've been told by 99% of people three is the perfect heat level. I am pretty sensitive to heat, so three habaneros is about the perfect level for me. You can always add more or take some away to adjust to your level but I think three is perfect. I also find that the use of multiple types of peppers adds to the flavor of the sauce.


The Back Story:

I have not found anyone who doesn't like this sauce. My mother, who doesn't eat hot things much at all, loved it. She lives in California and works with a lot of Latinos who love hot things. My brother made a batch she took it in to work to see how they'd like it. They wanted to pay my brother to make another batch for them. On top of that, I had friends over for dinner where I pan fried some rib eye steaks and used the squirt bottle (To get that neo-chef look) to make a nice line along with little drops along the edges of the plate for them to dip the steak in if they wanted. They loved it and wanted more. Unfortunately, due to price, I didn't have anymore steak on hand. They lead me to believe that they loved it.

Anyway, I hope that you make it and that you enjoy it. I've been told by everyone who's had it that they loved it and wanted some to take home with them.

White Truffle Risotto

This is a pretty simple risotto recipe. It CAN be messed up, but risotto is onea those things that I've found be very temperamental but easy to master.


Risotto

9 Cups of chicken broth
1/8 Cup of olive oil
1 Cup dry white wine
1 yellow onion, chopped nicely
1/4 red onion chopped nicely
4 cloves of garlic minced
2 cups of Arborio rice
1.5 Cups of Parmesan Reggiano

Use a side pot to bring the broth to a simmer.

Heat the pan you plan to cook the risotto to a medium level (Med-High for lower grade cookware) I cook my risotto in the copper Ruffoni risotto pan. If you have the money, great investment, if not, it's definitely not a deal buster.

Spread olive oil around until heated
Insert onions until translucent
Then insert garlic and let cook for a minute or so while
stirring the whole time.

Put in rice and stir. (Get used to stirring, you'll be doing a lot of it if you want it to be cooked evenly)

Once the rice is translucent (Outer area is clear and you can see a little egg on the inside, ladle in a cup of broth and continue to stir. After you put in your first cup of broth, pour in the dry white wine. (Be careful as to not do the whole pushing the cork INTO the bottle trick like how I managed how I pulled off tonight due to rushing.)

Keep stirring to keep everything even while keeping broth always covering the top. It should take 15-20 minutes if you have the heat right.

Once you get down to the last few cups of broth left in your side pot, test it to see if it's still crunchy or not. It should be semi-edible while still crunchy at this point - or it will be softening up quickly - meaning you have about 2-3 cups of broth left in your side pot. At this point I would salt and pepper to taste. (I didn't use much pepper, a couple turns on the mill and about a teaspoon or so of salt).

Keep up with the adding of broth to your while testing until the rice is soft enough to eat normally and let the rest of the broth on top reduce itself off. Insert 3/4 cup (Or so) of the Parmesan and the truffle butter and mix them both in.

Optional - Chop up some black truffles and mix them in after the pan is removed from
the heat.

Serve with fresh grated Parmesan and black truffles (If available in your area - Not a make or breaker, it just adds to the flavor. You can usually find them available online somewhere. I wanted to go all out for the wife tonight so I did both and our local Whole Foods carried them.)


Truffle Butter:

Williams Sonoma offers truffle buttter for around $30 for 2.8oz jar

OR

Mix:
1 stick of unsalted butter
4-5 sprigs of Rosemary finely chopped
4-5 sprigs of thyme leaves finely chopped
2.5-4 tsp of white truffle oil (Depending on how much you like truffles. If this is your first time I'd keep it down to 3) The oil was around $15 at Whole Foods - But I'm sure it'll last me a whole lot longer than W.S. variant.

Welcome!

Welcome to my nifty new blog. My name is Brian and I am a home cook currently located in Virginia, just outside of our nation's capital. I figured I'd share my successes and mishaps with whomever wants to read this because cooking should be fun. I'll be honest, I'll get the food from wherever I can get it from. I'm not one of those zealous cooks who will only buy from certain stores or only organic. If the food is available and it tastes good: I eat it.

As far as my experience goes: Very little.

As far as my gear goes: I have a KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer, an All-Clad Copper Core 12" fry pan and 4qt saute pan with lid and splatter guard and a Ruffoni risotto pan. My knives consist of a small collection of Wusthof Classics. Enough to get me by, I think. I don't have a lot of those random gadgets, but hey, I'm always willing to try them. I hope you enjoy this and I hope I get enough updates to keep people coming back!

-Brian