Posts Tagged ‘hot sauce’

One of my latest cookbook purchases is an ode to hot sauce making: Hot Sauce!

My attention first fell to the recipe for pili pili.  Literally meaning “pepper” in Swahili, pili pili is an African hot sauce that deals out a solid burn without forgoing flavor.   Unfortunately, this stuff is impossible to find here in the States.  Luckily, Fayaz has a few hook-ups in his native land of Tanzania to supply himself and a few friends.

In making the recipe, I used five jalapeños and one habanero.  The fresh flavor of the hot sauce was fantastic blend of sweet and spice.  I can see this stuff being great with everything.  On mac & cheese, burgers, pizza…  Yum. Though, on the next go, I may need to up the habaneros to give a little more heat.

.

.

Ingredients:

• 2 cup of loosely packed fresh jalapeños or habaneros (about 6 or either), stemmed
• 1 small yellow onion, peeled and quartered
• 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Add all of the ingredients to a food processor or blender and purée.  Transfer the mixture to a skillet and cook over medium heat for a few minutes.

Let cool a bit, then pour into glass bottles and seal.  Refrigerated, the sauce will keep for 2 weeks.

For Christmas, I decided to get my friends Stu and Fayaz the ultimate hot sauce experience.  After some fairly extensive internet searching, I came across the answer: Da Bomb Final Answer.  

At 1,500,000 scovilles, asking what Da’ Bomb tastes like is like asking what a kick to the head tastes like.  There is no flavor, just pure unadulterated burning.

Stu was the first to give the stuff a try.  (Stu is an Indian with a heat tolerance that puts most to shame.  Where others use drops, she treats hot sauce like ketchup.)  Her first attempt ruined her takeout noodle dish.  A couple of drops and her noodles were too hot for her to eat, even after rinsing them in the sink.  Her next attempt to use the stuff quite possibly landed her on the terrorist watch.  In trying to cook with it, she ended-up essentially pepper spraying her apartment, sending her and her roommate running for fresh air.

I took several beers over a poker night before I was dumb enough to touch this stuff.  The cap comes equipped with a dropper to facilitate proper serving sizes.  Iggy and Matt were the first to brave the heat on a brat.  Somehow, after watching their pain, Matt and I decided it would be a good idea to try a drop straight on a chip.  As I chewed and swallowed I felt my head start to swim and my capacity for rational thought diminish.  My whole head was engulfed.  I drank milk strait from the jug, despite realizing it had expired a week ago.  But the only thing that seemed to give any real relief, all be it very fleeting, was ice cream.

As Matt’s and my pain subsided, disaster struck Iggy.  In moving the bottle, she some how got the hellish mixture on her hands which turned bright red and burned for hours.  This stuff is no joke!  The only rational use seems to be as a food additive–perhaps my next batch of chili, if large enough, will be heated with this insanity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmpAKnjN5UY