Slow cooker hot sauce? Oh my, yes! Yes, yes, yes.
I got a sack of hot peppers from Karen Anderson (Spring Hill Organic Farm) at the Farmers Market yesterday. I made chile rellenos with the poblano peppers and 'pique', a vinegar hot sauce from the West Indies.
I took the rest of the peppers and threw 'em in the dutch oven with a few
other ingredients and made an amazing hot sauce.
It has the vinegar bite of Tabasco but it isn't as hot up front. But, it does have a substantial kick at the back of the throat.
Here's the recipe:
Slow cooker hot sauce
12 - 15 peppers, mix of jalapeño, serrano, lipstick, and a few red peppers that look like red banana peppers. Seeded and roughly chopped.
1 can chopped tomatoes, no salt added OR three or four whole tomatoes, cut up.
1 small onion, roughly chopped
White vinegar to cover, about 2 cups
water, about 1/2 cup (or 4:1 vinegar to water)
1/2 Tbsp wholecoriander
5 cloves of garlic, smashed
salt to taste
I cooked the peppers and tomatoes for almost seven hours, in a Dutch oven, covered. If I'd had a slow cooker, I'd have thrown everything in the cooker and walked away (or gone out dancing) rather than tending a sauce. But, I was a good shepard to my flock (of sauce) and stirred it hourly -- on the half hour once the peppers broke down.
At about hour six, I mashed the garlic and peppers with a potato masher. Then I turned off the stove and went to sleep.
When I woke up, I heated the sauce to a boil again and simmered it for 15 minutes.
After reheating it, I ran it through the food mill and came up with this:
I added a little salt and cooked it down a bit. The end product is an intensly flavored sauce with a slightly rough texture. It is still hot at the back of the tongue (from the vinegar) but packed with mellow pepper flavor.
Muy Calienté!
Here's a shot of the finished sauce plus the Pique and some pickled pimento peppers in olive oil.
PS: Shout out to W for making me reach for ever spicier food, and listening to my tales of woe. You have your choice, pickled pimento or pique. Which one do you want? Mebbe both? LMK
