Caribbean Habanero Hot Sauce

We believe that there is a hot sauce for everything: Cholula gets drizzled over hummus, El Yucateco “Green Monster” gets added to Mexican and pork dishes, and Sriracha gets added to, well, everything else. Make that almost everything: our homemade habanero hot sauce lends a tropical vibe to chicken and fish dishes, and with this recipe, you get enough of a supply to last you at least a few months. It starts sweet, with the faintest hit of curry, and, depending on how hot you prepare it, finishes with either a punch to the tastebuds, or a soft, slow burn.

The heat is completely up to you. If you don’t like things too hot, thoroughly remove the seeds and ribs from the habanero. When handling cut habaneros, always, always wear gloves or a plastic bag around your hand. This isn’t overly cautious food safety nonsense. It is really, really important. Our friend Missy swears she had a spicy thumb for a month after cutting habaneros, and you don’t know just how often you unconsciously touch your face and eyes until you do it with habanero hands. It burns like crazy, and the oils aren’t water soluble, so getting the burning to stop can be difficult. Be smart. Wear gloves.

If you like a little heat in your hot sauce, try leaving some of the ribs and seeds intact. I suggest, for your first batch, leaving three habaneros intact, and stripping the ribs and seeds out of the remaining nine peppers using a spoon. As a yardstick, leaving six of the peppers whole renders the sauce almost unusable.

Caribbean Habanero Hot Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 can of diced tomatoes, including liquid (14.5 oz)
• 1 bottle of rice vinegar (12 oz)
• 1 1/2 cups of grated carrots
• 1 cup of diced white onion
• 1/4 cup of yellow mustard
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper
• 12 small Habanero peppers, seeded with ribs removed.
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 cup of water
• 5 cloves minced garlic

Method:

Combine all ingredients in medium saucepan. Cover and simmer over low heat for three hours. Let cool, and puree in food processor or blender until smooth. Pour into plastic squeeze bottles and store in refrigerator.

Tagged as: habanero, hot sauce

About the Author: Malcolm Bedell

My first memories of cooking start in Maine at six years old, when I wore a yellow rainslicker to avoid getting spattered by the bacon I was frying in a skillet. My interest in both Mexican cooking and recreating classic New England dishes from scratch developed while living in Mexico, on a steady diet of pork and habanero peppers. You can see more of my writing and photography online on Serious Eats, the Huffington Post, BlogHer, and Foodista, as well as in print for Downeast, Indulge, and Cigar Snob magazines.