Homemade Hot Sauce - Fermented Pepper Relish
So, our video this week is one we've been wanting to do for some time! It took us a little while to find some really nice local grown hot peppers for it, but here we are! This is the fermented hot sauce that my hubby made at his restaurant, and it's the hot version! Basically, he made two different ones, the standard sauce made from Thai bird chiles and tabasco peppers, and then this version, which is made from ghost and scorpion peppers. The procedure is identical for both, they both made a delightful sauce, but this one comes out HOT! Like, really hot.
It also has a slightly tangy sourness to it, thanks to the natural lacto fermentation. Once again, you want to try to get local produce so that you can be sure it hasn't been irradiated, which kills the native bacteria on the peppers. The onion is added for a bit of additional flavour and some bulk. If you wanted to, you could also add some garlic to this if you wanted to make something a little more like Sriracha. This sauce is very hot, but also adds flavour (on of my pet peeves is hot sauces that are -just- hot, and add no interesting flavour to what they're heating up).
*** WARNING ***
When you open that food processor, there will be aerosolized capsaicin in the air, so be prepared to cough/sneeze a little. It's a bit like accidentally making your own pepper spray.