Spice things up with some great Habanero Hot Sauce

When summer starts to wind down, it’s time to harvest the last of your warm weather crops. This includes a good haul of chillis, which I had an abundance of one recent summer. I froze some and with others decided to spice things up with some great habanero hot sauce.

Wanting a taste of the Caribbean, I researched some recipes and found a few that I melded together for this fiery and delicious condiment. I gave some away and enjoyed it over a few months on and in all sorts of food with a kick.

Click here to jump below the recipe for the low down on this taste of chilli heaven. I like to deliver what you came here for first! Here’s the recipe.

Super Spicy Habanero Hot Sauce

Recipe by MartiCourse: Sauces, FoundationsCuisine: CaribbeanDifficulty: Some skill required

Makes

4

jars

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Spicy, fiery and full of flavour. This hot habanero chilli sauce is for those who can take the heat.

You will need

• habanero chillis

• plus 1 small onion

• garlic cloves, peeled

• carrot, diced

• x 1.5 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

• whole lime, washed, seeds removed and roughly chopped

• fresh coriander, washed

• mango cheeks (fresh or frozen)

• salt (or more to taste)

• white wine vinegar

• good quality, neutral cooking oil (see note below)

• pair of disposable gloves for handling the chillis

Here’s what to do

• Chop the large onion and dice the carrot. Heat the oil in a heavy pan and sauté the onion and garlic until soft – about 10 minutes. Cool slightly.
• Place the garlic, ginger, coriander, mango, roughly chopped small onion and lime into a blender with the cooked carrot and onion and blend until everything is blitzed, then return to the pan.
• Prepare the habaneros: using gloves, wash them, remove any stalks and add to the blender. Blitz until fine and add to the pan. Be careful not to inhale the fumes, they’ll burn.
• Turn the heat back on and bring to a simmer, then simmer gently for about 30-40 minutes.
• While hot, spoon into sterilised jars and let cool completely before sealing.

Tips and tricks

• Neutral oil refers to any oil without a strong flavour. I use grapeseed oil, but you could use canola or another vegetable oil.
• Wear gloves to handle chillis, because they will burn your skin, particularly if you’re handling this many.
• NEVER wipe your eyes after handling chillis!

The low down on habanero hot sauce

This recipe was created in the summer of 2018. I was living in Melbourne at the time. It’s the capital city of the southern mainland Australian state of Victoria and it gets hot, hot summers. That summer was wonderful – endless warmth, balmy nights and the perfect growing conditions for a bumper chilli crop.

With a heap of chillies already in the freezer, I decided to make something that would last with a heap more. What better than a Caribbean style hot sauce? After some research, finding common threads in flavours, ingredients and methods, I made this.

It was incredible! It had everything you want a good hot sauce to have:

• Flavour – it was just jumping out of the jars, with the lime and the mango adding the perfect balance to all those chillies.
• Heat – it was a slow burn, building up and exploding at just the right time.
• It kept well – I finished the last jar of this sauce about a year after I made it.

I haven’t actually made this sauce since and would love to. The issue is being able to grow or source some good habaneros, because since moving back to Tasmania, the cooler climate is playing havoc with my normal summer crops. I think I’ll have to invest in a hot house.