Habanero Hot Sauce to Warm You in the Winter

This recipe might seem a little out of season, but believe it or not, our wild jungle of a garden is still producing oodles of habanero peppers, and even a few kind of sad looking, but still tasty tomatoes. What's a person to do then, but make habanero sauce? That person would be my honey, and this is his recipe, which is really only for those of you who go gaga over insanely hot heat. Me, I'm not quite that brave, but I do like a little drop of this stuff from time to time and can attest that it is indeed delicious, insanely hot, smoky, and even a little sweet.

The recipe requires that you oven-roast some of your tomatoes first, and you can do that by halving them, laying them out on a baking sheet, drizzling with olive oil and sprinkling with salt, and then roasting at low heat (like 250 degrees) for about an hour or longer, until they are wrinkly and starting to starting to brown. Depending on the size of your tomatoes, this could take more or less than an hour. While you're at it, go ahead and roast some garlic cloves, whole and unpeeled, at the same time, because you'll need for some of the garlic in this recipe to be roasted.

You'll also need to fire-roast your habaneros, which is easily done by putting the peppers on a skewer and holding them over an open flame until they start to blacken and blister. WARNING: THIS STEP WILL FILL YOUR KITCHEN WITH HOT PEPPER FUMES! So you see, you've gotta REALLY love the heat to wanna make this sauce! That, and you might wish to cover your mouth & nose while doing this step, and of course it goes without saying that you'll want to have a lot of ventilation.



Once your roasting is complete, it's time to make the sauce!

Habanero Hot Sauce

(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 medium carrots, chopped
12 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
12 roasted cherry tomatoes
Quarter of one white onion, cut into strips
8 fire-roasted habenero peppers, cut in half
3 cloves of roasted garlic, cut in half
2 cloves of raw garlic, peeled and cut in half
Juice of one lime
2 tablespoons white vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure
1. Heat the oil in a skillet on medium heat. Add the carrots and let them cook for about five minutes. Then add to the skillet the onion, tomatoes, habaneros and garlic cloves and cook about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.




2. Transfer skillet contents to a blender and add lime juice, vinegar and pulse (can add a bit of water, a tablespoon at a time if it’s too thick).



3. Salt and pepper to taste, and make sure you have a glass of water on hand!!