Raging Raw Sriracha

After saying goodbye to successful chilli growing in our last home state, I was excited to discover a couple of well established chilli bushes in the otherwise empty garden of our new home.

With a little tender loving care, chillies have flowed steadily all summer and I wanted to try my hand at chilli sauce - which is a favourite of my husband.

Finally, after spending some time doing a little research I patched together this recipe that makes a pretty nice tasting hot sauce.  I can't say how it compares to the popular commercial brands of sriracha but it has passed the husband test so that is enough for me.

Use it sparingly or stand back for the fire to blow out your ears!

Printer Version

• 2 medium sized red capsicum, coarsely chopped
• 100g red jalapenos chillies, coarsely chopped
• 30g Bird's eye chillies, stem removed
• 7 cloves of peeled garlic
• 1 Tbsp. uniodised salt
• 3 Tbsps. honey or maple syrup for vegans
• 1/4 cup of unpasteurized apple cider vinegar with 'Mother'
• 3 Tbsps. of raw unpasteurized sauerkraut juice (optional)
• 1/2 tsp. of guar gum (optional)

Wash, deseed, and coarsely chop capsicum; destem chillies and peel garlic - place everything in a high speed blender.  Add salt and honey to the the ingredients and pulse until chillies start to liquefy.  Blend mixture until smooth.  I added three tablespoons of my homemade sauerkraut juice to kick start the ferment but this is not necessary.

Pour mixture into clean jars with a good few inches of space at the top to allow for expansion and loosely screw on cap.  Place jar in darkened cupboard at room temperature to ferment for 5 days; open and stir each day.  Fermentation takes place when bubbles start to form.  

Taste after day 5 and transfer sauce back to blender, add cider vinegar, guar gum and puree until blended. The guar gum acts as an emulsifier and keeps the sauce from separating but is unnecessary if you don't want to add it.

Transfer sauce to sterilized jars or bottle and refrigerate.  The sauce should last quite some time if fermented successfully.

Garden Love

I'm thinking fermented sriracha sauce for this lot.

Since moving, I have inherited a very small garden plot in my sunny back yard.  After a good clean out, I have salvaged a couple of chilli pepper plants and planted tomatoes, zucchini, bush beans, sweet corn, sage, thyme, oregano, rosemary, chives and basil.  So far things are looking good, especially after spreading a bag of sheep manure over the lot to give them a good boost. 

I have big plans for fermented hot sauces; zucchini and basil pesto noodles; steamed sweet corn on the cob; and beautiful salads with fresh picked cherry tomatoes.  We will see how far the weather and bugs let me go with my master plan.  

So far I am enjoying an abundance of basil and am using all my herbs for seasoning my bone broths and my roasted veggies.  Something has been nibbling on my tomatoes but I can't find any beasts in my garden so can't take any action as of yet.

Baby zucchini earmarked for 'noodles' highlighted with basil pesto.