A fellow staffer at my new school practicum site gifted me with a HUGE bag of habanero peppers last week. When I got home I counted them, and realized to my horror and delight that we had over 90 little heat grenades to use up. Yikes.
I kicked off the habanero hullaballoo a few days ago with a delicious salsa that knocked 20 of them out of the running. I slightly modified this hot sauce recipe and blended to a chunky consistency instead of completely pureeing. Here's what I did:
Habanero Salsa
Oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
3 medium carrots, chopped
4 cups water
20 habaneros, stemmed (remove some seeds for less heat if desired)
Cup or two of frozen mango chunks, thawed
Small chunk of fresh ginger root
3 Tb lemon juice (I didn't have limes)
3 Tb pineapple juice
6Tb white vinegar
1 tsp salt
Heat oil and briefly sauté garlic in a large saucepan. Before it browns, add onion, carrots, and water. Boil, reduce heat, and simmer until carrots are soft. Allow to cool slightly.
Add all remaining ingredients and blend, briefly for a textured salsa, longer for a smoother hot sauce. Pour into scrupulously cleaned glass bottles or jars (I repurposed an old salad dressing jar and almond butter jar). Refrigerate. Enjoy the hot, fruity deliciousness on anything and everything - it's especially fabulous on cheesy scrambled eggs, imo.
Habanero Honey
This was an easy one, though there are lots of recipes out there. I filled a clean, sterilized old jam jar with honey and about 10 halved habaneros, then stirred well. As long as I get all the air bubbles, out, this should keep for a good while. I can't wait to try this as a glaze for meats, on toast, and in tea when I'm feeling sick.
Still left with about 60 habaneros at this point, I decided it was time to do some canning. It had been a good 8 years since I undertook anything along those lines, so I refreshed my memory on the basics. Since I can so rarely, we used no special equipment (just a big stock pot with a kitchen towel lining the bottom, a glass Pyrex with a spout for pouring, and big grill tongs to move the hot cans). Everything seemed to work fine - nothing like hearing those jar lids "ping" as they cool on the countertop, signaling a good solid seal.
Habanero-Mango-Pineapple Jelly
This recipe says it makes 12 - 4oz jars, but I just used 6 - 8oz jars and boiled for 10 minutes instead of 5. I replaced a little of the pineapple with one peeled and diced fresh mango. The jars all sealed well, but I'm not 100% confident that the jelly is going to set up the way I'd like, as it came out very thin. It's delicious, though! It'll be awesome poured over a block of cream cheese for an appetizer with crackers.
Pickled Habaneros
I used this recipe and doctored with additional spices. Omitted the alum and just used regular fine Himalayan sea salt with no additives. We didn't have quite enough habaneros left (gasp), so we added two sliced banana peppers from our CSA and it was the perfect amount for 6 jars. The recipe only made enough brine for 5 jars as written, so I had to quickly make up another jar's worth. I would increase the amounts by 25% in the future. In each jar we used a smashed garlic clove, small knob of peeled ginger root, one clove, one small piece of star anise, and a spice mix of fenugreek seed, caraway seed, szechuan pepper, brown mustard seed, and coriander seed. I cannot WAIT to taste these in 3-4 weeks!
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| Pickled habaneros and habanero-mango-pineapple jelly |
I kicked off the habanero hullaballoo a few days ago with a delicious salsa that knocked 20 of them out of the running. I slightly modified this hot sauce recipe and blended to a chunky consistency instead of completely pureeing. Here's what I did:
Habanero Salsa
Oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
3 medium carrots, chopped
4 cups water
20 habaneros, stemmed (remove some seeds for less heat if desired)
Cup or two of frozen mango chunks, thawed
Small chunk of fresh ginger root
3 Tb lemon juice (I didn't have limes)
3 Tb pineapple juice
6Tb white vinegar
1 tsp salt
Heat oil and briefly sauté garlic in a large saucepan. Before it browns, add onion, carrots, and water. Boil, reduce heat, and simmer until carrots are soft. Allow to cool slightly.
Add all remaining ingredients and blend, briefly for a textured salsa, longer for a smoother hot sauce. Pour into scrupulously cleaned glass bottles or jars (I repurposed an old salad dressing jar and almond butter jar). Refrigerate. Enjoy the hot, fruity deliciousness on anything and everything - it's especially fabulous on cheesy scrambled eggs, imo.
Habanero Honey
This was an easy one, though there are lots of recipes out there. I filled a clean, sterilized old jam jar with honey and about 10 halved habaneros, then stirred well. As long as I get all the air bubbles, out, this should keep for a good while. I can't wait to try this as a glaze for meats, on toast, and in tea when I'm feeling sick.
Still left with about 60 habaneros at this point, I decided it was time to do some canning. It had been a good 8 years since I undertook anything along those lines, so I refreshed my memory on the basics. Since I can so rarely, we used no special equipment (just a big stock pot with a kitchen towel lining the bottom, a glass Pyrex with a spout for pouring, and big grill tongs to move the hot cans). Everything seemed to work fine - nothing like hearing those jar lids "ping" as they cool on the countertop, signaling a good solid seal.
Habanero-Mango-Pineapple Jelly
This recipe says it makes 12 - 4oz jars, but I just used 6 - 8oz jars and boiled for 10 minutes instead of 5. I replaced a little of the pineapple with one peeled and diced fresh mango. The jars all sealed well, but I'm not 100% confident that the jelly is going to set up the way I'd like, as it came out very thin. It's delicious, though! It'll be awesome poured over a block of cream cheese for an appetizer with crackers.
Pickled Habaneros
I used this recipe and doctored with additional spices. Omitted the alum and just used regular fine Himalayan sea salt with no additives. We didn't have quite enough habaneros left (gasp), so we added two sliced banana peppers from our CSA and it was the perfect amount for 6 jars. The recipe only made enough brine for 5 jars as written, so I had to quickly make up another jar's worth. I would increase the amounts by 25% in the future. In each jar we used a smashed garlic clove, small knob of peeled ginger root, one clove, one small piece of star anise, and a spice mix of fenugreek seed, caraway seed, szechuan pepper, brown mustard seed, and coriander seed. I cannot WAIT to taste these in 3-4 weeks!
My taste buds hurt just from reading this...auuuugggghhhhh!!!
ReplyDeleteHahaha, sorry Mom! xo
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