Roasted Habanero and Jalapeno Pepper Sauce

I am always looking for different versions of hot sauces. In my fridge you will find all varieties of Thia, Chinese, Indian, Sweet, Sour, and Hot sauces with garlic, mangoes, garlic and chili peppers, and not to mention different kinds of Salsas.
This recipe was an inspiration by my co-worker Steve S. He made this home made Habanero Pepper sauce and brought it to one of our office potluck lunches.  He gave me half the bottle to take it home.  I loved it and asked him for a recipe. He gave me a link to Frontera's chef Mr. Rick Bayless's website.  Coincidentally, I have been to Frontera restaurant in Chicago and absolutely loved.. loved their Mexican food.  Steve did warn me that the entire house will smell of heat from Habanero peppers when you are cooking them in vinegar on stove.  I went over the recipe and modified it to get a different flavor and also, so that the house and people are not effected by heat of the peppers.


In addition I wanted to make a little thicker consistency than that of Steve's but wanted to keep the taste the same. This is  one of my favorite recipes of sauces so far !! Thank you Steve and Thank you Mr. Bayless !

Ingredients: 

• 1  lb of carrots peeled (long ones, you can use baby carrots, but long ones are easier to peel)
• 10  cloves of peeled garlic
• 2 tablespoon of chopped garlic from jar
• 3 yellow chopped onions
• 4 ounce pack of Orange Habanero peppers stemmed
• 10 counts of hot Jalapeno peppers stemmed
• 1 lb bag of sweet yellow, red and orange peppers

• 6 cups of apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 4 cups of water (or more if you want more dilute consistency) 
• 3-4 teaspoon of salt (or to taste)
• Cooking oil spray
• 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder (I added this to give the sauce yellowish orange color, which I thought may be lost due to addition of  green Jalapenos.)

Method:

• Preheat oven at 450 degrees F.
• Wash and stem all peppers.
• Arrange all the stemmed peppers, garlic and peeled carrots  on a baking tray and spray with cooking oil.
• Arrange the chopped onions on separate baking tray spray with cooking oil.
• Roast peppers and onions in preheated oven for 20 min or until the skin of peppers and onions start to turn dark brown or charred.

• After 20 min you may choose to broil them for 2-3 min if you desire smoked flavor (I did not, because I wanted to keep the original orange color of the sauce and did not want to have too many black specks in the sauce)

• Take both trays out of oven carefully.
• You will see the carrot have softened and so have all the peppers.
• Chop the carrots and long peppers with long knife without touching them.
• Mix onions with the peppers.

• Take a deep sauce pan and dump all the roasted onions, garlic, carrots and peppers in there.
• Add vinegar and water to the peppers.
• Add sugar and chopped garlic from jar.
• Cook on medium heat until comes to a boil.
• Add salt.
• Then with a hand blender puree the pepper, onion, vinegar and water mix.
• Return the sauce pan to stove, add turmeric and cook on medium heat covered  until boils, stirring in between.
• Taste and add more salt or vinegar to taste if desired.
• Turn the stove off and let it cool completely before pouring the sauce to air tight glass bottles or jars.
• Keep refrigerated until use.

• At end of this post, I have posted a picture of 2 small bowls side by side,  with my sauce and the one Steve had made, just to give you an idea of consistency of thickness of sauce, if you desire more dilute version you may add more water and vinegar to taste.
• There are no hard and fast rules really, you may add Pineapple or  Mangoes  to it give a hint of fruity sweetness to the sauce, but I would recommend roasting them as well before adding.
• You can adjust the amount of sugar, salt and vinegar to your taste.  Can use Agave Nectar instead of sugar. 
• You may add dry Seracha seasoning mix or dry red pepper flakes to the sauce give and extra extra kick. Or you may experiment with different kinds of peppers along with Habaneros.
• This recipes yields generous 12  cups of sauce. I knew, I will not make it very often but definitely would want more in my fridge and I know, it should stay good in the fridge for about 6 weeks, therefore I have no worries.

  
Enjoy !!

Recipe adapted by Surekha from original recipe at Frontera website
http://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/habanero-hot-sauce/
Recipe inspired by my co-worker Steve S.
Photographs by Surekha.

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