Spice of life
Hot sauce is abundant in every grocery store, so why make your own? The answer is taste and control. To start, most bottled hot sauces contain excessive vinegar, salt, and preservatives. Commercial sauces usually use one pepper and have one generic flavor. Making your own salsa picante gives you freedom to choose the chile pepper varieties, design the flavor, control heat levels, and tailor the sauce to your tastes and specific dishes. A dried guajillo chile is vastly different than an arbol, just as a green poblano is miles apart in taste and heat as a habanero. Homemade salsa picante is your signature and has a million uses.
Music accompaniment
“Manteca” by
Arturo Sandoval
Ingredients
- 15-20 dried chiles (e.g., arbol, guajillo, pasilla, casabels, ancho, puya)
- 3 1/2 cups stock
- 1/2 medium onion
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 2 medium tomatoes (red or green)
- 1 tablespoon salt
- ½ tablespoon black pepper
- 1 ½ tablespoons olive or avocado oil
- 1-2 fresh chiles (e.g., serrano, jalapeno, habaneros, fresno, Ají dulce, cayenne)
Make
- Remove pepper stems (you can fully or partially de-seed for less heat). Choice of chiles will change heat, flavor, and color.
- Brown peppers in a hot, dry skillet for a minute on each side
- Add to pot with 4 cups of stock, tomato, onion, garlic, salt/pepper
- Chop and add in 1-2 fresh peppers (according to your preference)
- Bring to low boil until softening
- Turn off heat and let cool down
- Pour into food processor, add oil, and blend vigorously
- Strain into into a bowl, pushing with spatula through the strainer to get every last drop
- Serve immediately or store in mason jar in refrigerator
- Optional: to thicken, return to pot and simmer on medium
- Makes about 12 ounces (two mason jars)
Use & Serve
- Salsa picante literally goes in, on, and with everything—not only Mexican dishes
- Try it in Thai, South Asian, and West African recipes
- Serve as a condiment
- Drizzle on top of any entrée, side, dessert, and cocktail