Homemade Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce and Carribbean Chickpea Curry

Yesterday evening, having bought a package of Scotch Bonnet peppers the day before, I decided to make my own Scotch Bonnet hot sauce.

 

Isn't that colour gorgeous? And it's in one of my beautiful mason jars too boot.

Here's how I made it:

• 130g Scotch Bonnet peppers, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1/2 cantaloupe, sliced and diced (papaya is more traditionally used)
• 3/4 cup rice vinegar
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• ~ tsp salt

1. Carefully, wearing gloves, wash peppers, then remove stems and seeds. Dice. Be very careful how you do all this as you do not want to get any of the juice on your skin or in your face and eyes. These are hot! According to my research, the Scotch Bonnet pepper is the hottest pepper known, with the possible exception of another Caribbean pepper called Piment Ma Jacques.
2. Wash and dice carrots.
3. Slice and dice cantaloupe.
4. Add a handful of the diced peppers, carrot and cantaloupe into a blender with part of the vinegar and olive oil. Blend well, then add a bit at a time 'til it gets almost too thick. Then add more vinegar and olive oil. Continue this process 'til everything is in.
5. Add salt.
6. Taste test (be very careful how much you try, as it is very hot).
7. If using fresh, that is, uncooked, put into glass jars and refrigerate immediately.

I am accustomed to hot foods, but I do like to enjoy the taste of a hot sauce as well, so something like Dave's Total Insanity, made from capsaicin extract rather than from peppers, doesn't do it for me. My hot sauce has a nice, fruity taste, yet is still rather hot. Next time I might make it a little hotter still. Since I had no idea how hot these peppers would really be, I arbitrarily decided on an amount of carrot and fruit to add.

I enjoyed my fresh hot sauce with a Chickpea Curry with Caribbean Spices adapted from Vaishali's recipe of the same name.

 

Since I didn't have potatoes on hand, my version is without them. It being rather late in the evening by the time I got to making the curry, I also took some shortcuts. Rather than using all whole seeds and spices to roast and then grind, I used coriander, cumin and mustard in powdered form and added whole peppercorns and cloves. Aside from being less soupy and without the lovely garnish of fresh onion and tomatoes, these are the main differences. If you have time, please make Vaishali's version. If a little short on time, you may want to, as I did, use powdered spices.

I served the curry over toasted whole grain flax bread with margarine, then added some of my fresh hot sauce over top. Delicious!