Don’s Hot Sauce

On the top of Don’s “List of things I want to cook” is his own home-made hot sauce.

This is his first attempt, and the results were great. The goal was to make a citrus-based, medium heat sauce. This was a ‘eat once it is done’ sauce. In the future he’ll work up a more complex sauce. The orange was from a local tree, and the lemon from our own tree (until our orange tree begins producing).  Everything else is from Publix.

Ingredients:

20 dry Arbo dry chilis

2 dry ancho chilis

1 cup white vinegar

2 TBS agave sugar

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

Juice from 1 orange (we used a local valencia)

Zest from 1 lemon (we used our own lemon tree)

5 large garlic cloves

Directions:

Put all the ingredients into a blender or food processor. Blend well. Put on the stove on a medium heat and cook (and stir) for an hour. The goal is to reduce the liquid a bit, and intensify the flavor.

Blend again for a minute.

Strain through a fine mesh and cook for at least 1/2 hour on a low heat.

Serve, and put the remainder in a glass container and refrigerate.

This is SOOOOO much better than any hot sauce you will buy off the shelf, and it takes little effort. Multiply the size to make enough stock to use in the future. Yum.