Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Friday, September 12, 2008
Who Stole the Hot Sauce?
The hot sauce in question was discontinued by the originator, not stolen, but either way it's gone and I miss it. Details follow.
Who Stole the Hot Sauce has been playing in my head ever since last weekend, when I read a post at OurFriendBen's place about the Chile Festival they attended. It dawned on me that almost everybody who grows a lot of chile peppers eventually ends up thinking of spicy condiments. What else can you do after you've filled the freezer with fresh green peppers and the pantry with dried red peppers and the pepper plants keep on making more peppers?
The spouse and I consume a good many chile peppers, but hardly any hot sauce. We're fairly capsaicin-compatible, so generally when I cook with chile peppers we're both satisfied with the heat level. But I mentioned the Chile Festival post to him and we got talking about hot sauces, salsas, BBQ sauces etc., and the conversation dredged up memories of an old flame we hadn't thought about in years. Inner Beauty. You can't buy it any more because its creator tired of the hot sauce business and sold the license.
We haven't tasted this sauce for at least 10 years, but talking about it made us want to taste it again. There are several recipes floating around the internet, so last Monday I hybridized them and created one of my own. I was intending to write up my version and how I got there over on my food blog, but my notes and I are 100 miles apart. So, look for my version of Inner Beauty on Satiated next week.
Pepper ID for the photos above, top to bottom: Ají Dulce, Prik Ki Nue Rai, Fish, and Lemon Drop. All those photos were taken a week ago before the storm. A couple of the taller plants are now much shorter due to being flattened by the wind and rain. I think they'll be fine - just shorter - we're still going to have plenty of peppers for Indian food, Mexican food, Thai food, Korean food, Caribbean food, and um, hot sauce.
8 Comments:
Your pepper growing resulkts are very impressive. I am actually going to post my sister's habanero pepper sauce recipe within a week.
Nicole: I think I have something like 15 varieties this year - it's been fun watching them grow and comparing the differences. I'll be looking for your sister's habanero sauce recipe!
Beautiful peppers. My spouse loves hot sauces so I will be checking out the posts! Thanks, Gail
15 varieties is quite impressive! My recipe post is up.
You missed the Austin Hot Sauce Festival, Entangled - because of the jalapeno/tomato problems only commercial products could be sampled this year... homemade stuff used to be sampled and judged each year.
I think I told you about this before? Or maybe I told Ki? In downtown Austin there's a store called Tears of Joy, which has quite a collection....one wall was a kind of Hot Sauce Museum.
Good luck recapturing the flavor of your lost favorite.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Gail: Nicole's recipe sounds great! I hope to have mine posted soon.
Nicole: See above :-)
Annie: I really like that the Austin festival includes homemade sauces - hopefully all will be back to normal next year.
I have got to get myself to Austin one of these days - all the coolest stuff is there (if I can say cool about a hot sauce shop).
Ah, those hot sauces. Our resident pepper person says Endorphin Rush is the hottest of them all, but would weep to think that your favorite is no longer available. This year we picked up one at the Bowers festival made from 'Bhut Jalokia', the world's hottest. Hmmm. My two favorites in terms of sheer beauty are 'Lemon Drop' and 'Chocolate Habanero'. I hope you show us another shot of your 'Lemon Drops' when they turn that gorgeous yellow! And yes, we'll definitely try your recipe!
Our Friend Ben: Thanks for stopping by! I found your post through an automated Google search I set up for "Bhut Jolokia", but I've been reading your interesting blog sporadically over the last several months. (I need more hours in the day to get around to all the blogs I want to read.)
Anyhow, the Lemon Drop peppers are just now starting to ripen. I picked 3 last weekend and discarded one of them as it had been chewed on by some critter. (Wonder if it was enjoyed?) The other two went into homemade hot sauce (see link above in response to Gail/Nicole). The color is gorgeous - exactly like a lemon. Chocolate Habanero is on the list for next year.
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