At the end of the season here, the only things still hanging on in the garden are cassava, roselle, sweet potatoes, and hot peppers.  This year even the hot peppers are flagging – they really haven’t appreciated all the rain this summer.  No matter, last year the hot peppers were in rare form, and Ethan put up what appears to be a lifetime’s supply of hot peppers soaked in vinegar.  It is delicious sprinkled on winter greens, or for seasoning beans and stews.

It took a whole year, but he made it to the  bottom of one of the bottles, leaving a quart of vinegar-soaked hot peppers behind.  Being thrifty, he thought to blend it up to make a delicious pepper sauce. It did make a beautiful pepper sauce, but it was so hot and peppery, not even Ethan could stand it.

It has been on the shelf, getting in the way of the olive oil, regular vinegar and pickles, until I had a brilliant idea to transform it into Sriracha!  I was never part of the sriracha craze of my generation, but I recently found myself with a bottle of it, enjoyed it, and after a glance at the ingredients knew it would be very easy to make a home-grown version.

Adding a little extra vinegar and honey diluted the hot peppers enough to make the sauce edible even for me (I admit that I am a hot pepper wimp).  If you have a bundle of hot peppers on hand, this is a great way to use them!  (If you have any hot pepper plants on hand, you will certainly have the hot peppers! They are always so prolific).

 

End-Of-Season Sriracha

1 cup white wine or cider vinegar

1 cup hot peppers

2 cloves of garlic

2 teaspoons sea salt

3 tablespoons honey

In a blender, combine all ingredients and blend well.  You can add more vinegar to dilute the sauce if it is too spicy.  Adding more vinegar makes a thinner sauce.  (the store-bought sauce I had cheated with thickeners like guar gum!)

 

 

And now for the Twist – Honey-Curry Sriracha Dipping Sauce

1 cup End-of-Season Sriracha

An additional 3 tablespoons honey

1 Tablespoon curry powder

Mix well with a fork.  Easy peasy, and goes great with things like Fried Chicken!