[Dog Welder]

I love heat in my salsas. Started using Habaneros and although they have great flavor I think the heat has started to numb my taste buds. The heat doesn't bother me at all after a few bites. How can I bring out the flavor? Tried roasting them and although it adds a smokey flavor it doesnt bring a whole lot out. I recently had a dish called Pork Pibil and it comes with this habanero salsa that was the S#it!!! Not chunky pico de gallo style but real smooth almost ketchup like consistency. Anyone got tips I'd sure appreciate it.

 

[DirtyMike]

Try adding a little liquid smoke.... does wonders

 

[AngryMetalsmith]

Roasting habs is a great start to a hot sauce. Try adding some milder chilies, fresh or dried, to build a base. You could also use tomatoes or tomatillos. Some hot sauces use carrots as a base.

For more flavor add fresh garlic, onion, cilantro, salt. Hot sauce needs some acidity to it as well. Lime juice is preferred to vinegar in traditional Mexican cooking. A wee little bit of sugar will balance out the bitterness of the other chilies but not make it sweet.

Use a blender to puree everything. You can then run it through a stainer to remove the seeds and achieve the desired consistency.

Take it a step further and slow roast all the ingredients in a heavy pan on the stove before blending.



When working with lots of chilies, wear latex gloves and change them frequently. If your hands start to burn, soak them in milk.

 

[jimmydean]

I do all sorts of things with habs. Habs have a tropical undertone so using things like pineapple or mango help bring out the flavor. I usually make my salsa chunky but chop the peppers up small to spread the heat. But I have also used my food processor to make it smoother with good results. Berries work well, too.

Tomatoes
Green or red onions
Habs
Something tropical
Cilantro
little salt
little vinegar
lime or orange juice

Adjust amounts to of each to taste. My daughter has me using papayas this year as soon as my peppers turn.

I'll be picking this bad boy when I get home tonight. First of many ghost chili's to finally turn.

 

[jonKranked]

Roasting habs is a great start to a hot sauce. Try adding some milder chilies, fresh or dried, to build a base. You could also use tomatoes or tomatillos. Some hot sauces use carrots as a base.

For more flavor add fresh garlic, onion, cilantro, salt. Hot sauce needs some acidity to it as well. Lime juice is preferred to vinegar in traditional Mexican cooking. A wee little bit of sugar will balance out the bitterness of the other chilies but not make it sweet.

Use a blender to puree everything. You can then run it through a stainer to remove the seeds and achieve the desired consistency.

Take it a step further and slow roast all the ingredients in a heavy pan on the stove before blending.



When working with lots of chilies, wear latex gloves and change them frequently. If your hands start to burn, soak them in milk.

agreed with everything here. especially the gloves part.

for my hot sauce, i use a base of 50/50 water vinegar. add all ingredients and simmer for about 45 minutes. I add pectin too to help the consistency. i don't bother straining though; I don't mind seeds in my hot sauce.

and totally agree on adding other things. habaneros add little other than heat. for get a more rounded flavor you will have to add other things.


and i use carrots as part of the base for my cayenne pepper sauce.


edit: i use a food processor instead of a blender.

 

[stoney]

JD - You are a sick, sick man. Ghosts? Really?

 

[jonKranked]

JD - You are a sick, sick man. Ghosts? Really?

agreed. send me some!

also, anyone have a good hot sauce recipe for anchos and/or pasillas?

 

[jimmydean]

JD - You are a sick, sick man. Ghosts? Really?

They are inside, now. I put them in pots because I had a feeling the grow season would suck and it has. I brought them in and put lights on. I noticed last night I have a single orange hab outside, this summer was teh suck.

There are about 40 very large green chili's, but only the one has turned so far with about a dozen starting to orange up. If I get more than a dozen, I will dry them and if any monkeys want 1, I will accept PM requests and ship 1 out to folks.

Still not 100% on what I will do with most of them, but I do plan to make some serious jelly and some canning salsas to start with. I started with something like 14 seeds, only 6 sprouted, and 2 grew.

Here's one of them about 2 weeks before I brought them inside.

<edit> I've never worn gloves before, but I will when I mess with these bad boys. I always end up rubbing an eye then wind up crying like a pepper sprayed drunk in the back of a cop car.

 

[jonKranked]

JD - all of my stuff is potted too. weather here has been wonky. no frosts yet, but i'm keeping an eye on the weather so i know to bring it in if needed. days are still sunny and warm enough for my plants to be outside. Right now i'm poised to get maybe 4 doz habs, i'd be willing to trade you one for a ghost pepper.

my tobascos are starting to show signs of oranging, thank goodness. those buggers have a long maturity time.

 

[jonKranked]

<edit> I've never worn gloves before, but I will when I mess with these bad boys. I always end up rubbing an eye then wind up crying like a pepper sprayed drunk in the back of a cop car.

be sure to use nitrile gloves, not latex. they have better chemical resistance.

 

[jimmydean]

JD - all of my stuff is potted too. weather here has been wonky. no frosts yet, but i'm keeping an eye on the weather so i know to bring it in if needed. days are still sunny and warm enough for my plants to be outside. Right now i'm poised to get maybe 4 doz habs, i'd be willing to trade you one for a ghost pepper.

my tobascos are starting to show signs of oranging, thank goodness. those buggers have a long maturity time.

I would be more than happy to swap and trade. I have 2 ghosts plants and 2 hab plants. 1 hab is tiny and has maybe a dozen peppers, the other is more like 40 but are all still green but 1 and are outside in the raised beds I built. I had the ghosts in the window, but they were getting maybe 4 hours of sun if that, so I broke out the grow lights I used when they were seeds. Been under the light about 3 days and POW!

 

[bdamschen]

After commenting about how good a local mexican food joint's salsa was, I got a few tips from the lady who makes it. I have never tested this, so I don't know if she's full of it, but she claims the more you cool down and then warm back up the salsa, the more heat you can bring out of the peppers. She said she usually refrigerates until it's cold, then lets it come back up to room temp and refrigerates again.

I've never had the patience to test this when I can just go down there and get the best salsa in the world, but it could be worth a try without changing anything else.

 

[jonKranked]

I would be more than happy to swap and trade. I have 2 ghosts plants and 2 hab plants. 1 hab is tiny and has maybe a dozen peppers, the other is more like 40 but are all still green but 1 and are outside in the raised beds I built. I had the ghosts in the window, but they were getting maybe 4 hours of sun if that, so I broke out the grow lights I used when they were seeds. Been under the light about 3 days and POW!

PM sent

 

[bizutch]

I found that, when snotting like a bulldog b/c one had unknowingly handled a habanero and having rubbed my nose and upper lip, the only thing to stop the hell in my face was rubbing alcohol.

 

[jimmydean]

Doesn't look so deadly in the picture.

 

[AngryMetalsmith]

I haven't tasted the Ghost yet. Bitten into a few Red Savinas which at the time were the hottest peppers in the world. I have a pretty high tolerance for heat, but just eating a Savina by itself was an excruciating experience. A crazy dude named Gizmo used to grow Savinas and bring them to me in Biohazard bag. The Ghost scares me a little bit.

 

[jimmydean]

Salvador Molly's Balls of fire are as hot as I get. These I will use sparingly, I am sure. The Theo's ghost chili chocolate was awesome, but not really hot. Tasted yummy. Marion berry ghost jelly?

 

[buildyourown]

I'm not going to call myself an expert, but I stumbled upon something awesome today.
Picked up some roasted peppers at the farmers market this morning. Hatch, Pasilla, etc. Nothing crazy hot but the hatch to have a decent bite. Roasted a bunch of tomatillos and a head of garlic and through it all in the food processor with some salt, cumin, fresh garlic and cilantro. This is going to be the base of my chili verde, but it's an awesome salsa. All the heat comes on late and the ripe peppers have plenty of sweetness w/o any added fruit like I usually add to a fresh salsa. It was also super quick to make compared to a chopped recipe.
So yeah, roasting = awesome.

 

[HAB]

I have nothing to contribute other than to say that I appreciate the references to HAB(s) earlier.