The other day, my husband suggested that I try making some hot sauce with all of the peppers we have in our garden because we have so much of it.  So, I did some research.  I found out that there are so many different ways to make hot sauce, but I just chose the easiest, which is the “boil with the vinegar and blend” method.

It is super easy and quick!  I don’t think that I will ever buy hot sauce again when I can make my own.  Also, I think it would be fun experimenting with different flavored hot sauce.   The possibilities are endless!

You will need the following:

• Lots of hot peppers: cayenne, jalapeno, Habanero, etc.
• White vinegar
• Onion
• Carrot
• Garlic
• Ground chipotle chili pepper (dried)
• Bottles to put your hot sauce in

I used about 24 hot peppers (jalapenos and cayenne peppers).

I also used 2 very small onions (about 1/3 cup of onions), 1 whole bulb of garlic, and 1 carrot.

Jalapenos!

Cayenne peppers!

I used this to add flavor.

Directions:

1. Wash your peppers and prepare your onion and garlic.
2. Slice the tops off the peppers.  (You may want to wear gloves to do this.)
3. Throw them all in a pot with the onion, garlic, and carrot.
4. Pour white vinegar into the pot almost covering the peppers, garlic, onion, and carrot.  I used a mixture of white and apple cider vinegar (95% white vinegar 5% red white vinegar).
5. Simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes.
   

   after 15 minutes

6. After 10-15 minutes, remove peppers, onion, garlic, and carrot from the pot and place in a blender with a little bit of the vinegar that it was cooked in (just enough liquid so it can blend well).
7. Blend for a minute or until it is smooth.
8. After it has blended, pour it out from the blender and into a sauce pan.   
9. Add the vinegar that it was cooked in into the blend (little by little until desired consistency).  I don’t like my hot sauce too thick, so I pretty much use all of the vinegar that it was boiling in.
10. Add some chipotle chili pepper and salt.  I used about 2 tablespoons of chipotle chili pepper, but I am not sure how much salt I used.  I just added little by little until I thought it was salty enough.
11. Simmer together and stir for a couple of minutes and then pour your hot sauce into your bottles (use a funnel).  I used old sake bottles to put my hot sauce in.
12. And, tada!  You have hot sauce!

Update:  I made another batch of hot sauce the other day and it was delicious.   This time, I didn’t include ground chipotle pepper, onion, or carrot.

Ingredients:

• 20 cayenne peppers
• 1/2 a bulb of garlic
• white vinegar
• Celtic sea salt
• 1 small/medium tomato

Note: I also reduced the amount of white vinegar so it was more thick and spicy.