{TRY} Homemade Srira-chooo!

Hi. My name is Laura and I have a problem. I need hot sauce. I want sauce. I don't enjoy breakfast anymore without it. I design dinners around it's ability to be slathered with it. I push it on dinner guests and worry going to friends homes for fear they won't have any. How could I ever, possibly eat those roasted sweet potatoes or fish tacos or [insert nearly any food item that I probably think is tasteless sans hot sauce] without some of that fiery, sometimes sweet sauce?! I have a serious addiction...that I'm completely content with.

When I came across the Sriracha recipe on Nom Nom Paleo I immediately emailed my friend Andrew who grows his own ghost chilis --you know voted by Guinness Book of World Records as hottest chili in the world?! He's crazy and every time he uses them in food (I believe stubbornly) he nearly has to fumigate his apartment. So I knew he'd be into this experiment. Mere red jalapeños, pssshaaah.

We all recognize Sriracha by the clear bottle and green cap filled with bright red sauce. Originally a thai-born hot sauce, Huy Fong Foods popularized the rooster sauce in the U.S and it's been having a good past few years. You can't walk into a pho, thai or really any Asian restaurant without it prominently positioned center of table. What I love about the life-line, I mean condiment, is the subtle tangy and sweet.

After finding a recipe that included a bit of sweet, we came up with our own version, adapted from the Nom Nom Paleo recipe.

{recipe} Hot&Sweet Rooster Sauce
1 1/2 pounds fresh red jalapeño peppers, stemmed and seeded
8 garlic cloves, peeled and mashed
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons agave (add more to taste)
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

Task one: Find red jalapeño peppers.  Lucky for me I live in a neighborhood strongly populated by Latins so we found them at a Latin market, however most standard grocery stores do not have them.

Once you find them, wash, cut off the stems and seed them.  Be careful not to touch your eyes or nose when handeling these peppers!

Mash the garlic and be generous depending on your love for garlic. Put everything into a food processor.  Depending on how chunky or smooth you want the sauce, puree it longer/shorter.  Do not attempt to use an emulsion blender as a short cut.  We did and the result was a pathetic blend and potent, stingy fumes.  Ah-choo!

Pour the puree into a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. 

As soon as it boils, reduce to low to medium heat to simmer for 5-10 minutes, until the foam subsides.  Stir occasionally and taste.  At this point I did a side-by-side comparison to Sriracha out of the bottle and decided I wanted a little more sweet, so we added a bit more agave. 

We used a food processor so the result was a bit chunkier than traditional Sriracha.  If you prefer a smoother sauce, use a juicer.