How to make: Homemade Sriracha Sauce

April 27, 2017

Homemade Sriracha sauce recipe

Making homemade sriracha sauce was easy then it seems; Okay, besides handling the chiles. Recreating a dish or developing a recipe is a natural step for me but then I come from the family that cook, bake, and pickles at home.

I have dwelled in consuming many hot sauces, and homemade pickles and some are on most favorite rendition, though have to use them scarcely as the quantity made for the season has to last for the season. That’s what makes it most valuable I believe.

I had applied to the Food Bloggers Canada Community, and they have accepted my request, Yay! Now what? I need to do something about it. How to actively participate? They have monthly recipe callouts, and I decided to join.

The current recipe inspiration is from Pinterest. I want to use sriracha sauce in an unusual way, and that got me thinking to prepare a dessert utilizing it, and Yes I know what you are thinking garlic and dessert?

I have tweaked the original version of the readily available sriracha recipe.

Did you know, sriracha is believed to be invented in Sri Racha, Thailand by a women name Thanom Chakkapak.

I thought to pay homage to the original inventor and Thailand by opting for red Thai chile peppers.

Flat lay of sriracha ingredients

Homemade Sriracha Ingredients:

70 gm red Thai chile peppers
One small garlic clove
1/2 cup of organic apple cider vinegar
One tsp sea salt
Two tsp raw sugar or honey

Red Thai chile peppers

Gadgets Required:

Knife
Set of gloves
Cutting board
Garlic chopper (optional)
Thick bottom sauce pan
Sieve
Long head spatula to mix
Glass air tight bottle (non-reactive container). I used a canning jar.
Food Processor: Vitamix or Magic Bullet or any other machine which can help to smooth churn the sauce based on the quantity.

Sriracha Sauce Ingredients: Garlic, Red Thai chile peppers, Vinegar

Sriracha sauce ingredients: Garlic, red Thai chile peppers, apple cider vinegar

Red Thai chile peppers

Did you know: Red Thai chile peppers stand 50,000 – 100,000 scovilles on the heat scale measures.

Red Thai chile peppers

Did you know: You can use different peppers to control the heat of the sriracha sauce; As in orange santa fe peppers would bring out bright flavor and colors too. Or a green sriracha a total non traditional version of sriracha.

Red Thai chile peppers – deseeding

Tip #1 : Use gloves to remove seeds and membranes from the peppers. Be very careful as even the slightest splatter can burn your eyes or skin.

How to remove seeds and membranes of chile pepper:

Wash the pepper and spread them out to dry.
Cut off the pepper tops and discard.
Slit the peppers from the middle.
With the use of a knife or a peeler, scrapes off the seeds and membranes.

Marinate red Thai chile peppers in vinegar

I braved the deseeding process without gloves, and you can imagine the fury of burns on my fingers, within the finger nails and where ever I may have touched on the skin. In short, my hands were on fire. Use caution and delay the process until you get some gloves.

Do not get overwhelmed with the process; I worked on the recipe in minutes once I had completed the task of removing the seeds and membranes, as it was easy since it had to sit overnight in the refrigerator in vinegar.

Tip #2: Rub fresh lemon juice into your fingers and under your finger nails to neutralize the heat.

How to prep marination:

Finely chop the garlic clove
In a glass bottle, add the apple cider vinegar, sugar or honey, and salt; mix well.
Add garlic to the mixture
Add the red Thai chile peppers to the mixture
Cover the bottle with the airtight lid. That goes and rest in the refrigerator overnight.

Marinate red Thai chile peppers in vinegar

Homemade sriracha steps:

Next day: Strain the garlic and chiles from the vinegar.
Cook the vinegar in a heavy bottom sauce pan until its half.
Add the strained chiles and garlic to the reduced vinegar and continue cooking until the peppers and garlic are completely soft, cooked thoroughly.
Blend away the cooked garlic, peppers, and vinegar mixture into a food processor or the blender of your choice.
Refrigerate the sauce and consume it before it goes bad.

This can be easily canned, based on the manufacturers direction, though I have never attempted it, so I will leave the step to explain for a later date.

Behind the scene story:

Okay, does anything goes as planned on the first attempt? Ah! I would say no if it were a recipe to bake. So this was an easy peasy attempt where nothing can go wrong. But to my surprise it did went wrong as I explain below:

I put the vinegar on a low heat in a thick bottom sauce pan and went for the shower. Yes, “Shower.”
I come out of the shower to a delicious caramelized aroma soon to realize Oh my! what went wrong; It’s all burnt, Duh!
Then it hit with the spice flavor in the air which started burning my eyes and initiated cough. Lesson learned, don’t do that.
And scrapping the sauce pan was a daunting task to undertake.
I went ahead and did the process of cooking garlic, pepper, and vinegar, with a fresh 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar. I think that helped to take the garlic a notch down and which helped for dessert as I am still growing to the idea of garlic in dessert.