Pineapple Hot Sauce

Greetings friends,

Time for another recipe! I've made this hot sauce a few times, and after a few revisions, I think the result is incredibly delicious. We love pineapples in our household, and during the summer months we have access to Honeyglow Pineapples, which I exclusively recommend for this recipe.

Feel free to adjust the number of habaneros you use. I like my hot sauce pretty spicy but not blistering, so 15 peppers is a good number for my taste.

1 Honeyglow pineapple, cut into chunks

3-4 medium carrots, cut into half-rounds

1 sweet onion, diced

8-10 cloves garlic, minced

2 large limes, juiced

1.5 cups white vinegar

0.5 cups Tequila (whatever kind you like, but nothing too expensive please)

2 tsp salt

15 habanero peppers (halved and seeded)

1. In a deep pan or pot with some olive oil, sauté the carrots and onion until they begin to brown. Add the minced garlic and continue to sauté the mixture. This step is important to allow the Maillard reaction to progress to the point where the sugars caramelize and maximum flavor is achieved.

2. Add the pineapple, lime juice, vinegar, tequila, and salt to the pot and bring to a boil. While this mixture heats up, be sure to scrape the sides of the pot to deglaze any burnt/caked-on bits. Once boiling, reduce heat and let simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Add habanero peppers and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.

4. Pour mixture into a blender and blend until very smooth. Add back to the pot and bring to a boil once more.

5. Fill into sterilized bottles.

This batch is enough to completely fill 4 standard hot sauce bottles.

Thanks for reading,

Juju

Senfgurken (Mustard Pickles)

 Greetings friends,

Some family members and friends ask me for my cooking/baking recipes, so I thought this would be a great place to start compiling the ones I want to share. 

My wife and I love pickles. I'm personally a fan of sweeter pickles, and I adapted this recipe from one by one of my favorite chefs, Alfons Schuhbeck. The ingredient amounts in the original recipe are oddly calculated, with some spices measured for the total batch size, and others measured per jar. I converted the values to approximate measurements per quart sized jar, assuming you stuff them totally full of cucumbers. Any size cucumber is suitable for this recipe. I like to use large cukes so I can cut them into spears and stuff the jars full.

Here is my recipe broken down to per-jar measurements. These amounts assume you stuff the jar as full as possible with cucumbers.

I'll update this recipe if I make changes; I like to change things up to improve recipes from time to time!

    1 Quart-sized mason jar:

            70-80 g Sweet or yellow onion

            2 Tbsp Mustard seed

            1 Tsp Coriander seed

            1 Tsp Fennel seed

            1/2 Tsp Peppercorn

            1 Bay leaf

            1 Dill flower cluster

            75/25 mixture white vinegar/water with 200 g sugar per liter of total liquid.

After sterilizing the jars, I add all the spices except for the dill flower cluster. I stuff the jars to the brim with cucumbers, squeeze the dill flowers in, and pour the boiling vinegar/water/sugar mixture into the jars and quickly add the lids and rings. I leave the rings slightly loose while I pasteurize the pickles in a water bath in the oven at 250°F for a half hour. Once they're out of the oven, I tighten the rings fully and allow the jars to cool. I store unopened pickles in a cool pantry, and they stay good for over a year.

Thanks for reading,

Juju