Habanero Pumpkin Hot Sauce - Fermented For BEST Flavor
I love this hot sauce. It has fall flavors that really highlight the beautiful flavor that the sugar pumpkin has. These pumpkins are way more useful that just tossing in a dessert. Seasonal, delicious, a nice treat in the cold weather. Goes great on hearty soups, braised meats/stews/pot roasts, over eggs….really anywhere you would use any other hot sauce!
Not in pumpkin season? No problem. Substituting butternut squash in the off season is a more than acceptable replacement.
Ingredients:
1 sugar pumpkin
5 habanero peppers
7 garlic cloves
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 yellow onion
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cardamon
1 shot worth whiskey (I used a honey whiskey from Jack Daniel’s)
***The following is done by weight, procedure below
Fine sea salt
Filtered water or bottled spring water
Tools needed:
Sharp knife
Rubber gloves
Cutting board
Kitchen scale that reads in grams
Mixing bowl
Wire whisk
Large saute pan
Measuring spoons
Shot glass
Fermentation weight or ziplock bag filled with water.
Hot sauce bottles for storing or a mason jar
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How to make it:
Wash mason jar with hot soapy water and let air dry.
Cut rind off the pumpkin, cut in half and cut pumpkin into rough large dice. Remove stems from habaneros, cut in half to inspect the inside. Make sure there is nothing rotting or moldy inside the pepper. Remove outer paper layer from garlic and cut root end off. Seed removal is optional. The heat from the pepper comes from the placenta, not the seeds anyway.
Place mason jar on scale set to grams, zero (tare the scale). Place pumpkin, peppers, garlic, and coriander seeds into the jar. Fill jar to the bottom of the neck with the water. Record that weight and multiply it by 3%. This will be the amount of salt needed to make the brine.
For example: 880 g (ingredients plus water) x .03 = 26.4 g of salt needed for the brine.
Place a small dish on the scale, zero out. Add the salt to the dish until the scale reads the calculated amount. If your scale doesn’t read decimal points, round to the nearest whole number.
Pour the water from the jar into a mixing bowl, add the salt and mix thoroughly with a wire whisk. Pour that salty water (brine) back into the jar with the ingredients.
Place fermentation weight on top of the ingredients in the jar to keep completely submerged underneath the brine level. This is called an anaerobic environment. This is the most important thing when fermenting. In a nutshell, the lactobacillus bacteria on the pumpkin, garlic and peppers feed off the sugars in those said ingredients. This bacteria thrives in the anaerobic environment and is salt tolerant to a point. The whole point of the salt is to ward off bad bacteria. The lactobacillus consumes the sugars and the byproduct of that is lactic acid. The lactic acid is what preserves the food by creating a brine that is…well acidic. This acidic brine has a pH of 3.5-3.7, less than 4.6 is considered safe from botulism growth. If you have a pH meter, I suggest checking the pH of the brine after the first week to ensure that it is under the 4.6 threshlod. If it is close, say 4.7-4.8, I consider it safe to keep fermenting. So long as the pH is under the 4.6 at the end of their fermentation period. Any ingredient that is allowed to touch air will most likely mold and the batch will need to be discarded. My fermented peppers normally finish at a pH of 3.5-3.7. Ferment on the countertop or pantry away from direct sunlight for 1 month. The best temperature range I found for fermentation is around 68-75 degrees f. I use this fermentation lid that fits on wide mouth mason jars. I never use the metal springs that are included.
After the fermentation period:
I take 1 yellow onion and give it a fine dice. Add to a large saute pan and add the onions to the pan while it is still cold with 2 tbsp oil. Turn the burner on to medium and sweat the onion for 7-10 minutes stirring frequently until they turn translucent and start to caramelize.
Once the onions have started to caramelize, add the spices (cardamom and allspice), stir to incorporate. Continue to cook the onion with the spices for 1 more minute to cook the spices and bloom the flavors. Deglaze the pan with the whiskey and cook off the alcohol. This should only take about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Turn off the heat and place the onions on a plate, cool in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or until cool.
Once the onions are cool, strain the contents in the jar reserving the brine (that is the pumpkin, habaneros, garlic and the coriander). Place the onions, habaneros pumpkin, garlic and coriander in a blender and enough brine to cover the ingredients 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up. More brine will result in a thinner sauce and vica versa. You may end up using up all of the brine. Blend until smooth and strain through a fine mesh strainer (optional). I like to dry the pulp, grind it and add some salt to it. I check the pH again at this time since blending the non fermented onions to the rest of the fermented ingredients will most likely change the pH of the finished sauce. It needs to be less than 4.6 to be considered shelf stable and safe. If your pH is at 4.3 for example and want the pH lower, add a splash of vinegar to the sauce. Keep in mind this will change the flavor profile slightly and may kill off the lactobacillus that is still alive in the sauce depending on how much vinegar you use. You may also need to thin the sauce out with more vinegar or water. If you add water, make sure that pH is still below 4.6 after 1 day.
This will keep for many months up to 1 year in the refrigerator in a mason jar with lid. You can also use hot sauce bottles. I place parchment paper under the lid since the acidity from the sauce will eat away at the lid. Likely this is shelf stable, however I don’t go into the canning/jarring practice. Much more of a habit to keep mine refrigerated since it really slows and fermentation that may stay active as the sauce ages.
Keep in mind if you do keep the lactic acid bacteria alive, this will keep fermenting (slowly when kept in the refrigerator) and building pressure in the jar/sauce bottles. You may need to release pressure every week or so to avoid any sudden release of said pressure when opening the jar/bottle. Adding vinegar will either slow or halt the fermentation process entirely since vinegar kills the good bacteria (lactobacillus).
If you don’t want to keep the lactobacillus alive, you can choose to cook the sauce. Do this by placing your sauce in a small stock pot and heat it over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and continue simmering for a few minutes. This may also affect the consistency of your sauce that you can adjust with water, vinegar or brine at the beginning of the simmering process.
Enjoy on your eggs, on pot roast, with braised pork or lamb….really anywhere you want some hot sauce!
Logan
