Some Like it hot!

This past summer my pepper plants did great and I ended up with ton of peppers.  I had planted two Jumbo Serrano plants that gave me several dozen big hot peppers.  So I decided to cook up some homemade hot sauce.

First I took about 30 chilies and pealed cloves of garlic lightly drizzling them with olive oil and roasted them in the oven at 450 for about 10 min. After they cooled I sliced the chilies and threw out the stems. Then I transferred them to a nonreactive sauté pan with a thinly sliced red onion, adding another tea spoon of extra virgin olive oil and sautéed them for 3 min, Then I added 3 cups of  water and cooked them down until most of the water was gone.  Then I scraped the cooked peppers, onions and garlic into a food mill (a food processor would work as well). After processing the peppers I poured a cup and a half of white vinegar through the food mill into the glass bowl I used to collect the pepper blend.  Last I poured the entire mixture through a fine sieve into a large jar, placing it in the refrigerator for 2 weeks to steep.  This is a very nice medium hot sauce with lots of flavor. You can adjust the heat by adding more or less vinegar.  It can be used in place of Tabasco on the table and is great for cooking Cajun food. I like to call it “Jimmy Ya Ya’s  Fire and Brimstone”. 

So what is Trellis to Table all about? Essentially I want to talk about food; growing food, cooking food preserving foods from garden and places to get good food.  Although I have been gardening off and on for 30 years I consider myself a young gardener.  I also worked in professional kitchens for several years but I consider myself to be home cook.  So I wanted to create a place to share tips, recipes and ideas.