I had a bunch of peppers getting ripe this Fall so I picked them all and decided to try my hand at Sriracha. It seems like every year I just end up drying my peppers and using them for cooking. I’ve got dried peppers coming out of my ears. Time for something different.
I had Serranos and Jalapeños. The Serranos peppers were a touch over-ripe and had started to dehydrate. The Jalapeño peppers were just right. I did separate batches of each as a test.
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I started with whole peppers, just under a pound, and a couple garlic cloves in the food processor. Then chopped them close to a paste.
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I then added a couple Tbsp of Brown Sugar and about 2Tsp of Kosher Salt. I gave it another spin in the food processor and transferred the mixture to a Mason Jar. I put a paper towel over the mouth and screwed the ring on. I basically did the same thing to the Serranos.
Jalapeño
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Serrano
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I let the jars sit on the kitchen counter for a few days and once they started to fermented I stirred them daily for a a few more days. Total time was a week, after which I transferred the contents of each jar into a small sauce pan, added 1/2c of white vinegar and slowly cooked them down. The Jalapeño mixture had more liquid due to the peppers being more hydrated so I had to cook it longer. About 20-25 min.
Jalapeño
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Serrano
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Next I transferred the cooked down mixture to a small colander and pressed out the juice. After that I strained the juice through a strainer to remove to pulp that pushed through the colander.
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I ended up with about 1-1/2 C Jalapeno and 1 C Serrano. The flavors are distinctly different with the Serrano version taking on a heavier catsup like flavor and the Jalapeño version being sharp, tangy and hotter. My one issue is that I strained the mixtures down too much and ended up with a Tabasco like texture on both of them. NTTAWWT, but it would not fool someone as being true Sriracha. Damn tasty though.
Finished product.
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Has anyone else tried this? Any tips on getting the texture a bit thicker?