This isn’t the first time I’ve given homemade sriracha a go (it’s my second) but while I really like my first attempt, it ended up being more of more pourable and sour-tangy hot sauce than the thick pasty sriracha that people are more familiar with.

So, conveniently my dad was growing many big fat jalapeno and Fresno peppers growing in his garden that were getting red on the vine that he didn’t know how to consume, so I made it a win win and got his permission to try making some more sriracha.

 

We also had some Bishop’s crown peppers, so I grabbed some of those to see if they would work, since they are so prolific here.

Getting a bit long in tooth I must admit.

To kick it up further, I added some bird’s eye chilis that were getting a bit too red on the plant for dad’s preferences. Hooray for having a green thumbed dad, seriously.

And here we have not quite two pounds of red peppers of varying types.

I adapted a recipe from Randy Clemens’ The Sriracha Cookbook and added some twists on my own. Twist number one, diverging from the purely red jalapeno mix of peppers to a hodgepodge of peppers from the garden, as seen above, but totaling 1 and 3/4 pounds in total.

The ingredients for stage one of the recipe, aside from the peppers, are sugar, kosher salt, garlic powder, brown sugar, and garlic.

Yes, there are stages to making sriracha, and if you aren’t going to be able to check in daily and finish it in a week, you might want to reschedule trying this recipe out.

Twist #2: Use an entire head of garlic, rather than just a few cloves. I might actually go with two heads of garlic next time actually, if not more.

Now to get to sauce making.

Step 1. Stem and slice the chilis in half, and place into a food processor or blender if you’re in a bind, and add other ingredients: the whole head of garlic, four tablespoons of garlic powder (twist #3), two tablespoons of granulated sugar, two tablespoons of salt, and a tablespoon of brown sugar.

Pulse until you have a puree. It might take a few batches, particularly if you have a smaller model like I do.

Twist #3 in action.

And there you have it, a seedy hot pepper puree. Resist the urge to inhale if possible. (It’s super intense)

Pour into a sterilized glass jar or other glass container. I like using old school mason jars.

Put it in a place not too hot that you don’t mind smelling of chilis and give it a stir every day for a week. A few days extra is fine.

I’d start with a generous 1/4 cup of vinegar for this next phase, and add more if necessary.

Pour the puree into a saucepan and add the vinegar.

Hint, don’t add the vinegar right away but use it to slosh around the jar to get some of the more reluctant bits of pepper out, then pour this from the jar to the saucepan.

Bring to boil, then simmer for five minutes. Then take off the heat and let it cool off until you feel comfortable putting it into your food processor again, maybe an hour or two.

Bring out the processor again and dump in the puree.

Pulse until your puree becomes a paste.

After trying a fine mesh strainer the last time and ending up with hot sauce instead of pasty sriracha, I opted to instead use my food mill with the fine setting instead. Worked a lot faster and better than the sieve technique!

If you have to use a sieve, I’d advise something not too fine, you basically just want to keep the seeds and larger pieces of skin out.

And there you have it, sriracha (Extra Garlic, Extra Hot Edition). You can adjust this mixture at this point with more vinegar, salt, sugar, salt, or dare I say it even water to get the consistency and flavor you like.

Someday, I will use this extra stuff. I think using it in a marinade to kick it up a several heat notches will be the plan then, but this time I just washed it out. If anyone gives it a try let me know!

Pour into a clean squeeze bottle if you have one handy, enjoy, and keep in the fridge for safekeeping. A clean glass jar will work just fine as well.

Label of questionable quality optional!

My first use was to use it in place of the standard stuff with a big bowl of pho as a dipping sauce alongside some pho.

Verdict? I really liked this, and way hotter than the original stuff.  Going in unprepared made my nostrils burn in a delicious way. It is brighter and fresher tasting than the original, which might not be what you want if you just want to splurt a whole big splash of sriracha into your soup or onto whatever food of choice you are enjoying, so a little goes a long way. Perhaps too long for some people.

Randy Clemens points out rightly that if you were to just buy the sriracha, you’d probably save money rather than sourcing the peppers and other ingredients to do it yourself, but it is a heck of a lot of fun, and you can tailor it to your tastes by upping various ingredients. If you happen to find yourself with a lot of red peppers in the garden like me though, I can’t recommend it enough.

Homemade Sriracha: Extra Garlic, Extra Hot Edition

Note if you want to try the original recipe, check out Randy’s recipe in his book.

• 1.75 pounds of a mix of peppers, with the bulk of it being comprised of jalapeno or Fresno peppers, but can include bird’s eye chilis, serranos, or other red peppers (be careful of using too much of the hotter varieties)
• 1 head of garlic, give or take
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup of vinegar plus a few tablespoons (not needed until a week later, in case you’re shopping)

1. Half peppers, and combine with the garlic, sugars, salt and kosher salt and pulse in a food processor or blender until it becomes a puree.
2. Store in a sterilized jar at room temperature for a week, stirring once daily.
3. Pour puree and vinegar into a small saucepan (tip: use vinegar to empty out the jar) and bring to a boil over high heat, then drop to low heat and simmer for five minutes.
4. Let cool, then add back to food processor and pulse until it becomes a paste.
5. Run through a food mill or push through a medium sieve to remove seeds and larger skin particles
6. Funnel into a jar or a clean squeeze bottle, and keep in the refrigerator until ready to use.