Jars of homemade hot sauce are great parting gifts when friends and family pay a visit.

I heart hot sauce. So when I saw this huge container of habaneros on sale for a steal, I decided it was time make a huge batch of hot sauce. I love making a big batch of hot sauce and giving away jars to friends, family and neighbors as a parting gift. This recipe is a variation of the recipe I found on the back of the box of peppers I bought at B.J.’s wholesale club. It looked so similar to recipes I’ve seen from the Islands that I figured I’d give it a try and it did not disappoint. This turned out very similar to Suzie’s hot sauce from Antigua that I am highly addicted to. I made a few tweaks and the recipe is below:

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 habanero peppers, stems removed
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1 tbsp lime zest
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1 tomato
• sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat the oil in a sauce pan over medium heat. Cook and stir the carrots, oil, onion, and garlic in the hot oil until soft, about 10 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor. Add the habanero peppers, water, lime juice, vinegar, tomato and lime zest to the blender/processor and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste, transfer the mixture to a saucepan and simmer for 3-5 minutes. Simmering at the end gives the sauce a more liquid consistency.

Do you have a favorite hot sauce or hotsauce recipe? I’d love to hear your favorites and I’m always looking to try new recipes!

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Like spicy food? A ghost pepper is reputable the hottest pepper in the world. Photo courtesy of flikr's creative commons, profile here:http://www.flickr.com/people/vasenka/

Gilbert’s 17th Street Grill is having a special promotion for the month of November! You can order “The Hottest Burger in South Florida”, an 8 oz Certified Angus Beef with Crispy Bacon, Pepper Jack Cheese and

Like spicy food? A ghost pepper is reputable the hottest pepper in the world. Photo courtesy of flikr's creative commons, profile here:http://www.flickr.com/people/vasenka/

infused with Fresh Ghost Peppers and Trinidad Scorpion at Gilbert’s 17th Street Grill.

If you’ve never had ghost peppers or trinidad scrorpion peppers, well, now here is your chance to join the big leagues of seriously hot pepper lovers. Ghost peppers are said to be the hottest peppers in the world so this is a legal opportunity to get a serious adrenaline rush. You’ll need plenty of beer to wash this down!

Gilbert’s is located in the Harbor Shops across at the intersection of 17th street and Cordova Rd in Fort Lauderdale.

Click here!

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Hoboken Eddie's Thai Chili Sauce is great for grilled chicken with a kick!!

Just to clarify, I’ve never met a hot sauce I don’t like. However, some sauces stick out among the rest. Hoboken Eddie’s Spicy Thai Chili Sauce has a special place in my heart as my “go to sauce” for just about everything. It has the perfect balance of sweet, heat and smoky flavor. It is not hot like a tabasco, but has a slow creeping Asian Style heat that makes it ever so addicting. So far, I’ve used this sauce added to everything but most importantly, as a base to flatbread pizzas. Try it and you’ll love it too! Check out Hoboken Eddie’s site so you can see his entire assortment of sauces made from his homegrown chilis. I’ve tried everything he makes and I was not disappointed. You won’t be either!

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While learning to sail in Antigua I fell in love with Caribbean style hot sauce!

I have had a life-long obsession with hot sauce. I love, love, love hot sauce. In college I would make batches of homemade hotsauce and give bottles to my professors as Christmas presents.

When Scott and I went to Antiqua to learn how to sail last year, we stumbled upon “Suzie’s Hotsauce”. This stuff is as good as it gets. It’s light your A** on fire hot, but the flavor is so great you beg for more. After our 5 bottles of sauce ran out from our trip back home, I became obsessed with finding Suzie’s recipe.

Suzie's original hot sauce from Antigua.

This was no easy feat. I played around with many combinations until I finally stumbled on a book called “Hot Licks – Great Recipes for making and cooking with hotsauces” by Jennifer Trainer Thompson. It seems the author had stumbled upon Caribbean hot sauces when she was on a sailboat delivery to the Brittish Virgin islands and her boat had motor trouble and she was stuck in the outlying parts of the Bahamas chain. She then, too, became obsessed with this style sauce.

Jennifer, all I can say is “THANK YOU!” for getting stuck in the Bahamas so you could stay long enough to learn this basic hotsauce recipe to enlighten the rest of the world.

My "Sweet with Heat" version of the recipe above.

This recipe is slightly modified fromt the original, Jennifer Thompson “West Indian Pepper Sauce”.

Ingredients:

1. 1 ripe medium mango or papaya (the smaller version, use only 1/2 if you use the large kind)
2. 1/2  medium yellow onion chopped
3. 2 medium garlic cloves
4. 1 inch piece of ginger root, coarsely chopped
5. 5 scotch bonnet of habanero peppers, de-stemmed
6. 1/2 tsp. turmeric
7. 1 tblsp dry mustard
8. pinch of cumin, pinch of coriander
9. 1/2 tblsp honey
10. 1/2 cup water
11. 1/2 cup cider vinegar
12. 1 tsp sea salt

Puree ingredients # 1-9 in a blender. Transfer this mixture into a bowl.

Next bring the vinger, water and salt to boil in a non reactive saucepan. Pour this mixture over the mango mixture and mix well. Allow to cool before putting in bottles.

Keep the sauce in the refrigerator up to 6 weeks.

Cheers to some “sweet with heat”!

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Buy

1) 3lb bag of chicken drummettes. I usually buy the frozen ones and defrost when I am ready to make.

Sauce

One cup Franks Hot sauce (not that hot and is supposedly the first original buffalo wing sauce)

• 1/4 cup sriracha
• 4 chipotle peppers in adobe sauce
• 2 HEAPING tablespoons of minced garlic
• seasalt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Throw all ingredients (sans the chicken) into a gallon ziplock bag and mix in bag (you can seal the bag and shake around). Add the chicken wings.

Let the chicken marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Cook chicken on a medium hot grill, about 10 minutes on each side (this will vary on your grill, size of wings, etc) or until done. Baste with sauce while chicken cooks.

Serve with Scott’s blue cheese dip. See recipe below.

• 12 oz. container sour cream
• 4 oz. container blue cheese (the better the cheese, the better the dip)
• 2 tblsp minced garlic
• 1 tbls spoon dry mustard
• lots of freshly ground black pepper and sea salt

Great on your spicy wings!!

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Sriracha - a fiery Asian pleasure on anything you put it on!

Sriracha is the generic name for a Thai hot sauce named after the seaside city of Si Racha (according to wikipedia). This sauce has a hot yet slightly sweet nature about it that perfectly compliments seafood yet just about everything else. Key ingredients include hot chilis (Thai variety), garlic, sugar, salt, vinegar and quite often, fish sauce. When you go out for sushi and get a specialty roll with a chili sauce, here’s betting that its most likely sriracha or a homemade version. The name “Sriracha” is the generic name for the Thai red chili sauce, the most common “Sriracha” you will find in the US is made by Huy Fong Foods, the company owned by a Thai-American immigrant turned businessman.

This sauce compliments everything well- chicken, burgers, add it to your wing sauce. Give it a try and you’ll see why it’s become a household name.

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Jalapeno Butter Sauce
1/2 cup white wine
1/3 cup butter
6 cloves garlic
1-2minced jalapenos, depending on how heatness desired
sea salt/pepper

Suate the onions in the butter. Add the wine and simmer for 7-10 minutes, letting some of the liquid reduce down. Add the jalapenos and garlic, simmer a little longer…

Pour sauce on top of the opened oysters. Enjoy!!

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This is a light yet SUPREMELY SATISFYING sandwich, while also being good for you and a nice alternative to your traditional ham and cheese (BORING!).

Ingredients:
Focaccia Bread, ciabatta or french bread/baquettes (enough for 4 sandwiches)
1 jar (13-15oz) of roasted red peppers
1 small container of goat cheese
1 jar olive tapenade
3+ cups of arugula (I LOVE THIS STUFF!)
handful fresh basil

Directions:
Slice the bread lengthwise in halves. Spread olive tapenade on both sides generously. Next, spread the goat cheese liberally on top of the bread, on top of the tapenade. Drain the jar of roasted red peppers and cut them lengthwise into manageable pieces to fit on the sandwich. Layer the peppers and then add fresh arugula, basil, and large amounts of freshly ground pepper.

Additions for the omnivore:
This sandwich is also great with the addition of Italian sausage, capicola or salami, or Aidells sausage (these are great added to anything! )

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