sriracha

 by the end of summer, the tomatoes and cucumbers are long gone but the pepper plants are still pumping out the produce.  i have wanted to make some sriracha and have been waiting for the peppers to ripen.  pictured above, starting from 12 o'clock:  tobacco peppers, hot banana peppers in a range of colors and sizes, thai chiles, korean chiles and in the center-cayenne peppers.  the korean pepper plant gave up its fruit long before the others and i ended up throwing them in the freezer while i waited for the others to catch up.  the process is surprisingly simple and easy and this recipe from viet world kitchen is fool proof.

 the recipe calls for palm sugar or light brown sugar but i had a cone of piloncillo sitting in the closet and decided to use that despite the recipe suggesting it could lend a darker color.  to get the amount needed, i simply used the large holes on a box grater.

 the peppers simmering with the other ingredients: water, vinegar, sugar(piloncillo) and salt.

 running it through the food mill-you need to let it completely cool first and then blend it before straining it.  warning never try to blend hot liquids in a conventional blender-they will blow the top off and shoot hot liquid everywhere!

 i can feel the heat just looking at that puree!

 such a beautiful shade of spicy hot

it will be interesting to try it out, we have an old bottle of the rooster in the fridge and i will have to compare them.  my taste of this one was of course very hot but it also had a fruity flavor that i can only guess was caused by the combination of peppers-oh to repeat that blend....