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Hot Sauce and Salsa

N

nijhazer

I decided recently to spend some time learning more about different kinds of peppers and things I could do with them. Creating hot sauces has been one of these things, and every time I do I learn something. Such is the case with the hot sauce I made today, which is made from:
  • Fresno chiles and red habaneros, all of which have been fermenting in a salt brine for almost a week,
  • smoked onion,
  • tequila,
  • lime juice,
  • roasted garlic,
  • honey,
  • salt
The resulting sauce is overwhelmingly flavorful. It's good, but this kind of hot sauce strikes me as something that is almost exclusively intended to be used in order to enhance the flavor of low-quality meat. I don't actually eat a lot of meat, so at least in the short term I'm mainly going to use this on taco salad and as a salsa roja for enchiladas.

I don't have a name for this sauce yet, but will probably call it "Ifrit" because I'm a dork.
 
Büge

Büge

Arm Candy
(she/her)
Kylie recently informed me of a condiment called "Chili Crisp". It's chili flakes, shallots, and fried garlic in oil, and it sounds absolutely sublime.
 
Thraeg

Thraeg

My wife and I discovered this while laying in supplies at the start of lockdown, and have gone through probably a half-dozen jars since:

imageService


Easily the best all-around store-bought salsa I've tried.
 
N

nijhazer

Büge said:
Kylie recently informed me of a condiment called "Chili Crisp". It's chili flakes, shallots, and fried garlic in oil, and it sounds absolutely sublime.
Click to expand...

What interesting timing; I just recently saw this video on the subject-- I've never had this stuff, myself, but if I see a jar of it next time I'm in H-Mart then I'll have to pick some up.

 
WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

Thraeg said:
Easily the best all-around store-bought salsa I've tried.
Click to expand...
It's pretty solid. But most grocery stores around me though have fresher, less-preservative, refrigerated salsa options though that taste like they're from a restaurant, and I like those more. To say nothing of the local tortilla factory a mile away that also has a kitchen that makes fresh salsa. One of the remaining perks of living in state with a plurality of latinos.
 
Daikaiju

Daikaiju

Rated Ages 6+
(He, Him)
Just going to remind folks that Three Mountains Yellow Sriracha exists and is wonderfully fruity.

51VMwXoGReL._SY679_.jpg
 
JBear

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
I forget the brand, but the grocery stores here sell a mango habanero salsa that is absolutely sublime.

As far as hot sauces go, I have yet to meet one that I didn't like. That said, I've got kind of a bad habit of putting too much hot sauce and/or pepper flakes on everything that I eat.
 
Issun

Issun

WisteriaHysteria said:
It's pretty solid. But most grocery stores around me though have fresher, less-preservative, refrigerated salsa options though that taste like they're from a restaurant, and I like those more. To say nothing of the local tortilla factory a mile away that also has a kitchen that makes fresh salsa. One of the remaining perks of living in state with a plurality of latinos.
Click to expand...

The fresh salsas are very good at most stores, but sometimes a cheap salsa like Pace or Ortega just tastes right, you know?
 
Droewyn

Droewyn

Smol Monster
(She/her, they/them)
Over a dozen posts and not one picture of Brave Sauce: The Victory?

What has Talking Time become?
 
Paul le Fou

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
The Victory!



Anyway, Cholula is my sauce of choice. Their chili garlic flavor is not very hot at all, but sooo good. They also have a sweet habanero flavor that's relatively new, and I like that one too. The Chipotle flavor is good, the green one is good, the base one is good. Cholula! It's good!

I also keep some sriracha around, and am definitely intrigued to try the yellow sriracha above. And I'm almost through my jar of:
Büge said:
Kylie recently informed me of a condiment called "Chili Crisp". It's chili flakes, shallots, and fried garlic in oil, and it sounds absolutely sublime.
Click to expand...

Lao Gan Ma! Hell yeah, that stuff is really good. I put it on rice with chinese takeout or teriyaki. I think I've put it on leftover meatloaf before?



Actually, that kind of raises the question. What do you guys put what hot sauces on? I can put sriracha or cholula on eggs or breakfast scrambles/sandwiches (which...have eggs), I put sriracha or lao gan ma on teriyaki or chinese takeout, but...I'm not really sure what else to do with them. I feel like a lot of other stuff I eat wouldn't really go too well with the flavors? I put some cholula on my leftover meatloaf the other day but even then it didn't feel quite...right. I have the sauces and I like them, I'm just not entirely sure how to use them. Guide me! Teach me your ways!
 
N

nijhazer

I haven't tried chili crisp-- just picked up a jar of it at the store today, but haven't opened it yet-- but I imagine that it would probably be good on fried whitefish. In Filipino cooking there's a sauce that's a combination of soy sauce, scallion, ginger, garlic, fish sauce, lemon juice, and sugar which is amazing when served with fried fish and rice.
 
WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

There are two things about hot sauce that makes me sad:
1) Is how expensive they can get, especially when they get popular. There is no justifying the price of Tabasco sauce, it's completely insane!
2) Is how good, cheap, little known hot sauce all inevitably become popular and then expensive. I remember discovering Tapatio sauce in my quest to replace Tabasco on my eggs and other stuff. It was great for several years until suddenly big price hikes, it's not quite Tabasco levels of crazy pricing, but it's getting worse.
 
N

nijhazer

WisteriaHysteria said:
There are two things about hot sauce that makes me sad:
1) Is how expensive they can get, especially when they get popular. There is no justifying the price of Tabasco sauce, it's completely insane!
2) Is how good, cheap, little known hot sauce all inevitably become popular and then expensive. I remember discovering Tapatio sauce in my quest to replace Tabasco on my eggs and other stuff. It was great for several years until suddenly big price hikes, it's not quite Tabasco levels of crazy pricing, but it's getting worse.
Click to expand...

Hmm... I haven't bought Tabasco sauce in a couple years, but when I did, a bottle cost one dollar. Has the price risen steeply since then?

Outside of commonly-available brands, though, I can agree with this sentiment-- there is a store called Heatonist that sells various kinds of hot sauce for surprisingly high prices. Here's one I saw recently-- seems intriguing, perhaps something I would have tried on a whim if I found it in a store... but not for $14!
 
Positronic Brain

Positronic Brain

Out Of Warranty
(He/him)
I have lots to say about hot sauce, but all of it is outdated because I live in a country with a cuisine that is almost allergic to hot spices. The only hot sauce you can get without going to the "exotic" section of the store is Tabasco (which, no offense, is to real hot sauce what Taco Bell is to real tacos - tasty and mainstream but not the most sublime or authentic experience). And the selection in import stores is laughable.

Seriiously, they think Salsa Brava is spicy. Heck, they think allí olli is spicy, Dear lord.

It's kinda frustrating, and I make do by trafficking bottles of salsa in my suitcase when I visit my parents the way people smuggle wine or tobacco, but then I go for comforting, safe brands instead of trying new stuff.
 
Kirin

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Huh. I would not have expected Spain to be a place where nobody likes spicy flavors. But I've never actually eaten there.
 
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