Fermented Poblano + Habanero Hot Sauce
If you have ever had Tabasco sauce, you have had fermented hot sauce. All you have do to is cut up your peppers, add a salty brine, and then let them ferment for up to a week before blending. Lacto fermentation gives the peppers this great sourness by transforming sugars in the peppers to lactic acid.
Ingredients (metric & imperial):
3-4 Poblanos (~280 grams)
5 Habaneros (~30 grams)
5 Garlic cloves (~30 grams)
Water to cover peppers in the jar
2% Coarse Kosher Salt of Vegetable + Water weight
White Distilled Vinegar (OPTIONAL: I did not add any in the video)
White Sugar to TASTE (OPTIONAL: I did not add any in the video)
Xanthan gum (.5 - 1 gram per 250 grams of hot sauce)
Lacto Fermented Hot Sauce Method:
Cut the tops off the poblanos and habaneros and remove the seeds, but keep the veins (this is where the capsaicin/heat resides). Remove the garlic skin.
Place empty crock or jar on a scale and tare or zero the scale.
Fit the peppers and garlic snugly into the fermentation vessel
Add enough water to submerge the vegetables and note the weight down.
Calculate 2% of that weight, and weigh out that much salt into a bowl. (MAKE SURE you calculate and weigh exactly for safety, you can go above 2% but do not go below.)
Pour the water out from the vessel and mix the salt until it dissolves.
Pour the saline solution back over the vegetables. Make sure the peppers stay below the water level by using a lid, bowl, bag filled with water, or plastic wrap.
Cover with the cap, and lightly screw on the cap, allowing nothing to enter, but loose enough that gas produced from fermentation can still escape.
Now it is time to wait for 7-10 days. Leave them at room temperature out of direct sunlight and check on them each day. Burp the peppers if needed. If a thin film starts to form this may be kahm yeast if it is skim it off the top. If something looks fuzzy, this is likely mold and you should start over.
After 7-10 days, pour the vegetables and the brine to a blender. Pulse the peppers and garlic until they are completely smooth. Then for extra smoothness run it through mesh strainer. You can save and the solids that don't strain for other uses.
Add the strained sauce back to the blender and add in our salt, vinegar, sugar, and water for seasoning. Use my amounts as a benchmark, but you really want to taste for each of these as you add them. Start with the salt, then go vinegar, then sugar and water. I would suggest going this order because everything needs salt, then the vinegar is a signature of the Louisiana style. Lastly, I would come in with sugar and water. Sugar to balance it and then I would only add some water if you want to thin it a little bit or if it's way too spicy and you really need to dilute the mixture.
Once seasoned, add in .5 to 1 gram of xanthan gum per 250 grams of hot sauce while blending so it thickens a little. (optional) For this recipe, I had 700 grams of hot sauce and used 1.5 grams of xanthan
Pour the hot sauce in woozy jars and store it in the fridge for several months. You could can the extra sauce as well.