Home made hot sauce
 

I'm fortunate enough, living reasonably close to Hatch, New Mexico , that I can get their famous chile peppers almost right off the plant. Problem is, I tend to buy far more than I need. I decided to take some of the excess and try my hand at making hot sauce.

I roasted and peeled six or seven peppers, de-seeded them and started them simmering in about a cup of water and a cup of cider vinegar. To help out the flavour, I added a couple cloves of garlic and a little paprika and cumin. After simmering it until the peppers were really starting to break down, I tossed the whole mess in a blender and let it go until it was nice and smooth.

It wasn't too bad for a first effort. There are a lot of different options in that simple recipe to dramatically change the taste of the sauce.

Has anyone else made their own hot sauce? Recipes? Suggestions for improvement?

Hmmmm...have made my own salsa, does that count?

I consider cumin as more of a chile spice.

I'd go with cliantro, for salsa. And, tomatillos.

Have a look http://www.pepperfool.com/recipe_home.html Scroll down on left to sauces

Sauce
 

I'm gonna be in Santa Fe in January, so I may need some info. I've been there once before, but for my girlfriend from Brasil, it will be her first time; she's afraid of the cold.

Sauce:

I try to experiment with store-bought stuff. I use Frank's Red Hot as a base, then add some rice wine vinegar, some fresh-crushed garlic, some tobasco, some whole "sport" peppers, and varous powdered peppers. A dash of some olive oil to coat the meat or whatever you put on the grill. I like it anyway.