How Hot Do You Like Your Heat?

My grandmother used to make pepper vinegar.  And in practically every bar-b-q joint or road side cafe in the south, you'll find a bottle of pepper vinegar.  I use it on collards, broccoli, cabbage, green beans, in soups, stews, etc.  Easy to make and you can keep adding the vinegar to the bottle until the peppers lose their kick. I have a bottle of this in my fridge.  From Garden and Gun magazine.  

(Makes 1 pint)

In Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, pique is what they call a bottle of peppers steeped in vinegar. “Sport peppers” is the name for the bottle of peppers and vinegar you find on your table at restaurants in Louisiana. You sprinkle the pepper-laced vinegar on your food. You can make pique in any bottle. Just increase or decrease the proportions to fit. I like to use a glass pancake-syrup dispenser with a plastic top, which allows you to remove some peppers and hot vegetables and mash them in your food.

5  habanero-type chiles
1  carrot, peeled and chopped
1  small onion, chopped
4  garlic cloves, peeled
1  1-inch cube peeled fresh ginger
1 thyme sprig
1¾  cups cane, cider, or white wine vinegar
1  tsp. rum

Make a small slit in each chile with the point of a knife to allow the liquid to penetrate it quickly. Stuff the chiles, carrot, onion, garlic, ginger, and thyme into a pint-size syrup dispenser. Add the vinegar and rum and wait a week for the flavor to develop, or you can hurry things up by heating the vinegar first. If you use hot vinegar, the pique will be ready in a few hours. When you use all the vinegar, just add more. One bottle of peppers is good for three or four batches of pique.

 

Recipe reprinted with permission from The Hot Sauce Cookbook by Robb Walsh, copyright 2013. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.