Recipe Andean Hot Sauce

karadekoolaid

karadekoolaid

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Caracas, Venezuela
Here's something you'd never dream of. A hot sauce - made with milk! Traditionally it's made with the buds of the maguey, or agave succulent. I doubt they'll be available in other places so I'm not including them in the recipe:

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Ingredients:

1/2 lt fresh milk
200 mls buttermilk
150 gms hot chile peppers (Thai or finger chiles would be good)
100 gms red, orange, yellow or green bell peppers
3 cloves garlic
100 gms onion
4-5 spring onions (green onions) with leaves
Handful of fresh coriander , thick stalks removed.
1 tsp salt
1 tsp whole peppercorns
Olive oil

Method:
  • Heat the milk in a saucepan and turn off just before it boils. Allow to cool.
  • Wash the chiles and remove the stalks and the seeds. Wash the bell pepper and remove the seeds.
  • Peel the onion and cut into small pieces.
  • Wash the spring onions, remove the root and any discoloured leaves. Chop small.
  • Blend the milk, chiles, bell pepper, garlic, onion, spring onion and coriander leaf until fairly smooth. It doesn't need to be completely smooth; it's nice to have a bit of texture.
  • Pour the contents of the blender into a large bowl and add the buttermilk, salt, peppercorns and a generous glug of olive oil. Mix well together and then pour into a large, sterilised jar with a lid. Put the jar in the fridge with the lid on, but loose. Do not tighten the lid, otherwise the hot sauce will "explode" out of the jar!!
  • Open the lid every day to release the pressure. You might hear a hiss, which will be the gas escaping as the hot sauce ferments. you might also see bubbles in the sauce - that's fine, because the hot sauce is fermenting.
  • After about a month, the fermentation process will stop. The sauce is now ready to use. Keep in the fridge, although the sauce will last for ages (I've just finished some I made 18 months ago)
This photo is from a friend of mine - although she doesn't ferment the sauce as long as I do:

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Typically, it's used with arepas (cornmeal buns), on pulled pork, with scrambled eggs, empanadas (turnovers) on the hallacas; it's basically a hot sauce (and it doesn't taste of milk) so you could use it on almost anything. I think it'd be great on a Cornish pasty, a samosa, a chicken pie, scampi & chips?
 
Hmm, I make my own Sriracha but I've never thought of a fermented hot sauce with milk. I can see how the "yogurt" could tame the heat but you still get the flavor. I'm going to save this one!

:thankyou:
 
I can get pasteurised milk, maybe even raw milk, but no buttermilk.
I'm thinking milk, a bit if lemon or lime juice & some yoghurt (greek or bulgarian) might work?
Or soured milk (it's thick, closer to yoghurt than buttermilk) and seems to happen naturally to most pasteurised milk we buy here.
Or lacto mabisi?
karadekoolaid or anyone else: what are your thoughts?
 
Here are some photos.
Something wierd is happening with my mobile/cellphone, because when I pass the photos through g-mail, they take anything up to 24 hours to arrive :hyper:
Anyway - Here are the photos. Picante Andino 1.jpgPicante Andino 2.jpgPicante Andino 3.jpg
The hot sauce is in the fridge, but I know from experience that , every 24 hours or so, I have to open the lid to release the gas. I learned that about 15 years ago, when one almost exploded in the fridge.
The peppers at the back (which look like habaneros) are actually Venezuelan ají dulce; all the flavour of a hot pepper, but no heat.
 
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