Welcome to the new Witchin’ in the Kitchen! This blog just celebrated its fourth anniversary this summer, and it felt time for a change. Aside from a new look and feel, I hope that the new design makes it easier for you to discover seasonal recipes, preservation tips, herbal medicine techniques, and inspiration from some of my favorite artists and makers.
This summer has been a busy one. Our family doubled in size as we adopted two rescue cats, a pair of identical sisters with silvery gray coats, bright gold eyes, and big personalities. Meet Elvie (on the left) and Midi (on the right). They wake us up at 3 in the morning with head nudges and love bites, scale our bookshelves like seasoned mountain climbers, and are stalwart cooking companions. We’re in love.
Each Sunday, O and I bike down to the biggest, baddest farmers market under the 83 highway to stock up on our produce for the week. Although I haven’t been canning as much this summer as last year, I find an afternoon here and there to experiment in the kitchen with ferments, herbalism, and preserving pickles and sauces. One weekend, I came home with several pounds of hot peppers – cayenne, habanero, and serrano. I also brought home half a dozen peaches, all of which had been smushed by the time we made it home. I had intended them for hand fruit or pie, but given the circumstances, I improvised.
The result – peach habanero hot sauce.
This is definitely a hot sauce – not salsa for chip dipping. It has a sweet kick and a quick burn that gets the digestive fire burning, but doesn’t linger on the tongue for long. I’ve added it to kale salads, baked tofu, eggs and fish. It’s versatile and a wonderful way to celebrate the season before summer is gone.
peach habanero hot sauce
adapted from For Reals Life
2 pounds of peaches, about 6
10 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 onion, chopped
4 tablespoons sugar or honey, to taste
4 teaspoons sea salt
zest and juice of 2 organic limes
2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups water
24 habanero peppers, or a mix of hot red peppers – I used 18 habaneros and 2 cayennes
rubber gloves and goggles for handling the peppers
Peel the peaches and slice them into chunks over a big pot to catch the juices. Discard the peels and pits. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the peppers, to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the peppers. Please, for the love of unicorns, wear rubber gloves and goggles (or glasses) while preparing the peppers. You can easily find both at your local pharmacy. These babies burn, so if they do touch your fingers, do not rub your eyes, lips, or, erm, anywhere else for several hours. If pepper juice squirts you in the eye, rinse it out with milk, not water. And it’s worth noting that the heat of the peppers comes from the seeds, so if you would prefer a more mild hot sauce, use fewer peppers and discard most of the seeds.
To prepare the peppers, trim the stems and chop the peppers into rough chunks, adding them to the pot of peaches all at once. Bring the sauce to a boil once again, then reduce to low heat. Using an immersion blender (or normal blender very carefully), puree the hot sauce until it is very smooth.
Ladle the finished sauce into bottles or jars and refrigerate for several months. Alternatively, process in sterilized half-pint mason jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes to keep for longer shelf storage.
Diggin’ the streamlined look and BIG BEAUTIFUL pics!
How much does this make?
Um, great question! It makes about 8-10 half pint jars of hot sauce.
And now I’m feeling guilty for never making it to the Sunday market, though I have been cobbling together picking up from the Real Food Farm truck, the occasional Waverly market trip, and farm stands I stumble on.
Welcome to your new ladies! Are they BARCS cats? We adopted a gray girl we fostered for them, she’s a total diva who rules the house but doesn’t give a d*mn about cooking.
Looks wonderful.
Can you taste the peaches or is it just heat?
If you can… what would you use it for?
Thank you.
Incredible sauce. Made a few jars a couple of weeks ago and went through them already. Making some more tonight. Made one jar with a couple of Trinidad Scorpions from the garden haven’t eaten that one yet but will try soon. Next is a couple of Carolina Reapers mixed in if the plant will only produce them. Thanks for the recipe, better than anything in the store for sure.