When I was at Gentile’s, yesterday, I saw a bunch of dried peppers hanging by the register. My impulse buys of the morning were Guajillo peppers, Pasilla peppers, and Chipotle peppers. I had also picked up a couple of fresh poblanos – with no firm plan as to what to do with them.

This morning, hot sauce came to mind…

The hot sauce I made from our garden peppers last October came out great – and we’re down to the last bottle. There’s no way I can replicate the last batch – we have different peppers growing this year – so it’s time to make something new!

I started off by simmering the dried peppers for about 30 minutes.

I then fried up onions, garlic, and the poblano peppers…

As soon as the peppers cooled, I removed the stems to get ready for pureeing them in the blender with the poblanos and onions. I also added a couple of small cans of mild green peppers just for the hell of it. I had to do numerous batches – I made a lot more than I was planning to…

I was a good boy. I wore gloves! Seeds and all went into the blender, and then I strained everything into a pot, using the soaking water to thin.

I added about a cup of tequilla, 2 cups of vinegar, a cup of sugar, a hefty amount of oregano, and salt and pepper, and let it come to a boil and then boiled it for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, I had my bottles boiling away on another burner.

I filled the hot bottles, capped them, sealed them, and labelled them.

We’re set until the summer peppers are ready!