I use Sriracha sauce to provide heat to my dumpling dipping sauce. This summer I decided to make Sriracha sauce from scratch, starting with growing my own Jalapeno pepper plants. As the peppers turned bright red I picked them and froze until I had about 2.5 pounds of peppers. The recipe below made about 3 cups of Sriracha, half of which I froze and the other half I bottled and refrigerated.

To make the Sriracha:

Cut off the green stem from the peppers and place peppers, 10 cloves of garlic, 7 tablespoons of light brown sugar, and 2 tablespoons of Kosher salt into a blender. Blend the ingredients until you have a finely chopped mash of peppers. I did this all in one blend and because there are no liquid ingredients this put a lot of strain on my VitaMix and caused it to overheat. So I would recommend doing the blending in two batches.

Place the mash in a glass jar with a lid and store for 5 to 7 days at room temperature letting the mash ferment. You will see bubbles start form on the side of the jar after 2 to 3 days and the mash will start to expand. Burp the jar once a day to release the gases and then mix the mash. By the 4th day after I burped the jar I could smell fermented chili peppers throughout the apartment, I understand now why odor complaints were filed against the Hoy Fong factory. So think about burping the jar outside.

After 5-7 days transfer the mash back into a blender and add 1.5 cups of distilled white vinegar and puree until completely smooth.

Pour the puree into a wire strainer set on top of a sauce pan and use a rubber spatula to press the pulp through the strainer. You want to separate the liquids and pulp from the seeds and any large pieces of chili or skin.

Bring the chili mixture to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes.

Transfer to an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 6 months.