Oblivious to everything else going on in the world, my Beaver Dam peppers are producing like champs. I’ve maxxed out the number of freezer packets for goulash that I can make next winter, and it’s been too hot for oven-roasting. Drying them may be an option, but I still haven’t used all my dried yellow chiles. “Maybe I can preserve them with vinegar!” I thought, and thus the Beaver Sauce was born.
I started out with a recipe for “self-made Tabasco“–even though we all know that is impossible without a bourbon barrel for aging–because it had a good proportion of peppers to vinegar. Hopefully, as the Beaver Dams are not as hot as Tabasco peppers or even jalapeños, the final sauce will lend itself to consuming mass quantities.
I didn’t have any “normal” onions, but since 1) they are mostly for bulk, and 2) I did not want to create a hot sauce, I wanted a medium sauce, I used red onions from the farmers market. Regional and seasonal, yo!
The whole mess is sautéed briefly with some garlic (also from the market) until it and the onions are softened up.
And then, the worst part: pour some water over it all, then simmer until all the water has evaporated off, increasing the temperature and humidity level of your kitchen. [Insert air-conditioning rant; it’s too hot and humid to do that much angry typing.]
Finally, the softened mixture can be dropped in a food processor and blended until smooth.
At this point, vinegar is mixed in. I used white wine vinegar, and forgot to take pictures. To create a smooth sauce, I ran it though my wire mesh doohickey to remove all the bits of skin, and intentionally did not take pictures because I didn’t want to get pepper goo all over my phone.
And now, we wait a few weeks for it to ripen; it tasted mostly like vinegar when it went into the jar.
A few days later, I realized it needed a label. None of the free clip-art beavers were right for my sauce, so I broke down and let Grok draw one for me. But just the beaver! I created the rest of the label myself!
Remind me to post an update after I’ve finally used the sauce in a meal.
