Pumpkin Hot Sauce
It has been 18 years since Starbucks introduced their infamous Pumpkin Spice Latte, and every autumn since, our diet has become awash in pumpkin flavor.
The annual Pumpkin Spice Experience touches everything from pretzels to rum, and cereal to yogurt.
The Leaf Raker's Society Facebook group is a real thing, as we now live and breath this meme. Did you know there’s a pumpkin spice scented deodorant?
It’s true, I’ve been known to turn my nose up at pumpkin flavor season, and just maybe you’ve heard me say something like, “keep that pumpkin s**t away from me.”
Pumpkin spice lovers, I apologize and eat my words. Read on.
Many pumpkin flavored things are a crazy witches brew of components, as you can learn in this fascinating New York Times video. But in defense of pumpkin spice flavor, this is really just a classic warming spice combo of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and cloves. In fact, Starbucks PSL contains no actual pumpkin.
These spices are lovely, warming and classic. And with just a little twist of chili peppers, they become very Mexican.
Meet Pumpkin Hot Sauce. It’s got cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove that gets turnt up with some smoky dried ancho chili, fire engine red Cayenne peppers, a few hot habaneros (or whatever hotties you can get your hands on), roast pumpkin and pumpkin seeds (a classic Mayan sauce addition), and an apple for good fall seasonal flavor and some sweet balance.
Even PSL haters will love this hot sauce. As a pumpkin spice convert myself, I promise you won’t be disappointed.
WARNING: always use latex gloves when handling hot peppers and hot sauce. These babies can BURN!! NOTE: this recipe makes about six 5-oz bottles of hot sauce
Ingredients
10 habanero peppers, red or orange colored (ok to substitute other hot peppers, like Thai chilis or Serrano)
1 small white onion chopped (about 3⁄4 cup)
1 small baking pumpkin and its seeds, about 2 cups pulp
1 apple, peeled and halved
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 dried Ancho chilies, hydrated in 1 1/2 cups water (save the water!)
1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon sea salt, plus a pinch for roasting
Directions
A few hours before cooking, or the night before, rehydrate the dried ancho chilies in 1 cup of hot water, letting them soak at room temp for at least two hours or ideally overnight, until they are soft and pliable. Do not discard this water! Save it for the sauce.
Heat oven to 400F. Cut your pumpkin in half, and using a large metal spoon, scoop out the seeds. Save the seeds for roasting.
Place the first 5 ingredients—hot peppers, pumpkin and pumpkin seeds, onion, and apple—on two rimmed baking sheets. Place the pumpkin face down on its own sheet. Season with a pinch of salt, the spices (cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves) and the brown sugar. Bake for 30 minutes.
Place the hot peppers, onion, and apple on the second baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes, checking frequently and removing the seeds when they are brown. Roast the hot peppers and until the veggies are all slightly blistered and soft, turning halfway through.
Using gloves, pull the stems off the peppers (when soft, they will pull right off)—including the re-hydrated dried anchos—then transfer everything to a blender and add the 1.5 cups ancho soaking water (or fresh water if you discarded the ancho liquid), 1.5 cups vinegar, garlic, and salt, and pulse until it is nice and smooth, about 45 seconds.
If it is too thick for your liking, you can add a bit more water and vinegar, alternating a tablespoon of each at a time.
Taste it! Add more salt if needed.
Fill bottles with a funnel and cap.
Refrigerate when completely cool. Hot sauce should last at least 1 year.
Shopping list:
10 habanero peppers, red or orange colored (ok to substitute other super hot peppers, like scotch bonnet, Thai chilis or Serrano)
1 small white onion
1 small baking pumpkin
1 apple
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 dried Ancho chilies
1.5 cups apple cider vinegar
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon sea salt
Where to buy chili peppers:
The best place to find a wide and amazing assortment of chili peppers is at your local farmer’s market or farm stand (smaller and more local the better!).
If you can’t get to the farmer’s market or it’s not pepper season, you can usually find a good variety of peppers at South American, Central American, and Caribbean groceries.
Here is my list of online retailers for more exotic varieties or plants to grow your own:
Janie and Fernando run a small nursery in New Jersey, Cross Country Nurseries, and have been growing chiles since the early 90s. You can find fresh chili peppers, pepper plants, seeds, and much more.
Pepper Joe’s sells over 100 varieties of exotic chili peppers as well as plants via PepperJoes.com.
GhostPepperFarms sells, you guessed it, ghost peppers from their Florida pepper farm.
Another Florida vendor, Baker’s Peppers offers fresh peppers delivered to your door when in season.
Bohica Pepper Hut in South Carolina, also sells fresh peppers delivered to your door when in season (late June or early July). Over 200 varieties and free shipping.
A&M Farms offers mixed variety boxes, plus sauces, seeds, spices and powders.
Non-dried, chopped and frozen New Mexico and certified Hatch Green Chiles are best found via The Chile Guy, in packages of 5, 10 and 25 pounds; or even a whole truckload!
Ghost Pepper Store is a bit of a misnomer, as they sell a variety of fresh chili peppers, dried peppers, smoked peppers, powders and seeds.
Homesweet Homegrown was started by Robyn Jasko, founder of Grow Indie and lauds itself as the “world’s first chile pepper CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).” You can get a share of their chile pepper harvest, and each month a box of 18 hot peppers will arrive at your door.