Mango-Hot Sauce

There are thousands of hot sauces on the market. Some of the most commonly used are: Cholula from Mexico, Sambal Oelek from Indonesia, Siracha from Thailand and of course, Tabasco from Avery Island in Louisiana, USA.

I’m not a DEEP heat lover. I like to add heat to certain dishes, but I never developed that love or need for the burn. What I am more interested in, is the unique flavor profile that peppers can add to a dish.

The unique thing about this recipe is the fruit base. I use Honey Mangoes in my video, of course any variety of mango will work. Papaya, Pineapple, Guava, a little Passion fruit juice added to one of those, and you have a nice background to balance the HEAT. It is more like a condiment or sauce than a Heat source. Of course you can bump up the heat by adding more peppers or changing the pepper varieties.

There are over 50,000 different of varieties of peppers in the world and they range from sweet and mild to make-you-want-to-die hot. The Scoville heat scale rates peppers from mild to hot with a number scale. Mild bell peppers are at the bottom of the scale at zero, moving up (to name a few common pepper varieties) to a Jalapeño at around 5000, my personal favorite category of scotch bonnet & habanero in the 100-600,000 range and climbs to the infamous ghost pepper at around 1 million and then onto the newer discovered chili, the Carolina Reaper coming in at 2.2 million. That’s 400 times hotter than a jalapeño. Chances are good that if you find a pepper that has the word Dragon, Scorpion or Reaper in it’s name, it’s going to be hot.

The habanero is readily available in most places and has a unique, fruity-floral flavor and smell that I really love. When I lived in Aruba, we had a variety named Madame Jeanette (apparently named after a “hot prostitute” from the capital city in Suriname – a country in South America where they originate). They are in the same heat category as some of the cooler habaneros and pack an amazing flavor profile.

It is important to note that all peppers have a range of heat. You will find a jalapeño that is more like a green bell pepper, and then you will come across one that gives you a pretty good burn. Tasting a small piece of the pepper in advance will take the guess work out of it and it can save you the trouble of throwing something out because it is too unbearable to eat. I know that from personal experience.

Mango-Hot Sauce

Recipe by Michael SalmonCourse: SaucesCuisine: CaribbeanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Ingredients

2 mangoes, peeled, deseeded and roughly chopped
5 habanero chilies
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped
3 plum tomatoes, chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
4 Tablespoons lime juice
zest of 1 lime
1 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 Tablespoons mustard powder

Directions

Place all items in a blender and blend until smooth.
Simmer on the stove for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Store in covered jars in the refrigerator.