January 29, 2009

Hot! Hot! Hot!

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hot sauce: hot peppers, sweet pepper, vinegar, and salt

It's actually cold cold cold. The 2 inches of snow that fell Monday night and all day Tuesday is gone but thick patches of slippery ice still have to thaw. And there is a 20% chance of more snow showers tomorrow.

During very cold days we turn to Filipino comfort food like siopao and noodle soup. We had 2 pieces of store-bought siopao labeled Pork Asado filling (more like Mystery Meat Plus Loads Of Flour Filler filling). I made siopao but was disappointed with the hot sauces we have in the house. For siopao I prefer Tabasco style made with only three ingredients: hot peppers, vinegar, and salt. In addition to Tabasco we have numerous tiny and large bottles of hot sauce from Thai sriracha to Malaysian Sos Cili to Mexican styles. The Tabasco is just too vinegary for me and the rest too garlicky. I know, I'm very picky. I nearly gagged when I smelled the Mexican Cholula brand because of the added spices, I think one of them is cumin. I love cumin in most cuisines that use it but not in hot sauce to drizzle on my siopao. They just don't go very well together IMHO.

I was not going to drive through the snow to look for a good bottle of hot sauce, I made my own with cayenne peppers, sweet bell pepper, brown coconut vinegar, and salt. Aaah, much better...reminds me of the hot sauce and siopao back in the Philippines. And the sauce is really hot!

Hot Sauce
5 cayenne peppers, more if you prefer it hotter
1 small red bell pepper
¼ cup brown coconut vinegar or cider vinegar + more to taste
1 teaspoon salt
  • Blanch, or sear peppers on stove until skin is charred. With gloved hands, remove skin and seeds from peppers. Put in a blender, add vinegar and puree. Transfer into a stainless steel pan. Add salt and cook on low heat until just heated through, about 2 minutes. Taste and adjust vinegar and salt. Transfer into a sterilized bottle or jar. Let cool before storing in the refrigerator. May be used right away but tastes better after a few days.

yummy together: bola-bola (seasoned minced pork) siopao and hot sauce

5 comments:

What's Cookin Chicago said...

MMMM... I love a little heat with my siopao!

Anonymous said...

sounds delicious and so simple to prepare, but I am not looking forward to washing the blender! :) Hubby can buy the alamid coffee at a stall outside the Makati Supermarket in Alabang. If he's bringing them there, buy the big bottle na (or several bottles). I only bought the small bottle.

TS of eatingclub vancouver said...

Oh, I don't think I've ever tried eating siopao (asado) with hot sauce!!

Sidney said...

I send you some Filipino sun through the internet... :-)

I like siopao a lot but I am always a bit wary of the meat inside... what if they use rat meat inside... ;-)

Oggi said...

Joelen, bolabola siopao doesn't taste familiar without hot sauce.:)

Ning, thanks so much. The hubby's reaction as expected: NOOOOO, why would you drink something that's been pooped by a wild cat.
I told him to buy several bottles.:D

TS, hot sauce is also good with asado.

Sidney, it's getting warm at last.
There were rumors that Ma Mon Luk uses cat meat, heheh, not true of course.

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