Part of the world panicked when it was announced that the prized
sriracha producer Huy Fong was being threatened to shut down. Memes
flooded Facebook with signs of the apocalypse. How can we live with out
sriracha!? The answer came easy to me: I’ll just make it.
Before we continue, allow me to drop an important bit of knowledge
on you: Sriracha is the
name of a condiment from a town in Thailand of the same name. Huy Fong's
srircha, the one with the rooster on it, has become synonymous with the name.
It's kind of like Heinz and ketchup.
Okay. Back to our story.
As it is with any apocalyptic scare, new papers occasionally take
it upon themselves to try and offer relief. The LA Times did the world a
small service by publishing a recipe for a sriracha-style hot sauce.
This recipe is quick and simple: you blend the peppers and spices in a
food processor; toss the paste into a pot with vinegar; boil for a few minutes;
and then strain the paste. While the recipe was tasty, it lacked in
something.
A few days later I stumbled upon sriracha recipe number two.
It essentially takes the same ingredients and process, but it has
you ferment the paste for several days before adding the vinegar and straining
the liquid. By fermenting the paste you're intensifying the flavors and
drawing out an umami flavor.
The end result was similar to the sriracha underdog, shark sauce. (You
can find this brand in most Asian markets.)
Usually when people think of fermentation, they think of alcohol.
People have been preserving food through lacto-fermentation forever.
It's how sauerkraut and dill pickles get their unique, briny flavor.
It's also super easy. For recipe number two, I kept the jars on my
kitchen counter with a lid on top. The first time I did this I used mason
jars and tightened the lid. Big mistake. During fermentation gasses
a created. This caused the contents of my jar to expanded. With
nowhere for the air to go, I basically had a chili paste grenade waiting to
explode. (Imagine holding in a big fart and then finally releasing it)
After the first day I opened the jar to stir the mixture and received a
spicy money shot. Luckily, I had a ton of peppers and quickly remade the
paste. This time placing plastic wrap and cooking pot lids over the jars,
allowing the gas to escape with ease.
Like everything that has a beginning, they also have an end.
Sadly, I ran out of my homemade sauce and had to make some more. My
plan this time was to ferment the peppers whole before processing them to see
if this made any difference. My plan was also to use Fresno chilies, like
in the first two recipes, but sometimes the asian market you like going to only
have serrano peppers and jalapeños. So I rolled with it.
I tossed a bunch of serranos, jalapeños and a few thai chilies
into an eight liter bucket with a salt water solution that was roughly 1-cup
pickling salt and 1.5 gallons water. (NOTE: if you read any books about
curing or pickling, they all make distinctions about types of salt. The
grains are different, and thus portions can get messed up.) I then filled
up the bucket to the top with a little bit more water (the benefit being that
it dilutes the salt a little more, and I intend to add a little more salt
later). I placed the bucket at the top of the stairs leading to my
basement. The area is roughly 55-60 degrees, idea for quick fermentation.
About five days later I pull the peppers and process them with
garlic, garlic powder, sugar, fish sauce, a little bit of salt and water from
the fermentation bucket. The house becomes rank with the aroma of
chilies. I happen to love this smell, and it doesn't bother me, but the
aroma gets everyone and it feels like someone pepper sprayed the house.
(Green magic during the boil)
At this point I had a 'fuck it' moment. I could have added
the vinegar and strained the liquid out and be done, but fuck it: I tossed the
paste in a plastic bowl (plastic and glass are great because they are
nonreactive), put some plastic wrap over it and but it back in the basement for
a few more days. Every time you opened the door to the basement, you were
met with the unique aroma of chili, garlic and funk.
When you ferment things at high temperatures (60 degrees and
above) things can turn funky, even sour. That's why I kept fermenting.
After a few more days I pull the paste; added white vinegar;
boiled the paste; coughed a lot (that shit was STRONG!), and strained the
liquid. The end result was spicy, briny, a little sour and a little
savory. Everything I intended it to be. You could even taste grassiness
from the green peppers, something that wasn't present when using red Fresno's.
Its flavors had surpassed sriracha experiments #1. Dare I even call
it sriracha any more? The twice-fermented elixir I had created had a
taste beyond its predecessors. It was aggressive, in your face, and pleasantly
weird. I think Andrew Zimmern would have been proud.
(Straining the liquid: The paste is kinda chunky, so I used a big colander first and then a finer mesh strainer )
(The final product)
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