I really love hot sauce. A few years ago I started making my own hot sauce from recipes I made up myself. I looked at a few sample recipes but mainly just experimented with the basic ingredients that make up hot sauce, which are really just:

• Chiles (dry or fresh)
• Salt
• Vinegar
• Water

Anything else you add brings extra flavor, which could be things like fresh garlic or onions, spices or even nuts or seeds.

I keep a notebook of recipes that I started numbering from #1. I would make up a new batch, number it, and then bring it to work for my co-workers to try. Some batches were great, while others were just ok. A few were really bad. A few of my closest co-workers got really hooked on the hot sauce and used to ask for more by batch number. One of the most common requests I got was for batch #19, which is based on fresh orange habaneros, onion, and carrots. It’s hot but really good.

After I moved to NYC in 2010 I stopped making hot sauce for a while since my kitchen was a bit smaller and I didn’t have good ventilation (which is critical!) I recently decided to make up a batch of an old favorite recipe, #27. That recipe previously involved cooking fresh orange habaneros on the barbecue until they were blackened. Since I don’t have any outdoor space or a bbq now, I used a cast iron skillet to get some color on the habaneros. I also couldn’t find orange habaneros in the fall so used green ones. They didn’t seem nearly as hot as the orange ones but still packed a lot more heat than a jalapeno. The final sauce was still really tasty!!!

Here is the rough recipe:

• About 30 orange or green habaneros (washed, whole)
• One sweet onion (peeled and cut in half)
• Four garlic cloves (peeled)
• One tablespoon of salt (to taste)
• Vinegar
• Water

Put habaneros into a cast iron skillet or on the barbecue until they start getting blackened a bit. Add the onion and garlic and cook until habaneros are soft and well charred. Onion should be soft. Garlic will still be firm but have a bit of charring. Remove stem and core from habaneros by pulling the stem with your fingers while holding the habanero with a fork or something besides your hands (since you want to keep skin contact to a minimum.) It should come out fairly easily. Don’t worry about leaving seeds or some of the core. Add habaneros, onion and garlic into a blender or food processor and add vinegar and water (50/50) until there is just enough for it to blend well. Blend until fairly smooth.

Dump the blender into a strainer and pass the mixture through to remove any remaining seeds and skin. Press this well with a spoon to make sure you get all the good stuff. Add vinegar and water until the remaining mixture is about the consistency of hot sauce. It will thicken a bit when it sits so it can be on the thin side.

Now comes the fun part. Add about a teaspoon of the salt and taste. It’s going to be hot. Keep adding salt until it tastes slightly salty. Keep some cold water or milk handy while you’re doing this. It’s going to be a lot hotter right now than it will be in a week so just hang in there. You might also need to add extra vinegar if you like it a little more sour. Once it tastes right, bottle it and keep it in the refrigerator. There should be enough salt and vinegar to keep anything from growing in it, even at room temperature, but it will likely last longer in the fridge.

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Khao Soi or Kao Soi (pronounced like cow soy, *I think*) has this strange personality disorder.  It’s a soupy, spicy, curry-like dish with noodles and meat.  Yet, it’s not really a noodle dish, nor a soup, nor a curry.  It is a brilliant blend of flavors and textures commonly served in Northern Thailand and Laos. I had this at a local Thai restaurant last week and am now hooked on this simply yet complex dish.

I did some googling and found quite a few recipes for Khao Soi that were all really similar and very simple.  This made it quite easy to put together my own version.  The key is keeping each part of the equation that makes this so tasty- sweet, sour, salty, spicy and creamy.  The classic recipe is already pretty frugal so it’s easy to make a ton of this on a budget.

Frugal Khao Soi

• 1T oil
• 1T Thai red curry paste (spicy)
• 1t turmeric
• 1 cup (or 1/2 a can) coconut milk (creamy)
• 2T fish sauce (salty)
• 1t chicken bouillon (salty)
• 1 cup water
• 1t sugar (sweet)
• 1 raw chicken breast, sliced thinly
• 2-3 cups Chinese egg noodles, cooked
• 1/2 lime, juiced (sour)
• Fresh cilantro

Heat a wok or other deep pan to medium and add oil, red curry paste and turmeric and stir constantly for a minute or two until the paste has fully mixed with the oil and is getting fragrant.  Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, bouillon, water and sugar.  Simmer for a few minutes until everything is well blended.  Add the chicken and simmer until just cooked.  Put the cooked noodles into two bowls (or one if you’re really hungry).  Pour curry sauce over noodles and add a squeeze of lime and some fresh cilantro.  Add more fish sauce if it’s not salty enough for your taste.

This was delicious but not spicy enough for my tastes.  Next time I’m going to add some hot chile too.  Don’t be scared off by the Thai red curry paste or fish sauce.  Most supermarkets carry both items in the Asian food aisle.  The Thai red curry paste comes in a small jar and lasts a long time.  The fish sauce is in a larger bottle and also lasts a long time.  Both add incredible depth to this dish.  It’s definitely worth getting them.  The Chinese egg noodles are often refrigerated near the tofu but you could also use spaghettini, spaghetti or angel hair pasta.

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I just received the Nov 2008 issue of Chile Pepper magazine (yes, I actually do get a magazine called Chile Pepper) and found an article called “Embracing What’s Left” that has recipes for using left overs to make some spicy dishes.  I’ve been getting Chile Pepper magazine for many years and this is the first such article I can remember.

The recipes included are pretty straight forward but have some good ideas for different ways to use up left overs.  Here is a summary of the recipes:

• Hot and Sweet Asian Leftover Salad – A hot, sweet, sour and salty dressing over leftover turkey, chicken or ham with shredded cabbage, glass noodles and vegetables.
• Leftover Stuffing Hash – This is more like a stuffing frittata with onions, bell peppers, leftover turkey and stuffing sauteed and then mixed with eggs and cream and finished under the broiler.
• Wild Rice and Leftover Salad – Wild rice and left over turkey with dried cherries, pecans, chiles and vegetables drizzled with a dressing of cranberry sauce, dijon mustard, champagne vinegar and olive oil.
• Leftover Pot Pie – Just like it sounds using a prepared pie crust.  Personally, I’d make the crust myself.
• Leftover Mish Mosh – Pureed cooked brussels sprouts and root vegetables with an egg as binder started in a skillet and then transferred to the oven.

The specifics of the recipes aren’t that important.  Take the ideas and make your own variations on these using ingredients you already have that you know your family likes.

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