A Preponderance of Peppers

For those of you who may not be in the know about my idiosyncrasies, let me just expose one of them right here and right now.   I think vinegar sucks.  Acetic acid in any form – cider, balsamic, white, what have you   –    it is all anathema.   Yuck to the n^th degree.  I am guessing you haven't put much thought into this, but there are times when I feel that vinegar is in everything.  It isn't, I know, and other folks with much more serious aversions (read here actual allergies) have it much worse than I do, but let me say this:   vinegar is in pretty much every condiment out there and they all make me want to vomit.


      Happily for me, and before I lose you entirely with my talk of throwing up, I also am pleased to share that this year I have a GLUT of peppers from my garden.  I am not sure what exactly happened, but the peppers have run amok.  I suspect the incredibly high heat this summer (55 days of 90 degrees or above) may have had something to do with it.  My garden is a jungle of 15-20 types of peppers and most of them have done well.  Every year new peppers pop up as volunteers; and this year, I seem to have at least 5 volunteer new crosses between Thai peppers and several of my other last-year peppers growing in places where I did not expect peppers at all.   Perhaps I'll pull a Mendel and save some seeds from the most interesting ones and see what the next generation yields.   It is an odd thing to have what looks like a typical Thai chili pepper that is normally damn hot (50,000-100,000 on the Scoville scale:  Habenero is just above it) and to take a bite only to find it has no heat at all -- Zippo on the Scoville.  A boring bland thing all dressed to kill.     Inappropriate pepper friskiness has yielded some losers among the winners, but that could be an entirely different post.   Thankfully, most of my peppers are fabulously varied in excellent ways and most of them are hot hot hot.

      
I have digressed.   My point with all of this is that I made my first hot sauce today --  I am so excited!   In general, commercial hot sauces (read here condiment) are vinegar-laden and very Kim-unfriendly.  There are the occasional sauces that you can buy from websites or specialty stores, but in general, I'm out of luck.   And so, here I am with a fresh batch of incredibly hot hot sauce made from fresh chilis and I'm really not sure what to do with it, but I am sure I will find lots and lots of new and delicious opportunities.  Grilled chicken, for example, was awesome with a bit of the magic condiment drizzled about.  It also complimented the fresh garden green beans which were nestled on a bed of spinach on the side.  Doors have been unlocked and eyes have been opened today.  
          Bring on the sauce!    Bring on the Sauce!  Bring On The Sauce!