A sweet and exotic hot sauce,
Blueberry, Mint, Lavender and Rosemary,
Spiced up with Sambucca and Habanero.
Perfect for lamb or pork…
Introduction
Each (Habanero) season I try to at least blend one new hot sauce, and so far this is indeed the first one to share with you here. I really wanted a sweet sauce with herbal touches, which explains the choice of ingredients. My first thoughts as perfect food pairing for this one are lamb (in mint marinade!) or spare ribs from the barbecue with this one. As all of my sauces this one is extremely simple and quick to make, so try it out for yourself!
Ingredients
The ingredients below make about 1 liter of hot sauce.
- 600 g of blueberries
- Juice of 3 limes
- 3 (Red) Onions (Chopped up)
- A few branches of fresh mint (only use the leaves)
- A few branches of lavender (only use the flowers)
- A few branches of rosemary (only use the leaves)
- 100 ml Sambucca
- 100 ml Red wine vinegar
- 1 Table spoon of pear syrup (or any other one to taste)
- Salt to taste
- Peppers to taste. I used 10 Habanero’s here
Preparation
As I mentioned before, as all hot sauces I make this one is simple. We toss all the ingredients listed above into the blender and let it do it’s magic. The pictures on the right show before (top) and after (bottom) blending. We obtain a pinkish mixture where fragments of the blueberry skin show dark discolouration. The acidity of the lime juice and red wine vinegar will help in preserving this sauce. When stored at cold temperatures, this one should be fine for months or even years. Note that some fermentation will take place, especially in the first few weeks after mixing it. Personally, I usually like the flavour more as sauces mature, but definitely try that out for yourself too!
The final step is to just poor the mixture into a small pot and slowly bring it to boil. If you want to preserve something chunky, just heat up quickly and then cool down. This will be a more in-your-face kind of version of this sauce. Should you prefer a smoother sauce and a slow-burn, heat it up very slowly and leave it to simmer for a longer time. I typically go for half an hour. After that, the consistency looked like shown in the picture on the left. Leave it to cool down and bottle! Note how over time all of the blueberry skins have dissolved into one smooth sauce…
Serving tips
I know I might be repeating myself here, but I’ll mention my standard serving tips for hot sauces once more, along with some specific ones…
- Try this one on an omelette with breakfast, it always works!
- Use this one to spice and sweet up your curry!
- Works perfect with grilled lamb or pork from the barbecue!
- …or just coat your spare ribs with this one and slow-cook them in the oven! Just replace the marinade in this recipe with Habanero Blues!