hot sauce

The Hot Sauce Happy Family. Charif Recipe

 Meet the Hot Sauce Happy Family:

Harissa, Schug, Salsa, Chutney, Hot Pepper Jelly, Charif. When life gives you hot peppers, make hot sauce!

One Saturday night, Erev Purim, my daughter Bella complained that she had placed her Shabbos produce order online, and that something got lost in cyber-translation, turning 4 hot hot peppers and 6 tomatoes into 4 pounds hot peppers and 6 pounds plum tomatoes. But since she had just mentioned she was still looking for one more interesting item to put in her  Purim Baskets for Mishloach Manot, I had an inspiration: Let’s make Salsa! I said. Let’s make Charif! said my Israeli son in law (duh! what do you expect?) Let’s make Schug! said one of her guests, let’s make Harissa, said a Moroccan Food Enthusiast! How about Salsa Verde, said yet another guest. Hey about Hot Pepper Jelly? Oh wait: Apricot Chutney? Or Apple Chutney?

The hot sauce possibilities are endless!

And I’m sure you have noticed: every cuisine swears their hot stuff is the best. But why choose between all the great possibilities? I make all of them, and slather them happily in my sandwiches, or on the side with fish, meat, falafel, cheese and much more. This post gives you several of my hot sauce recipes. Yum! Just remember to wear rubber gloves. Oh yes, and serve it on the side, as some like it hot, and some not so hot.

When Life gives you Peppers,Make Hot Sauce!

Bella has just come up with this parody on the old lemons-lemonade adage

Thus the fabulous hot sauce was born spontaneously, as it were, from our hot-pepper-tomato-overload  serendipity: She made many people happy, including some Israeli friends who dunked their pita in it with a vengeance at a Purim party she took a vat to, and just last night, three days after the party, I distinctly remember her husband clamoring for more of that hot-sauce-charif-schug-salsa-whatever-you-call-that-mean-stuff: One big happy spicy family! Go Bella: Chip off the old block: I adore you!

So here comes! I am cutting the recipe to size, but of course feel free to receive the wrong produce order and multiply the recipe! Make it for Passover too!

PS: Dear faint-of-heart:

Can’t take the heat? No offense, but just stick to ketchup, OK?

3 replies
  1. Matt
    Matt says:

    Hi Lévana. Thanks for this… always looking for anothe way to bring the heat! Before I try this, I must ask… dry coriander. Do you mean seeds? Paprika- hot, smoked ? Do you dry roast the cumin (seeds) too? Maybe best I taste as I go, always leads to the best outcome.

    • Lévana
      Lévana says:

      Matt, it is always important (we are assuming we are starting out with GOOD professional recipes) to take the instructions literally. Dry coriander is always coriander seeds. Paprika is regular paprika (not hot, not smoked). Ground cumin is ground cumin. Unless otherwise instructed, what you see in a recipe is exactly what it is.

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