Sriracha sauce

Mike Hultquist offers homemade sriracha in both fresh-pepper and fermented versions. This profile follows his fresh-pepper recipe, using red chillies, garlic, light brown sugar, granulated sugar, rice wine vinegar, water and sea salt.

Hultquist says his homemade sauce has a thinner consistency than the store-bought version he compares it with. He offers red jalapeños, Fresno peppers or red Thai peppers as choices for the chilli mixture.

The selected fresh peppers are roughly chopped and put in a pot with the garlic, both sugars, vinegar, water and salt. The mixture is brought to a quick boil, then simmered.

The cooked mixture cools before it is processed in a food processor or blender until smooth. A fine-mesh strainer is offered to remove the solids before the sauce is poured into bottles.

Hultquist describes adjusting the sauce’s thickness through the amount of water and the cooking time. His fresh-pepper formula gives a smaller water amount for a thicker sauce and a larger amount for a thinner one.