Inner Beauty Hot Sauce Knock-Off

[Chris Amirault]

Inner Beauty Hot Sauce Knock-Off

This is a knock-off version of Chris Schlesinger's legendary Inner Beauty Hot Sauce, the last bottle of which is the subject of a topic here. This version is based on perusal of the ingredients list and on the recipe in Big Flavors Of The Hot Sun by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby. However, that recipe is uncooked, whereas this one is cooked.

I've fiddled around with this pretty extensively and like the balance, which resembles closely, to my tongue, that of the original. You can do the same. For example, some of the ingredients that were on-hand in my house (the palm vinegar, say) might not be in yours, and those could easily be substituted. You also might want to add other ingredients -- pineapple juice, say, or ground cloves -- to tweak it. Make it yours.

Inner Beauty is fantastic with fried chicken or fish, dashed into collards, and as a jerk-like marinade base with citrus (orange and lime work well) for just about anything.

• 15 habanero chiles
  
• 1 mango
  
• 1 c yellow mustard
  
• 1/2 c brown sugar
  
• 1/2 c white vinegar
  
• 1/2 c palm vinegar
  
• 1 T curry powder
  
• 1 T cumin
  
• 1 tsp cinnamon
  
• 1 tsp allspice
  
• 1 T ancho chile powder
  
• 3 T salt (or to taste)
  
• 1 T black pepper
  
• 1/4 c molasses
  

Seed and devein the chiles with gloves on, and tear them into smallish bits. Peel the mango and slice it into chunks -- size and shape don't matter, since you'll be blending it. Add the rest of the ingredients in a sauce pan.

Bring the mixture to simmer over medium heat, turn it down to low, and simmer it for an hour or two, stirring now and then. Add water to keep it from scorching. The sauce is done cooking when the mango and chile flesh easily disintegrate under light pressure from your spoon or spatula.

Blend with an immersion blender (or, when cool, in a blender) until the sauce is smooth.

Keywords: Easy, Condiment, Hot and Spicy, Sauce

( RG2025 )