Fermented Avocado White Ghost Salsa

Fermented Ingredients (265 days):
• Tomatillos 90g
• Yellow Onions 105g
• Jalapenos 90g
• Brine (3.5%) 1/2 Cups

Fresh Ingredients:
• Tomatillos 492g
• Garlic 21g
• Yellow Onions 244g
• White Ghost Peppers 27g
• Serrano Peppers 51g
• Avocados 134 g
• Cilantro 25g
• Water 1 Cups
• Limes 1 Juiced
• Salt 1 tsp

Peel and wash the fresh tomatillos, boil until the color changes and reserve a cup of the water. Saute the fresh onion, serranos, garlic, and ghost peppers in olive oil until they start to char. Add all ingredients to blender and blend on low for thirty seconds. Refrigerate, keeps for two weeks. 

Notes:
• Guacamole ferment
• A few notes implented from my first batch. I added more fresh ingredients and tried to balance out the salt. Better consistency and better proportions
• More or less successful, very salty because I had to add an extra half teaspoon to balance out the bitter avocado I bought. No idea why, it was perfectly ripe
• Glad I used the brine for this instead of a different ferment
• Still a bit sour, maybe the lime could be omitted
• Very tangy though, nice kick playing with the heat 
• Also hotter than  usual. I added an extra pepper and I like the heat but it eclipses the base sauce a bit
• This moved in the direction I wanted. Good tang with less acid, very addictive
• Still just a bit too sour. Maybe fermenting the tomatillos aren't the play, lose the lime. Also use a better avocado, less salt, and this salsa might be what I wanted it to be

Garlic Reaper

Fermented Ingredients (391 days):
• Carolina Reapers 87g
• Yellow Reapers 89g
• Garlic 33g
• Brine 1 Cup

Fresh Ingredients:
• Garlic 322g
• Red Bell Peppers 182g
• Sweet Onions 255g
• Limes 1.5 Juiced
• Salt 1/2 tsp
• White Vinegar 1.25 Cups
• Xanthan Gum 1/8 tsp

Slice up the onion and bell pepper and saute in olive oil until it starts to lose color and char. Remove and add the garlic, cooking until golden brown. It's very important not to let this burn. Once cooked, add everything except the xanthan to the blender and blend on high for five minutes. Simmer afterwards on low for 20 minutes and let cool. Reblend with the xanthan gum on low for sixty seconds, bottle and refrigerate

Notes:
• Six or seven heads of garlic hand peeled, took about an hour
• On the fence about adding sugar but decided against it for a more savory flavor
• Good viscosity, thick but moves around easily
• I like the color but this could have been lightened up easily with a different bell pepper
• Moving through all my old ferments. I have one last jar from this era that I might just let ride long term for science
• I let a friend at work rate this, he's seasoned but not a regular and gave it a 7/10 for heat
• Garlic has a strong back bone but still doesn't really stand out as much as I like. I threw in a ton so I wonder how much more you need to stand up to the heat of this many reapers
• A little basic. I can appreciate that but also I think this could be punched up a bit. Heat kind of blinds everything 
• Measurements done post ferment, so there's some water weight to them. Dry weight's maybe 3/4 of  this

Frank A 'Fermented' Bitch

Fermented Ingredients (365 days):
• Carolina Reaper 155g
• Garlic 61g

Fresh Ingredients:
• White Vinegar 2 Cups
• Salt 1/2 tbs
• Lime 1/2 Juiced
• Xanthan Gum 1/4 tsp 

Add all ingredients except the xanthan to the blender and blend on high for 5 minutes. Simmer afterwards for 20 minutes skimming the solids off the top. Reblend with the xanthan for ninety seconds, bottle and refrigerate 

Notes:
• One year ferment! Also a twist on the Frank series I've been meaning to do
• All measurements done post ferment. There's likely a lot of water absorbed so fresh ingredients are maybe 75% of the posted weight
• Spurred by the idea of a buffalo sauce base which is next weeks project
• Maybe a half cup of brine I'm saving for some sauerkraut/ other ferments 
• Originally 1/8 xanthan but that was too watery
• Frank with a tang. Not as hot as his counterparts but fun and tasty none the less

Buffalo Reaper

Fermented Ingredients (365 days):
• Carolina Reaper 155g
• Garlic 61g

Fresh Ingredients:
• Unsalted butter 12 tbs
• Red Pepper Flakes 1 tsp
• Cayenne Pepper Powder 2 tsp
• Smoked Paprika 1 tsp
• Honey 1 tbs
• White Vinegar 2 Cups
• Salt 1/2 tbs
• Lime 1/2 Juiced

Start by making a base sauce blending the peppers and garlic with the vinegar, salt, and lime juice on high for 5 minutes. Simmer that afterwards (wearing a mask) skimming the solids off the top, and let cool. Soften the butter in a microwave, add the remaining ingredients, blend everything together on high for another 5 minutes. Yields about 25oz 

Notes:
• First and foremost serve warm. When cold the butter starts to set and you're left with a whip cream texture. It's fine to store in the fridge or whatever but don't expect to use it efficiently
• To make this I used the frank a bitch sauce recipe as a base and added things from there (about 20oz). A lot of recipes I saw online suggested using equal parts liquid oz to butter tbs, which sounded disgusting to me especially when I consider all the fatty foods I'll probably put this on
• 12 tbs was almost too much even given the consistency
• Texture itself when warm is really good though. Very creamy but still pours fine
• Pretty hot but the butter tames it a bit. Using fresh peppers would probably be hotter
• I saw some people adding mustard to their buffalo sauces and I might try it next time
• Trying this fresh I thought I went overboard with all the spice and honey but they've all really come together nicely a week later
• Really nice tang from the ferment
• Maybe scale back the salt just a tiny bit but it tastes fine

Raw Hatch Tequila Lime

Fermented Ingredients (166 days):
• Hatch Peppers 154g
• Yellow Onion 104g
• Music Garlic 46g
• Brine 3/4 Cups

Fresh Ingredients:
• Yellow Onion 292g
• Green Bell Peppers 138g
• Garlic 30g
• Cilantro 22g
• Limes 2 Juiced
• Tequila (Camp Bravo) 1.5 oz
• Salt 1/2 tbs
• White Vinegar 1.5 Cups
• Water 1/2 Cups
• Xanthan Gum 1/4 tsp

Saute the green bells and onions in olive oil until they start to char. Add the fresh garlic and cook until that browns also. Add all ingredients except the xanthan gum to the blender and blend on high for five minutes. Simmer lightly for 20 minutes, skimming the solids off the top. Reblend on low with the xanthan gum for sixty seconds, bottle and refrigerate

Notes: 
• Ferment from summer of last year. I sealed it off thinking the jar had settled and noticed the jar had been slowly leaking fluid and now I have a big black ring in my cupboard. Honestly blessed it didn't explode, but I decided just to use it now so I didn't have to worry about it again
• First all raw hatch batch. The chili itself is a bit lighter than everything else I've made this recipe with. It's not bad but there's not as much flavor as a serrano or jalapenos. It allows all the other ingredients to come through a bit more, but I like the stronger pepper flavor 
• Ended up doubling up the xanthan gum, going forward I'll keep it there
• Used an entire medium onion, I've liked the recipes where I use half of a large one better. Next batch keep it under 200g
• Use fresh limes. I had one bought the night before and one the week before, I got x4 more juice from the fresh one
• Solid batch, I'm happy with it

Aguitas Moritas b3

Fermented Ingredients (132 days):
• Morita Peppers 67g
• Yellow Onions 127g
• Georgia Fire Garlic 30g
• Brine 1/4 Cups

Fresh Ingredients:
• Chili de Arbol 9g
• Yellow Onions 165g
• Red Bell Peppers 113g
• Garlic 28g
• Red Moruga Scorpions 7g
• Concord Crisp Apples 117g
• Honey 1.5 tbs
• Salt 1 tsp
• Brown Sugar 1.5 tbs
• Paprika 1/2 tbs
• Cumin 1 tsp
• Cinnamon Stick 2"
• Lime 1/2 Juiced
• Water 1.5 Cups
• White Vinegar 1 Cups
• Xanthan Gum 1/8 tsp

Lightly toast the arbol and remove. Saute onions and bell peppers until they start to char, then add the garlic and cook until it browns. Skin and core the apples while that cooks. Add everything to the blender except he cinnamon stick and xanthan gum and blend on high for five minutes. Afterward simmer with the cinnamon stick for thirty minutes or until the sauce really starts to thicken, adding more water if necessary. Reblend with the xanthan gum on low for ninety seconds, bottle and refrigerate.

Notes:
• New idea here was to and some cumin and cinnamon and see what happens. Both at the same time start to play together a little bit but ultimately the two flavors contrast a bit too much when you really start to pick it apart. I think both idea would have been more successful independent of each other
• Cumin competes with the moritas for the dominant flavor which I don't like. A whole teaspoon was too much, half to a quarter would have worked better
• Paprika is a bit lost in all the flavor but grounds everything
• Cinnamon maybe needed a second stick but a reduced cook time. The sauce will reduce faster than it can pick up the cinnamon, and I had to add a half cup of water to the simmer to get the consistency back. I just added an extra half cup to the recipe to account for that
• The cinnamon is a nice spice during the holidays at least. I don't know if I'd want this if it's warm outside
• Consistency is the best of all three batches so far. Very thick but doesn't stick
• Fun ideas but I like the second batch recipe better

Honey Garlic Habanero b2

Fermented Ingredients (355 days):
• Habaneros 127g
• Brine 1 Cup 

Fresh Ingredients:
• Sweet Onions 267g
• Garlic 197g
• Orange Bell Peppers 146g
• Honey 6 oz
• Salt 1 tsp
• White Vinegar 1 Cups
• Xanthan Gum 1/8 tsp

Saute the onions and bells until they start to char. Remove and add all the garlic, also sauteing until golden brown. Keep your eye on this and make sure it doesn't burn. Remove, combine all ingredients in blender. Blend on high for 5 minutes, then simmer on low for 20 minutes skimming solids off the top. Cool, then reblend with the xanthan gum on low for 60 seconds. Bottle, refrigerate. 

Notes:
• I was really unsatisfied with the honey garlic rush recipe so I pulled half the habs and some brine from a large fermented jar and threw together this recipe really fast. Explains why there's no garlic or onions in the ferment
• Regular grocery store garlic from here on till July, I think this was 4 heads worth
• A little more garlic and a little less honey in this batch, I think those were good moves
• A little bit more onion too, not super notable
• The store was out of yellow bells so I used an orange. The color is fun but I think I like the lighter better, this has a sickly carrot like orange. Not off putting, but not as appetizing
• A lot of heat from the habs, a bit surprised actually
• Perfect consistency between the honey and xanthan gum
• I don't have a bottle of the original recipe to compare, but really good and not needing much improving. I tried punching it up with the honey garlic ferment and then again with the sugar rush peppers. I think the simplicity here and just liking this for what it is makes this one of my more popular recipes