Smoked Cayenne Pepper and Roasted Garlic Hot Sauce

Red and yellow Cayenne peppers,
Fajita Bell peppers, small, red bell peppers,
onion, garlic and end-of-the-season tomatoes
and three carrots (not shown) go into this
 scalp-sweating hot sauce!

   This year we are growing cayenne peppers in the garden.  One of the great things about cayenne peppers is the amount of yield a couple of plants will give you.  I planted both red, standard US style cayennes and something new I had never seen before.  A yellow colored cayenne pepper from Central America.  At the end of the day the red peppers are larger and produce at least twice as many peppers (probably more) per plant.  Cayenne has a lot of uses and I have pretty much run out of ideas for using them up.  I have dried peppers and crushed them for crushed peppers to add to any dish, like pizza, and powdered them for use in recipes and against ants.  So I tried something new; hot sauce. First I looked at a bunch of recipes on line, on YouTube, etc, and I figured out pretty quickly that hot sauce is very versatile.  Stay tuned for my chili paste!  That's next, maybe.  If you like the roasted chili, Thai stye hot sauce, this is for you.
   I smoked about a pound of cayennes, three fajita bell peppers, and a couple of small "pimento" red bell peppers over hickory smoke in a wire basket for about two hours.  The fajita bell peppers come from Bonnie Plants and taste wonderful!  I'll be growing more next year. The small red "pimento" peppers have an awesome taste as well.  Smoking them over hickory smoke gives them a flavor that will make you want to eat them before they ever get to the sauce.  Some of the skins may blacken a little but that is fine.
   I roasted the garlic head whole as I smoked the peppers.  I cut the bottom from the head, drizzled it in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, added about a teaspoon of kosher salt, a sprinkle of white pepper, wrapped it up in tin foil and placed it near the fire.  In fact, I placed it on top of the cast Iron box that holds the wood for smoking.  When it was done the meat of the garlic cloves were gooey balls of yumminess. Wait until it cools to peel it. 
   Once your peppers are smoked and your garlic is roasted, which takes about two hours or four to five beers, let the peppers and garlic cool while you prepare the other ingredients.  Cut up a large white onion into large pieces, peel and chop your carrots into chunks.  Peel your garlic.  I dare you not to lick your fingers!  Take about two pounds of tomatoes, peel them by blanching them in boiling water for two minutes then plunging them into ice water and peel off the split skins.  I am using end-of-the-season tomatoes from my garden.  In fact, the only thing that didn't come from my garden is the garlic.
   Put two cups of white vinegar into a stock put.  Add one and one half cups of water and an 8 oz. can of original V8 juice.  Turn the heat to high and start the mixture to boil.  Add about a tablespoon of kosher salt to the boil, then put in the onions and carrots, then the tomatoes, smoked peppers and the roasted garlic.  Let the mixture boil, then place the heat on medium and low-boil it for an hour.  Your house will smell so good the neighbors will come running over to see what's for supper.
   Some of the recipes I saw on-line used pectin to add "body" or thickening to the mixture.  None of them used tomatoes. Use tomatoes.  They taste better and will add the body the others were looking for but didn't know how to get.  When the SHTF, you will be hurting for pectin, not for tomatoes.  You will be the best fed, post-apocalyptic family for miles around.  Maybe you can barter some hot sauce for .22 bullets to shoot small game with.
   Once your mixture is boiled and your house smells like heaven, let the mixture cool to room temperature.  I let mine cool overnight on the stove.  I dreampt all night of eating at Ralph and Kacoo's in Baton Rouge.
   Take your cooled mixture and place some into the blender.  Blend it until it is smooth, them strain it through a wire strainer with a large wooden spoon into a large pot.  This will keep the remaining whole seeds and the larger pieces of pepper skin from getting into the final sauce.  Repeat until it is all blended and strained.  Bottle it in your favorite bottles and refrigerate.  I tend to re-use bottles I like.  In the picture is a re-purposed olive oil bottle with a wine bottle cork in it.  I also used an empty soy sauce bottle and standard canning jars.
   This sauce has a that sumptuous smoked pepper flavor that makes you eat more than you know you should.  It has a good heat, no doubt, but draws you in with the garlic and smoke.  It is not stupid hot.  Man vs. Food will not be doing a challenge on this sauce.  But you may very well wish you had stopped before you did!  Enjoy.