Using up the ghost peppers: ghost pepper salsa

[Mosca]

This is a really straightforward salsa, very simple. I’ve posted it before, I’m pretty sure, but with habaneros. I doubled this recipe, it scales exactly. I prefer this hot salsa to hot sauce; it has a freshness and brightness that you don’t get from the fermented sauces and simmered sauces. The tradeoff is that it doesn’t last as long. It’s at its best for about 5 days, and lasts about 2-3 weeks.

3 oz hot peppers (habaneros, scotch bonnets, ghosts, scorpions, reapers, whatever you got)
2-3 large garlic cloves, unpeeled
2 Tbsp lime juice
1/4 cup water
1 tsp salt

In a medium hot skillet, roast the peppers and the unpeeled garlic until blistered. Let cool, then add to a blender with the water, lime juice, and salt. (Peel the garlic.) Blend until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasonings. (I like a little more lime, garlic, and salt.)

My peppers are on the low end of the Scoville, for ghosts. Maybe 750k? I’d put this sauce around 250k, most of the mass is in the habaneros and Scotch bonnets. This is fine; it’s about as hot as eating straight really hot habaneros. Pepperheads, you’ll smile. But it’s not over the top. Hardcore pepperheads will find it pleasant, but not overbearing. I plan to use it on omelets and eggs, mostly. And mixed with mayonnaise it makes a killer burger sauce. That said, it is not for novices. If you top out at Sriracha or Cholula, stay away.

Of the superhots, I like the flavor of ghosts the best, followed by scorpions, and reapers last. (Habaneros and serranos are my favorites for pure taste.) Reapers taste like hot weeds to me. Ghosts are fruity, scorpions are okay. I’ve never tasted a pepper X/Apollo straight up, and don’t really need to.


I harvested the serranos, but they aren’t in this recipe. We got, clockwise from upper left: serranos, Scotch bonnets, ghosts, and habaneros.



Into the skillet. I added a couple habaneros from the supermarket to bring the total to 6oz.



Roast them until they look like this.




Then let everything cool (it only takes a few minutes). Peel the garlic, and put the peppers, garlic, salt, lime juice, and water into a blender and buzz it up until it’s smooth!




Taste and adjust the seasonings. I like a little more garlic, lime juice, and salt. (One clove of garlic softens in the microwave in 12 seconds. If you let it go 20 seconds, it explodes.) Using 6oz of peppers (double the recipe posted) gives 3 4oz jars. It’s better to use more, smaller, jars, they’ll last longer.

[texastweeter]

Your ranking of flavor on super boys is exactly like mine. Of habaneros, I prefer the scotch bonnet over the rest.

[Mosca]

I can’t get the scotch bonnets here. I remember them from visiting Jamaica; that was the first really hot pepper I ever bit right into, back in the ‘80s. It didn’t look hot.

[Johnny Booth]

Whew. That’s a hot sauce. I can do Habs raw, but no seeds. Cooking helps tone down some of the heat to let the flavors come out, but the seeds are too much for the family. Never tried ghosts or reapers. The Habs are about as hot as we can take. 🥵

[Mosca]

I’ve found the cooking habaneros definitely tones them down some. They still pack the initial hit, but the sustain is gone. This is the first I’ve ever made this salsa with ghosts, and I think the same thing applies. It carries a huge first wallop, but after that you get the sweetness and fruitiness of the peppers and garlic and limes.