Fermenting things - chili sauce

Currently I am quite obsessed with fermenting. Some will say,that this is obvious due to my job (duh), but I don't mean using alcoholic products. Here I mean lactose-fermentation, salt curing, vinegar curing, pickling and so on.

And I don't really do enough in my eyes.

Yesterday I have seen Fresno peppers and cherry peppers, when I did my grocery shopping. I bought them both. I did my own siracha a couple of weeks ago, but the 200ml bottle is almost finished. This time I will do more, and with mixed peppers, for a more nuanced character (well, one cannot really complain about my siracha... It was plenty of characterful, spicy and funky. But more is better, isn't it?).

The process is simple: cut chiles into small pieces (you can use your food processor, if you have one - I don't). I took the better part of membrane and seeds out, as I wanted to taste a bit more than only fire... You can leave them in (some are even using insane hot habaneros, which are surprisingly often available here in the Middle East).

Then you can put them in a jar. Last time I used a foodsaver bag and vacuumed sealed the chilis. This is not necessary, however you have to be prepared, that mold can spread if you don't vacuum there. In a lot of forums, they tend to advise just to discard the upper part of the produce which is moldy. But I am not that far yet.

You should however not "100%" vacuum the food (e.g. in a commercial chamber sealer) - as botulinum is spreading in anaerobic environments. And this critter is about the most toxic microorganism around...

Anyway this time I put the chiles into a Kilner jar. I added the salt (use sea salt or rock salt which isn't fluorined) 3.5% of the weight, added two coves of garlic; and muddled everything. Yeah, a wooden muddled was about the right tool for this.

Then I sealed it with my nifty foodsaver jar attachment and put it on the counter.

Don't screw the jar-ring tight, as at a certain point the CO2 out of the fermentation will need some space. 

I will ferment it around 1 week.

After it is fermented, I will blend it and probably will cook it with the addition of vinegar. Point is, that it would be perfectly fine to keep it as it is... But cooking makes it more "siracha'like". If you don't heat it up, it will be healthier, though, as lacto-bacillus is very supportive for your ingestion-system as it is for your immune system.

I will decide in a couple of days...