Chili Pepper Water
Ok, this is one of my favorite things in the world. Chili Pepper Water is just two things, Chilies and White Vinegar. That is it. You can buy this in any grocery store. There are lots of cultures and regions that use this sauce in different ways. In the south you see it at BBQ joints and most folks use it on greens. I fell in love with this when I spent time in Lana’i, Hawaii. Most of the locals on Lana’i are a mix of Filipino, Hawaiian, Samoan, and Caucasian. As you can imagine the food in Hawaii is an awesome mixture of all of these cultures crossed with local ingredients. Lots of things are imported so most families rely on what is caught, hunted, or locally grown. Chili Pepper Water was introduced to me while fishing for Ulua. We would set up our fishing rigs for overnight fishing, set up camp, cook big ass dinners, and drink beer on the beach or the cliff side. IT WAS AWESOME. I have some super fond memories of sunsets and beach parties mixed in with some fishing and night diving. Anyway, Chili Pepper Water is used for all sorts of things. It is most often mixed with soy sauce (shoyu) and used as a dipping sauce for tofu, pork, steak, chicken, anything. Mix half and half with soy sauce if you like a less spicy sauce. I like a bit more pepper water in mine. You can add it to greens when cooking or add to them on your plate like folks in the south. I also use this vinegar to add to salad dressings to give them some kick. Use it on pulled pork or use in your BBQ sauces. Basically you can use this in place of plain vinegar if you can handle the chili upgrade. Remember, the longer it sits in the fridge the more it will take on the pepper flavors.
- Glass jar (I re-use olive oil bottles or hot sauce bottles)
- Any kind of chili peppers you like
- I am partial to Thai chilies but you can use jalapeno, Serrano, ghost, habanero
- Add them whole, cut up, with seeds or without…your call
- Add chilies to jar. I use about ¼ of the jar space for the peppers
- Cover with distilled white vinegar
- Experiment with different kinds of vinegar if you like. White wine or rice wine vinegar will add a differnt flavor\acidity.
- Let stand in fridge overnight
- I usually try to make a new batch every few months.