Cole Cooks: Habanero Vodka
As our children have gotten older, they have come to appreciate spicy food. Habanero peppers have a great flavor but can be extremely hot. I learned a method for taming the heat of habanero peppers by soaking in alcohol. This recipe not only tames the peppers but it makes a habanero vodka.
We have done a great deal of experimenting with very hot peppers. This includes making sauces and dishes with the Carolina reaper, the world’s hottest.
A habanero pepper is not as hot as a reaper, but itcan be up to 100 times hotter than a jalapeno. For most dishes you can only use 2 or 3 habanero peppers.
For both the Carolina Reaper and habanero peppers we have developed a hot sauce that can be used sparingly. However, trying to impart the full, rich flavor of habanero’s into a dish can be tough.
I came across a Bon Appetit article that dealt exactly with this issue. This article described how soaking a hot pepper in alcohol removes the heat. The longer you soak the pepper the more heat is removed.
Having experimented with this method, I find it serves double duty. Not only do you get tamed habanero’s for cooking but you get a spicy habanero vodka.
The Bon Appetit recipe was for a pork dish. I have used this method to make a habanero chicken. With some experimenting I have gotten the heat level to spicy but not overwhelming.
The Bon Appetit article suggests soaking habanero peppers in alcohol for half an hour for spicy, 1 hour for medium and 2 hours for mild. We found that soaking the peppers for a full hour leaves them still pretty spicy. This seems to be the fine balance level.
Soaking ten habanero peppers for one hour is enough to make a 1.75 liter bottle of vodka quite spicy. The peppers we use to make a sauce to cook a sous vide chicken that also comes out quite spicy.
We use a less expensive vodka, Trader Joe’s Vodka of the Gods. This bottle only costs $10 and was rated by Uproxx as number two on best vodkas under $20.
Note, we have only used this method for vodka. According to Bon Appetit, it will work with other alcohol such as tequila, rum or whiskey.
If you go online there are many recipes for pepper infused habanero vodka and other drinks. These methods can get fairly complicated.
Our method was simple:
- Cut stems from 10 habaneros and carefully remove seeds
- Put habaneros in a bowl and cover with vodka from a 1.75 liter bottle
- Soak habaneros in vodka for an hour and remove for use
- Pour vodka from bowl back into 1.75 bottle for habanero vodka
Of course, habanero peppers need to be handled with care. You need to wear gloves and scrub every piece of equipment that comes in touch with the peppers.
This is a great method because you can get a full flavor of habaneros in a dish that is spicy but not overwhelming. In addition, the habanero vodka has a spicy flavor that encourages slow sipping.
Be sure and check out our recipe for habanero hot sauce! We also have done a hot sauce with the Carolina Reaper, the world’s hottest pepper!
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