Hot Sauce (The chilli plant part one)

Two songs went around my head as I was making this. As I started chopping the Habanero Chillis I was happily singing 'I'll bring the hot sauce', a line from Unhappy by Outkast. However, half an hour after finishing chopping the chillis, the chorus from Kasabian's Fire came to mind as my hands started burning. The lesson? Wear gloves when chopping habanero chillis. We have an abundance of habaneros on one of our chilli plants at the moment and unless you're one of those people who goes for the hottest thing on the menu at an Indian restaurant it is tricky to use them all up. So I decided to preserve them in a Tabasco-style hot sauce. You may not want to have it on your chips but it's great splashed on a cheese feast pizza. This is the first of four recipes using the habaneros. I have also made a vegetarian chilli (which is very much like my other vegetarian chilli), huevos rancheros and a jerk halloumi salad. Recipes for those coming soon...

Ingredients
85 ml water
25 ml red wine vinegar
2 habanero chillis
1 red pepper
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp salt

Recipe
1) Grind the cumin seeds in a coffee grinder or bash them up in a pestle and mortar. Chop the red pepper and habanero chillies and put in a saucepan with the water, red wine vinegar, spices and salt. Bring all of the ingredients to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
2) You can either transfer this into a food processer and use the stick blender to puree the mixture. I'd recommend using a food processor in order to avoid hot sauce splashing into your eyes.
3) Sterilise a 150ml jar by washing it in warm soapy water before putting it in a low oven (100c) for 10 minutes. Then pour the hot sauce into the jar and seal.