8.07.2008

Infusing...This Time With Wine

For those of you who are familiar with Bermuda, you are also familiar with that most wonderful of Bermudian condiments: Sherry peppers. Since I have been cooking regularly, I have found that I am almost unable to cook without my secret ingredient, the aforementioned sherry peppers. They are quite hard to come by in the States, and I didn't get to Bermuda this year.

What to do? Well, I could just get off my lazy butt and, you know, make them. In addition, Outerbridges, the only company which makes sherry peppers commercially (as well as rum and sherry-rum peppers) gets quite the pretty penny for them: $7 for a five ounce bottle or $23 for a fifth. On the other hand, I can make a batch of about half a liter of peppers for under ten bucks, and about ten minutes of my time. Moreover, I can then customize the sauce to my liking.
Sherry Peppers (Basic Recipe)
  • 2 c. - Sherry (Amontillado, preferably, just stay away from cream sherry)
  • 3-6 - Hot Peppers, quartered (Bird peppers or Scotch Bonnets would be traditional, but go with what you like.)
Allow to steep for at least two weeks, and up to a month, then strain and bottle.
There you go. Simple, easy, and while it takes a while, it barely takes any active time. However, I wanted to get a bit more flavour out of my sauce. If it was really that easy, the Outerbridges would be out of business. To get a bit more flavour out, I used a mix of peppers, and added a little more spice:
Scrivenal Spiced Sherry Peppers #1
  • 640 mL - Sherry (Taylor Gold)
  • 1 tsp - Ginger root, grated
  • 1 - Scotch bonnet pepper, quartered
  • 2 - Jalapeno peppers, quartered
  • 25 - Cloves, whole
  • 1 nut - Nutmeg, coarsely crushed
  • 1 stick - Cinnamon
  • 10 - Peppercorns, whole
Put ginger root, peppers, and sherry in airtight jar and allow to infuse for two weeks. Add cinnamon stick and peppercorns, and infuse for two more weeks. Add cloves and nutmeg and infuse for one to two days. Strain, season appropriately, and bottle.
That is the recipe I am following. Hopefully it will work out. I am hoping to get more complexity out of this batch, preferably something which I can also use as cocktail bitters.

This is the second of four posts I am presenting for Wine Blogging Wednesday. You can read the others from the original post, which you can find here.

This is the the first of several posts documenting my August Dramproject.

Well, that's all I got. Enjoy,
The Scribe

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, this looks very tasty. I'm going to have to try to make some of this.

Tiare said...

I agree with Dood, it looks very tasty and interesting, will try it too!

Keep up the good work!

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