Have you ever tasted lava? Well you’re about to. 🙂 It seems that lime and pepper are enemies because when they are together it is all out war. Or is it a marriage? Where they complement each other so much that they bring out the best in each other. I’m still puzzled at the hotness factor of this sauce – certainly not like the regular pepper sauce.
Hot Pepper
Many people love hot peppers and cannot do without them in their meals. However, their are many types of hot peppers. In this recipe you can use the type that is available where you live. In Trinidad we have a wide variety of hot pepper: Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, 7 Pot Brown (Chocolate 7 Pot), 7 Pot Pod Douglah (Trinidad Douglah),
7 Pod, Trinidad Scorpion Pepper, 7 Pot Brains Strain, 7 Pot Barrackpore, 7 Pot Jonah, Trinidad Scorpion Cardi, Trinidad 7 Pot/Pod, and Trinidad Perfume.
A little pepper can do wonders. Here are some interesting things I learnt about hot pepper.
- It is great to relieve headaches and migranes. Pepper contains capsaicin, which helps numb the brains trigeminal nerve.
- Pepper eaters live longer. Pepper fight inflammation and obesity.
- It can help clear runny nose.
- It can speed up the metabolism. Again the capsaicin helps you lose weight.
- It helps control pain.
- It can soothe arthritis. You can take it with other pain relievers.
- Hot peppers can help you fight cancer (such cancers as: colon, liver, lung, pancreatic cancers and leukemia.
- It helps preserve food.
- Hot peppers contain antioxidants, vitamin A, B, C and E. It can therefore boast your health.
A Marriage of Lime and Pepper
When we made this, the slightest taste of the lime pepper sauce had us running for cold water. Yes, I know a pepper lover like me running for water. Possibly it could have been the type of pepper used; they did have a slight roughness on the skin; could have been a “warmer” variation of seven pot for all I know. But that warm was still too hot.
Of course it could have been the direct sunlight in which we placed the bottle in outside. Whatever the reason, all I can say is be warned and do have a glass of milk close by :-). Here’s Lime Pepper Sauce.
Lime Pepper Sauce Recipe
LIME PEPPER SAUCE
Ingredients:
3 limes, seeded and sliced
12 hot peppers
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons salt
½ cup water
Direction:
Choose peppers of different colours. Prepare the peppers. Wash and clean. Chop the peppers. Set aside.
Put the sliced limes to boil in ½ cup of water
Set aside to cool.
Prepare the bottle and its cover for the lime pepper sauce by scalding with hot water.
We are now ready. First add some pepper, then add some garlic…
then add the salt….and the lime. Continue to layer in this way until ingredients are used up.
Note: You are also pouring in the water in which the limes were boiled in.
When finished, store in a cool place.
Note: Allow about a week before using the lime pepper sauce to give it sufficient time for the acid from the lime to work on the pepper and also for the lime slice to be infused with some heat from the pepper. What we do as well is put the bottle in the sun. This seems to speed up the process.
Hot Pepper FAQS
- Which peppers are very hot? Hot Pepper can be very hot to mildly hot. However, be aware that the the hottest peppers carry the names Ghost, Scorpion or Reaper.
- How do I know the pepper I have is hot? The stems will most likely tell you. Thinner stems usually indicate the pepper is very hot. Remember to wear gloves when you cut them.
- What are the side effects of eating too much pepper? Do remember, that if the pepper is very hot, you can get belly pain and nausea from eating too much pepper.
- How to overcome hot pepper? Drink a glass of milk to dissolve the heat from the capsaicin. A piece of bread or starchy food could do as well.
Well that’s it. See you soon. Ah gone!
Lime Pepper Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 limes seeded and sliced
- 12 hot peppers
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp salt
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
- Put the sliced limes to boil in 1/2 cup of water. Set aside to cool.
- Cut up the peppers. Prepare the bottle and its cover for the lime pepper sauce by scalding with hot water.
- First, add some pepper, then add some garlic, the salt and the lime. Continue to layer in this way until ingredients are used up.
- Note: You are also pouring in the water in which the limes were boiled in.
- When finished, store in a cool place.
No probs, glad you liked it 🙂
I had to try this recipe because my husband is a lime fanatic! lol
Well i didn’t wait a week but we made it and i poured it over chicken and let it soak for hours before i put it on the skillet tonight and it was amazing!
Just wanted to tell ya we loved it!
My brother, each time I visit I feel so at home. One day I hope to taste your food. You do such excellent work to portray Caribbean food at its best.
Thank you Cynthia. This journey is a wonderful one and I cannot do it alone. My family has been a great help. Maybe we’ll meet one day 🙂
Woo, the colours of the peppers are brilliant – do you have a new camera? Or just the beauty of the ingredient!
Nope! Just the same old same old on macro setting.
No problem at all Gadgeteer the pepper I used seem to be a cross between the normal scotch sonnet pepper and seven pot. The skin was semi rough and had a lot of heat. Too much heat 🙂 Now we have to use it very sparingly about 1/4 tsp. to be exact.
isn’t 1/2 cup water too little of an amount?
That is the amount of water measured and used to boil the limes. The lime we used was a small variety found in Trinidad that’s very juicy. Probably the reason for using that amount of water. If you’re using a larger variety just put enough water to cover the limes and bring it to a boil.
Hope this helps. 🙂
How long did you boil the limes for and when using the water did you strain it. Def want to try this recipe, love lime pepper.
Boil for about 5 minutes or until the limes change colour. You will want to strain it if you don’t want the lime seeds in the pepper sauce.
So do u throw out the water that boiled the limes in or do u throw that in the bottle with the pepper?
“Note: You are also pouring in the water in which the limes were boiled in.”
Looks very easy to prepare.I’m going to make some today.