It’s always helpful to have a couple of hot sauces on hand.

Recipes: Extracted from The Lucky Taco Cookbook by Sarah and Otis Frizzell.

Lucky Taco Habanero Hot Sauce

This was the beginning of our homemade hot sauce journey. One day Sarah said, ‘You know what? I could probably make a hot sauce that would go perfectly with our flavours . . .’ Habanero was our favourite sauce, and we wanted to start HOT so that one came first. But how hot? How thick? We made a batch, tweaked it, made another, tweaked it . . . And people loved it!

Makes: Approx. 300mL

INGREDIENTS

60g orange capsicum, stalks removed and de-seeded
100g habaneros (red or orange), stalks removed (leave seeds in)
4 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp fresh lime juice
1 tbsp fresh orange juice
1 tsp crushed fresh ginger
2 tbsp tomato pulp (we use Mutti)
¼ tsp salt
pinch ground white pepper
2 tsp white sugar
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp liquid honey

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180°C. Place capsicum and habaneros in an oven tray in a single layer and roast for 30–45 minutes, until skin has started to turn dark. Remove from oven, transfer to a sealable plastic bag and leave in the sealed bag for about 10 minutes. The heat trapped in the bag will soften the capsicums/chillies so you can remove the skin more easily.

Remove the blackened skin. Place capsicum/chilli flesh in a large pot, add all remaining ingredients and bring to the boil. Let it bubble for about 5 minutes, until all ingredients have softened enough that you can blitz it with a stick wand.

Cool, then transfer to an airtight container. Will keep for at least a month in the fridge.

Note: Make sure you cook any hot sauce in a well-ventilated space. It’s actually water vapour that makes the chilli airborne.

Pro tip: when cooking or washing up, breathe through your nose and take shallow breaths. Otherwise you’ll find yourself with more than a tickle in the back of the throat!

Lucky Taco Chipotle Hot Sauce

We’ve always joked that as soon as people learn how to pronounce it, chipotle hot sauce becomes their favourite. We even made T-shirts and tea towels featuring our Chipotle Sauce bottle with a speech bubble saying ‘CHIP — OAT — LAY’ to help get the message across. This member of our hot sauce family is known as the ‘mild child’, but it sure follows through with a welcome smoky kick!

Makes: Approx. 1 cup (250mL)

INGREDIENTS

60g red capsicum, stalks removed and de-seeded
100g canned chipotle peppers
4 tsp fresh orange juice
¼ tsp salt
pinch of ground white pepper
2 tsp white sugar
2 tbsp white vinegar
2 tbsp tomato ketchup

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180°C. Prepare and roast red capsicum. Remove skins and place flesh in a large pot.

Add remaining ingredients, then bring to the boil for about 5 minutes until ingredients have softened. Blitz with a stick wand. When cool, transfer to an airtight container. Store in the fridge; it will keep for at least a month.

Note: As always, cook this hot sauce in a well-ventilated space.

---

Extracted from The Lucky Taco Cookbook by Sarah and Otis Frizzell, published by Penguin Random House NZ. RRP $50.