When I lived in Silver Spring Maryland, the Adams Morgan neighborhood of DC had just become a heaven (and haven) for foodies. One of my favorite places was a Jamaican restaurant called Fish Wings and Tings, and they served a green sauce that blew my mind. It took me years of experimentation to reverse engineer the recipe, which they absolutely would not share. The sauce is a fabulous mix of bright green herbs and very hot peppers. If you want to keep the color sharp, I suggest finding yellow scotch bonnet peppers. Red will deepen the green. This keeps marvelously in the refrigerator. I’ve kept bottles for over a year with not much flavor change. If you like to ferment your hot sauce, I’m sure it work for that too.
Since the proportion of ingredients matters (and not the exact amount), I added a photo of what the mix looks like in my blender. You can see that the whole peppers make up about a quarter of the ingredients (I smoosh them down in the blender jar, so they will catch on the blades.) Then I layer in garlic, green onions, and lost of herbs. You can vary the proportions to suit your taste. I like to moisten the mixture with malt vinegar or a mix of malt and white vinegar—best not to use anything too fancy or it’ll steal attention from the peppers and greens.
My blender is a Blendtec, which I set on either Smoothie or Whole Juice settings. I don’t suggest leaving this hot sauce chunky. I think it’s better when it’s almost smooth. If you want to use it as a dip or sauce for fried fish, I also recommend cutting it with a bit of mayonnaise right before serving.
Jamaican Green Sauce
Equipment
- 1 blender
Ingredients
- 2-3 cups scotch bonnet peppers or other very hot, fruity peppers
- 1 bulb fresh garlic (the younger the better)
- 1 bunch green onions
- ½ cup fresh basil or thyme
- 1 cup fresh parsley
- 2 cups fresh cilantro with roots
- ¼ cup malt vinegar
- ¼ cup white vinegar
- 2 tsp salt or to taste
Instructions
- Wash all the ingredients. Cut the stems off the peppers. Some people seed them but I don't. I figure the less I handle them, the better. Absolutely do not touch your eyes with your hands for 24 hours (and several hand washings with soap) after handling scotch bonnets.
- Put all the ingredients into a large blender jar. I don't cut them up, but you can. Do not tightly pack the blender all the way to the top. If it won't fit in your blender, then blend in 2 batches and stir together afterblending. Nothing is worse than exploding hot sauce.
- Blend until the consistency is right for you. Be very careful when you open the blender jar, because the gas from the peppers is incredibly strong.
- Pour into jars, screw on the lids (no need to make them airtight), and store in the refrigerator. It's an uncooked sauce, so I don't recommend canning it for unrefrigerated storage unless you're an expert canner. If you make a large batch, you can store some jars in the freezer. (Just don't fill them too full so the sauce can expand.)
