Lacto-Fermented Apricot Hot Sauce

Lacto-fermented apricot hot sauce is quite a mouthful and this is a bit of a project, but a fun one. It is also a recipe that will come in handy if you have ripe stone fruit. I made this with apricots, but nectarines would work as well. Or peaches, though the timing on this might be a bit different as the fruit is . And of course peppers of all kind work here too.

I have found that the right proportion of salt to water for the brine is 1 1/4 teaspoons of fine sea salt per 1 cup of water. This kills the bacteria that would cause the fruit to go bad, but doesn't kill the good bacteria that allows for yummy fermentation.

1 lb ripe apricots, washed, halved and pits removed, and then roughly cubed

1 Thumb-sized piece of ginger, crushed

4 bird's eye chilis, stemmed and halved (be careful to use gloves or wash your hands very well after this step)

2 Scotch bonnet peppers, stemmed and pricked in several places with the tip of a sharp knife

1 cup dried apricots

Maple syrup to taste

Make two cups of the brine described above. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

While it is cooling cut up the fruit and prep the ginger and the chilis. Place them in a glass jar or plastic container that you can cover loosely.

Cover with the brine. Discard any excess.

Ensure that all of the fruit is submerged or it will start to rot. you can put a small plastic bag in the top of the container and fill it with enough water to weigh down the fruit or, as I did, crinkle up a piece of parchment paper and place it on top with something to weigh it down (I used a ceramic cup)

Place in a dark place (I put it in my pantry) with the lid loosely placed on top so that the mixture can "burp" once it starts to ferment. I also placed a dish under the container in case it burped more that expected.

Leave it to happily ferment away, checking on it every couple of days. In the winter this usually takes a couple of weeks, but I made this during a very hot summer weather streak and this was bubbling away like mad after five days.

Drain the liquid from the apricots but reserve it as you will need it to dilute the mixture to hot sauce consistency.

Cover the dried apricots with boiling water and set aside to rehydrate.

While they are softening, place the apricots, ginger and peppers that have fermented in your blender with 1/3 cup of the brine. Pulse until very smooth, adding more liquid if needed.

Drain the rehydrated apricots as soon as they are room temperature and pulse again, adding more brine if needed to get the right consistency of hot sauce.

Check a tiny amount and add maple syrup to taste.

This made about 4 pints of hot sauce. It is a beautiful color and, because of the fermentation spicy without being overwhelmingly so.

Use this wherever you would normally use hot sauce.