Pique (puerto Rican Style Hot Sauce)

Total Time: 10 mins Preparation Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• 1 cup cider vinegar (i like bragg㢠s raw apple cider vinegar-you can try other vinegars too)
• 12 long hot peppers (you can use any combination of jalapeno, arbol, scotch bonnet, habanero, cayenne, etc㢠)
• 4 -6 garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half lengthwise
• 12 black peppercorns
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (or other non-iodized)
• 1/2 a bay leaf
• 3 stems fresh cilantro (or fresh oregano)
• 1 -2 squeezes lime juice
• toasted cumin seed

Recipe

• 1 drop the garlic cloves, peppercorns, salt and bay leaf (and any of your optional additions) down into the bottle.
• 2 remove the stems from the hot peppers. leave the seeds and membranes intact if you want your pique spicy! if necessary, slice the peppers lengthwise until they are a size that fits easily into the mouth of the bottle. insert peppers (or peppers strips) into the bottle.
• 3 use a funnel to pour vinegar into the bottle to cover the peppers and spices. if your bottle has a shaker top, snap it back into place, add the lid and set out on the counter for two days. after two days, store your pique in the refrigerator.
• 4 you can top off with vinegar when it starts getting low with more vinegar. when the peppers start losing their punch, use a chopstick to remove the peppers and start over!