Cooking in Guyana....Pepper Sauce!!!

If you like spicy things, you would fit in well in Guyana.  Many food items are made with the addition of a small little pepper called the Wiri Wiri, that packs quite the punch.

 "A jalapeño, which measures approximately 2,500 – 10,000 SHUs depending on its maturity or ripeness. Based on Scoville Heat Unit measurement the Wiri Wiri is a scorching 150,000 SHUs when mature – a whopping 15 times hotter than the ripest jalapeño."-According to http://guyanamasala.hubpages.com/hub/GuyanaPepperSauce.

We were given pepper sauce the first full day we were in Guyana.  Of course, we didn't think too much of putting some hot sauce on our eggs so we dabbed a good bit on.  Boy were we mistaken!  Our mouths lit fire because this stuff is HOT!  After a good bit of time living in Guyana, I have grown accustom to pepper.  I put it on most of my food, but only in small amounts.  I thought it would be a great thing to bring back to my friends in the U.S. so I had my co-worker make a bunch for me and packed it up real well and prayed it made it back in one piece.  I warned my friends at home to be careful with the spiciness of the sauce and they cautiously gave it a try.  To my surprise many of them really liked it and were happy to have a whole jar to themself.  :-)

Ingredients

• 2lbs wiri wiri pepper or scotch bonnet peppers (stems removed)
• 1 green mango (unripe mango) or 2 large cucumbers, peeled and diced
• 1 head of garlic, peeled
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar

Directions

1. Rinse peppers and remove all stems
2. Add about 1 cup of peppers to a blender with a little mango or cucumber, a little bit of vinegar and garlic, blend until smooth. 
3. Repeat process until all ingredients are used up and sauce is smooth and not watery (it should have a tomato/pasta sauce texture). 
4. Store sauce in a mason jar.  

Recipe adapted from: http://www.inner-gourmet.com/2011/01/west-indian-pepper-sauce.html