Peach Hot Sauce for BBQ on Memorial Day

I love fresh, aromatic peaches and wish I could enjoy them all year long. The folks at Laura’s Creole Plantation in Louisiana found the answer of how to extend the peach season. They bottled peaches making a knock-out hot sauce. The hot sauce mash also includes Vidalia onions, cane sugar, vinegar, chili paste, tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, and cayenne pepper. Yum! It has punch with just the perfect balance of flavors. We toured the Louisiana antebellum plantation one bright, sunny Febuary day. After the tour, we found the hot sauce on the tables of a local diner. The hot sauce made a great dipping sauce for fried fish, french fries and everything else on our lunch plates. At home, I quickly ran out of the bottle of hot sauce which I purchased. I just can’t drive an hour for more hot sauce bottles; so I’m making a batch of “Peach Hot Sauce” using canned peaches. I took a guess on the proportions of ingredients to use; and my hot sauce is entirely different. However, it is delicious, too. Makes a great glace for grilled or BBQ chicken — just in time for Memorial Day.

Our Day Excursion to Laura Creole Plantation

A visit to the antebellum plantations along the Mississippi River in St. James Parish is like stepping back in time. These plantations are about 45 minutes north of New Orleans on the west bank of the Mississippi River. If you love history, then stopping at some of these plantation homes makes for an interesting glimpse into pre-Civil War life in Louisiana. I toured the plantation in February along with a group of friends. It was an educational experience; sunny and perfect for a day excursion.

A number of these plantations, dating to the late 1700s and early 1800s, have been meticiously restored. The Laura Creole Plantation was “rescued” in 1993 by a preservationist who purchased the property. The buildings on this once-vast plantation were scheduled for demolition. He researched hundreds of pages of documents, restored the “big house” and developed an interesting narrative of the people who lived here prior to the Civil War — both the families of the owners and the enslaved residents. For example, we learned that this was one of the few Louisiana plantations which was owned, operated and managed by women.

The home looked new to us; and we discovered that it endured a massive fire in 2004 which destroyed 80% of the home. Some of the original home remains untouched by the fire while other parts were rebuilt.

Twelve acres of grounds and additional buildings — including slave homes — have also been restored. (At its peak, the plantation included over 12,000 acres of land.) Here is one of the family gardens. We visited the plantation in February and there were so many fruit trees — oranges, grapefruit and lemon — just full of fruit begging to be harvested. This plantation is far enough to the South that citrus fruit trees thrive (unlike Baton Rouge). In the front are several iron kettles which were used to boil down sugar cane. This was once a prosperous sugar cane plantation. In the far distance, you can see the Mississippi River levee.

Vidalia Onion & Peach Hot Sauce

The little gift shop at the plantation sold several food products with the Laura’s Plantation label including jams, jellies and “Vidalia Onion & Peach Hot Sauce.” As a bit of trivia, peaches do not thrive in southern Louisiana, Plus, Vidalia onions can only be grown in Georgia! Nevertheless, I purchased some bottles of the hot sauce. (I am guessing that this is a privately labeled product.) Wow, it was great. I used it as a BBQ sauce for baked chicken and as a dipping sauce for fried fish and french fries. It was gone in an instant.

“Peach Hot Sauce” Recipe

Today, I’m making my own “Peach Hot Sauce.” I devised a recipe for the peach hot sauce using ingredients listed on the label of the bottle as a guide. My recipe is very simple and easy to make. And, it does have “punch.” Of course, I had to guess about proportions and quantities of ingredients. My recipe turned out quite differently from the bottled plantation hot sauce. It has the consistancy of a glaze– much thicker than bottled hot sauce–with definate peach and chili flavors. Mine is tasty, too.

Fresh peaches are not in season — so I subsitituted canned, sliced peaches. I used shallots rather than a Vidalia onion as shallots were easier to locate on my shopping trip in May. My recipe also included apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt and hot chili pepper paste. I used a tablespoon of oil to sauté the onions.

Adding a “hot” element to the “Peach Hot Sauce”

A defining characteristic of this “Peach Hot Sauce,” in addition to peach flavor, is that it is hot! Every type of hot chili pepper has its own unique flavor characteristics. The bottled hot sauce labeled ingredients from the plantation includes chili paste, jalapeno pepper, cayenne pepper. Since it is difficult to predict how much of these ingredients are needed to add to the peach mash to achieve just the correct amount of “hot” flavor, I decided to substitute hot chili paste. I figured it would be easier to reproduce and control the hot component of the peach sauce.

I considered several types of hot chili paste. First is Harissa. This hot pepper paste has Moroccan origins. The ingredients of this brand include red chili peppers, red bell peppers, garlic, olive oil, vinegar and salt. I also considered Gochujang Hot Pepper Paste. This is a Korean hot pepper paste and includes Korean red pepper flakes, glutinous rice, fermented soybeans, sweeteners and salt.

My final choice was Gochujang Hot Pepper Paste. I added two tablespoons of the hot pepper paste to my peach mash; it gave quite a bit of “zip” to the hot sauce. Be careful not to add too much!

Making the recipe

Making this hot sauce is very simple. I’m not bottling or perserving the hot sauce; rather I plan to store it in the refrigerator. To make the recipe, basically cook and simmer all the ingredients (except the red chili pepper paste) over low heat for 45 minutes to let the mash cook down. Add the chili pepper paste and cook one minute longer.

After the hot sauce cooks down on the stove, cool to room temperature. Puree with an immersioin blender or food processor. Press through a sieve to remove any remaining solids. This recipe makes three cups of hot sauce; store it in the refrigerator.

My “Peach Hot Sauce” adds zip to anything you are cooking. I used it for a glaze for baked chicken as well as a dipping sauce. It is much thicker than the commerical bottled hot sauce — I’ll have to figure that out. Gochujang Hot Pepper Paste turned out to add the perfect amount of “heat” to the hot sauce. And, my sauce has a great peach flavor. Yes, I did figure out how to capture the peach flavor.

I like the creativity of coming up with my own recipes. Sometimes this can be a challenge — “Peach Hot Sauce” turned out perfectly. And I am a history buff — and enjoyed our February tour of one of Louisiana’s historical attractions. The visit to Laura’s Creole Plantation turned out to have an interesting bonus.

Enjoy this unique “Peach Hot Sauce” recipe for anything you are grilling this Memorial Day — chicken, pork, shrimp. Plus, pass at the table as a dipping sauce.

Have a reflective Memorial Day — and welcome to summer!