I made and offered two hot sauces when I started in the food business: Z’hug and Harif. For those who like it hot, either of these sauces is a wonderful accompaniment to a meal.
Gutturals are difficult for Americans. Staff and customers came up with so many delightful variations on the pronunciation of z’hug, including “zee-hug”. Finally we settled on referring to the sauces as Green Sauce or Red Sauce if they preferred Harif / Harissa.
Z’hug is a Yemenite Jalapeno-based hot sauce, hence “green.” I make mine in a food processor. The following will make about one quart, so you may want to halve or quarter the recipe, depending on the amount your machine will process evenly.
Z’HUG
(Makes 1 quart)
Ingredients
- Garlic, 1/4+ cup (a big handful)
- Cilantro, 1 large bunch, chopped
- Jalapeño pepper, 12 lg, chunked
- Sea salt, 1 tsp
- Cumin, 1 tsp
- Szeged hot paprika, 1 tsp
- Extra virgin olive oil, 4 TB
Directions
- Put garlic into food processor first, then chopped cilantro, then chunked jalapeño.
- Pulse 20-25 times until all is evenly chopped.
- Add all seasonings.
- Pulse 2 or 3 times more and push down side of processor container until all contents are evenly chopped.
- Add 3-4 TB olive oil and pulse once or twice more.
- Move into a one quart storage container.