When Costco and Sam’s Club stopped selling a Pineapple Habanero Sauce that our family loved, my mum decided to try out some different recipes and make her own.  She found a real winner that we have been enjoying the past few months and a couple of weeks ago she invited my sister Carole and I over to make a batch together.  While it was a little fiddly with all the chopping, it was super fun to make it together and we ended up with several jars each of this deliciousness.

This spicy, sweet sauce is so versatile.  My favorite way to eat it is over cream cheese with crackers, but it makes a great salsa, wing sauce, or accompaniment to baked pork or chicken.  I’ll enjoy making this again and again!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups sugar
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup pineapple juice
• 3 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 medium onion
• 1 red pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 mango
• 1 pineapple
• 4 habanero peppers – (you can use less if you like it less spicy)
• 3 Tbsp Cornstarch

Instructions:

1. Prep some canning jars or freezer jam containers.  This recipe makes 10-12 cups or 5-6 pints.
2. In a large stock pot, whisk together the sugar, apple cider vinegar, pineapple juice and lemon juice.  Bring to a boil over high heat and boil 2 minutes.  Set the pot aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
3. Finely chop your onion, red pepper, yellow pepper and mango in to 1/4-inch pieces if you like your sauce chunky.  If you like your sauce less chunky, do like we did and chop the veggies 1/2-1 inch and then pulse them through the food processor.  Don’t over do it and turn them completely smooth… you definitely want some texture.
4. Peel and core your pineapple and slice in to rings.  Grill them on your outside grill or on a grill pan until they start to caramelize, then chop up in to small pieces.  (We run some of the pineapple through the food processor and leave some small chunks.)  
5. Using gloves, roast the habaneros on the grill until lightly charred on the outside.  Remove and discard the seeds and then throw the habaneros through the food processor until smooth.
6. Stir all of your fruit and veggies in to the sugar/vinegar/juice mixture.  Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down and let simmer for 10 minutes.  
7. Mix your cornstarch with a couple of Tbsps of water till smooth and stir it in to the sauce.  Let it continue to cook a minute or two as the cornstarch thickens the sauce then transfer the sauce in to your prepped containers.  

(Note, this sauce can be canned using the jar/water bath method or you can put it in freezer jam containers and freeze it!  (The sauce should be used within about 3 weeks of putting it in the refrigerator.)