Red Habaneros and Vietnamese cuisine.

[CharlieD]

There is a large Vietnamese population here in Minnesota.
I went to their farmer's market the other day. They sell this beautiful red Habaneros. By the buckets full. I asked what people do with them. Apparently they make sauce. I assume a hot sauce, quite a hot judging by the habaneros hit index is rated 100,000–350,000 on the Scoville scale.
But that is not what i am trying to ask here.

Does anybody know a Vietnamese recipe for habanero hot sauce. Unfortunately language barrier prevented me from finding anything. Any TNT recipe?
Thank you.

P.S, I have never seen the red habaneros in a regular grocery store, why is it?

[Recipes Make Magic]

Good question - I haven't either.

[GotGarlic]

Charlie, I don't know of a recipe like that, but I wonder if they use habaneros because they're more common here than some Asian peppers. I think they could be substituted in any Vietnamese hot red sauce recipe.

I've seen red, orange and yellow habaneros in grocery stores here. We have a pretty diverse population, including Mexicans, Filipinos and Indians, largely because of the significant military presence, especially the Navy.

[pepperhead212]

I have not really seen any recipes using habaneros in all of my SE Asian cookbooks (and there are a lot of them in there!). In the last 20 years or so, they have been appearing more often in the Asian markets that I go to, probably because they have become so common in the general marketplace. I can't think of anything that I would add that habanero flavor to, in the way of Vietnamese or Thai food, but I'm sure there would be something it would be good in. I'm not a fan of vinegar based hot sauces, which habaneros are often used for.

In Mexican, Yucatan cooking has a lot of habanero based recipes.

That red habanero can be any variety that ripens red. Back before ghost peppers, the Red Savina was the hottest in the world, at 500-550k (that's mild, now!). But that's not what those red ones usually are in stores. And they won't always be hotter than the orange and yellow ones. A lot of habaneros in stores have had some of the heat bred out of them, though they will still be hot, I'm sure! I can't say why they wouldn't be in supermarkets up there - I see all different colors in the stores hee, even the chocolate habs occasionally.

[CWS4322]

Scroll through the links on the URL I posted for Vietnamese food.

[CraigC]

Is there a label or name designation for them, like Carolina Reaper? I am not aware of a Vietnamese sauce using habaneros, but there is a fresh salsa called Xni Pec (shnee pick) from the indigenous people of Mexico and central America that uses habaneros. In English it means "Dog's nose salsa".

[CharlieD]

Farmers market, Vietnamese market. People barely speak English, if at all. No labels.