All it took were an idea and 10 pounds of green – not red – jalapeños for Taelyn Lang, owner of Tortuga Gordo in Portland, to develop his Green Cobra fermented hot sauce, a uniquely flavored and exciting condiment for eggs, pizza, vegetable and rice stir-fries, even Bloody Marys.
“Basically, if you can fit it in your mouth, it’s pretty darned good on it!” he says.
Taelyn also makes Rotten Jerk, a jerk sauce based on one he’d made at various restaurants where he worked as a chef and at home when he heated up the barbecue.
“I wanted to see if I could develop a jerk-type hot sauce that was completely raw,” he says. He experimented to see if he could use fermentation to replace some of the intense flavors of charred vegetables, and his experimentation worked.
“I’ve been fermenting at restaurants and at my home for the better part of a decade,” Taelyn says. “I love the myriad possibilities of flavor combinations and experimenting.”
Tortuga Gordo’s Green Cobra and Rotten Jerk are keto, vegan and vegetarian. Find them in your Market of Choice grocery aisles.
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