The success of this sauce is in its simplicity: garlic, oil, peppers, mustard seed and a bit of patience! The scorpions slowly bring heat that keeps on building with every bite, and it will linger for a while after.

Ingredients

• 3/4 heads of garlic, peeled
• 3/4 Trinidad Scorpion peppers roughly chopped (leave the seeds and pith for extra fun)
• 1 cup of vegetable oil (should be enough to cover the cloves in a small pan)
• 2 tsp of mustard seeds (toasted and ground, or powder)
• 1 lime
• 1 medium yellow onion cut into large chunks (optional)
• Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Arrange all the garlic in a single layer inside a small sauce pan (*).
2. Pour enough oil to barely cover the cloves.
3. Heat on very low until it starts bubbling softly.
4. Let it cook for about 35 minutes.
5. Add the peppers (**) and onion (if using).
6. Cook for 10 more minutes, the garlic should be very soft.
7. Let it cool for a few minutes.
8. Using a spoon, transfer the garlic and peppers into a blender (save the onion separately and add to taste).
9. Add the mustard seed and juice of half of the lime.
10. Blend and taste! Add onion, black pepper and lime to taste. When tasting, let it evolve for a bit—the heat takes some time to fully reach its level.
11. Add warm water to thin, if preferred. Use a tablespoon of water at a time; the consistency can change quite quickly.

(*) You can do steps 1–4 with more garlic in a larger pan. The garlic confit becomes a delicious paste that you can spread on pretty much anything.

(**) If making a bigger batch of garlic confit, you might want to separate them here, since the oil will become quite spicy from the peppers.