Sriracha-Style Hot Sauce

"I've written frequently about my passion for (nay, addition to) spicy foods. Subsequently, there's always a wealth of hot sauces in my house. Sometimes I reach for the clean vinegar-based heat of Tabasco; other times it'll be a dollop of spicy salsa from our local taqueria. But most often of all, Sriracha is my go-to hot stuff. For ages, I assumed this magically-balanced sauce must employ some mysterious Asian ingredient that makes the whole thing sing. And yet, on the rooster-adorned bottle, the ingredients are just chili, sugar, salt, garlic and distilled vinegar. Oh yeah, plus potassium sorbate, sodium bisulfite and xanthan gum. I could live without those last few ingredients. It turns out that those first five ingredients really are all that are needed to make a flavorful, almost shockingly red sauce that stands up to the stuff in the bottle. Best of all, you can tweak the heat up or down with the selection of peppers. I used a mix of red jalapeno, habanero and red padron peppers; if you want to tone it down a bit, feel free to include sweet red peppers in the mix as well...."