Making chilli sauce is pretty straightforward, depending on how you like your sauce. Me? I like it full of fire, with a hint of complexity buried somewhere beneath the burn. Which means that I mix naga, scotch bonnet, guajillo and dried and fresh Thai red chillies with vinegar, garlic, herbs and sherry to get the perfect pain/tastiness balance. Some people suggest using rubber gloves when handling super hot chillies like Nagas. Whether you go that far or not, be careful. Chilli juice in the eye hurts! This sauce will probably be too spicy for you unless you are something of a chilli-head already. You could just replace the chillies with milder ones — ancho or anaheim are good choices — if so.
Vegan Chilli Sauce Ingredients
- 25 dried Thai red chillies
- 10 fresh Thai red chillies
- 3 fresh scotch bonnet (or habanero) peppers
- 2 dried guajillo chillies
- 1 dried naga chilli
- 2 large cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 inch cube ginger roughly chopped
- 5 tablespoons vinegar (cyder vinegar is good)
- 2 tablespoons sherry or rice wine
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 fresh basil leaves
Instructions
- Boil some water, chuck all the dried chillies in a bowl and cover with the water, weighed down with a plate. One that fits in the bowl would be best. It ought to stand for a while like that. Say 10 minutes.
- Chop up the garlic, fresh chillies, ginger, and basil and chuck into a blender (or a jug if you’ve only got one of those soup making thingummies like I have).
- Add the vinegar, salt, sherry, herbs and (now hopefully not so dry) dried chillies to the blender and mash them up until they are the sort of texture you like.
- Put the mix into a jar and wash everything up straight away. Chillies hurt if you touch your eyes or something.
Further details
Makes enough for a week or two.
It should take about 15 min to prepare
Posted: 2012-12-01 by .