Chilli Recipes

We are now picking our chillies, we've grown a couple of varieties this year, jalapeno and hot cayenne.  We've had quite a good picking already of the hot cayennes, but as yet not many jalapenos; a shame really as last year we had loads and I managed to do a lot of things with them, including 'stuffed jalapenos' which were wonderful. 

Hot Cayenne

Jalapeno - not too good!

I decided today to make some sweet chilli sauce, I often buy a bottle of it in the supermarket, but haven't managed to get any for ages, they seem to have stopped stocking it in our local supermarkets.  So, there was only one solution, to find a recipe and make my own!  I was very impressed with the results, had a quick taste and boy was it hot! 

SWEET CHILLI SAUCE

1 kg of peeled chopped de-seeded tomatoes - brilliant if you have a glut, as we have!
A head of garlic - from the garden of course

8 large red chillies - ours were 'hot cayenne'
About two table spoons of grated fresh ginger
4 Tbs of Nam Pla (Thai fish sauce - available in most supermarkets)
600g sugar
200ml or vinegar (I used red wine vinegar for this but apparently any works)

First put your tomatoes in a blender (after peeling, deseeding and rough chopping)

Then take a sharp knife and peel your ginger. It should be juicy and moist not hard and woody.

Grate or finely chop the ginger

Take the garlic and peel all the cloves. Put the garlic and ginger in the blender

Chop up the chillies, seeds and all, leaving the stalks - make sure you wear gloves for this!

Add all this to the tomatoes and blitz to a puree in a processor -

Add the 4 tablespoons of fish sauce

Then add all this mixture into a big pan

Then add 600g of sugar and 200ml red wine vinegar

Stir well and bring to a boil

Lower to a simmer. A small froth or scum will form - skim this off and discard

Maintain the simmer stirring occasionally for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes put 6 half pint jars in the oven to warm for another 15 minutes - keep stirring and skimming the sauce

When the sauce has thickened and reduced, pour into the jars; seal and label.

This sauce is hotter than the commercial stuff so adjust to your taste. Leave for a month to mature - be ready for Christmas in plenty of time and will keep for at least six months.

Enjoy!