Sweet Chilli Sauce

Sweet chilli sauce captures the colour and vibrancy of summer. Just a splash or a dash, either as an ingredient or as an accompaniment will add a zing to a variety of your favourite dishes. The annual spring planting of several chillies varieties in our kitchen garden always produces an abundant harvest.

By autumn, the sweet chilli sauce ritual commences with kilos of fresh bright red chillies, ginger and garlic being chopped and simmered in vinegar to extract their pungent and robust flavours. This multi-award winning recipe will produce almost 2 litres of silken chilli sauce in just 60 minutes.

Preparation Time:: 60 minutes

Cooking Time:: 30-40 minutes

Quantity:: 6 x 300 ml sauce bottles

INGREDIENTS

300g: Fresh red chilli

100g: Fresh garlic, peeled

50g: Fresh ginger

1.2 litres: Apple cider vinegar

2 kg: White sugar

1 teaspoon: Salt

60g: Arrowroot

30ml: Cold water

METHOD

Cut chillies in half and discard stem. For a hot chilli sauce include the seeds, for a mild sauce discard seeds. Peel garlic and ginger. Process the above ingredients through a small plate (4 mm) mincer which provides a consistent texture or process in a food processor until all the pieces are a consistent 3-4 mm in size. Do not over process and liquefy.
Place into a saucepan and add the vinegar, sugar and salt. Bring to the simmer, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar, then simmer for approximately 30 minutes until the flavours are extracted and there is a syrupy consistency.
In a separate bowl add the water to the arrowroot and mix to a paste. Remove the chilli syrup from the heat and quickly stir in the arrowroot paste.
Return to the heat and stir constantly until the chilli sauce comes to the boil and then simmer for approximately 3 minutes. The mixture will thicken quickly when the arrowroot paste has been added. The simmering process will ensure that the arrowroot is cooked. The sauce should be clear and not milky.
Place sterilised sauce bottles on a wooden board to prevent the bottles from breaking which can be caused by the heat differential between the cool bottle and hot sauce. Use a funnel to pour the sauce into dry sterilised sealable bottles and fill to approximately 2.5 cm (1 inch) from the top of the bottle and seal the bottle.
Label with name and date. Store in cool dark place in the kitchen or pantry,
Once opened store in the fridge.

NOTES

The final potency of the chilli sauce will vary on the type of chilli and amount of seeds used. As a general rule the smaller the chilli the hotter or more potent the chilli.
This sauce will keep for 6 to 12 months in a cool dark pantry.
Arrowroot is a starch extracted from the rhizomes of several tropical plants. It’s a fine white powder and often used as a last-minute thickener for sweet fruit sauces. Blend, with water, by adding a small amount of cold water to the arrowroot and mix to a thin paste. This is sometimes referred to as a slurry. Add to hot liquid and bring to boiling point. Remove immediately as further cooking makes the arrowroot thins down slightly. It cooks out to be clear, whereas corn-starch gives a cloudy sauce.

Sweet Chilli Sauce

Preparation Time:: 60 minutes

Cooking Time:: 30-40 minutes

Quantity:: 6 x 300 ml sauce bottles

INGREDIENTS:

Fresh red chilli: 300g

Fresh garlic, peeled: 100g

Fresh ginger: 50g

Apple cider vinegar: 1.2 litres

White sugar: 2 kg

Salt: 1 teaspoon

Arrowroot: 60g

Cold water: 30ml

METHOD:

Cut chillies in half and discard stem. For a hot chilli sauce include the seeds, for a mild sauce discard seeds. Peel garlic and ginger. Process the above ingredients through a small plate (4 mm) mincer which provides a consistent texture or process in a food processor until all the pieces are a consistent 3-4 mm in size. Do not over process and liquefy.
Place into a saucepan and add the vinegar, sugar and salt. Bring to the simmer, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar, then simmer for approximately 30 minutes until the flavours are extracted and there is a syrupy consistency.
In a separate bowl add the water to the arrowroot and mix to a paste. Remove the chilli syrup from the heat and quickly stir in the arrowroot paste.
Return to the heat and stir constantly until the chilli sauce comes to the boil and then simmer for approximately 3 minutes. The mixture will thicken quickly when the arrowroot paste has been added. The simmering process will ensure that the arrowroot is cooked. The sauce should be clear and not milky.
Place sterilised sauce bottles on a wooden board to prevent the bottles from breaking which can be caused by the heat differential between the cool bottle and hot sauce. Use a funnel to pour the sauce into dry sterilised sealable bottles and fill to approximately 2.5 cm (1 inch) from the top of the bottle and seal the bottle.
Label with name and date. Store in cool dark place in the kitchen or pantry,
Once opened store in the fridge.

NOTES:

The final potency of the chilli sauce will vary on the type of chilli and amount of seeds used. As a general rule the smaller the chilli the hotter or more potent the chilli.
This sauce will keep for 6 to 12 months in a cool dark pantry.
Arrowroot is a starch extracted from the rhizomes of several tropical plants. It’s a fine white powder and often used as a last-minute thickener for sweet fruit sauces. Blend, with water, by adding a small amount of cold water to the arrowroot and mix to a thin paste. This is sometimes referred to as a slurry. Add to hot liquid and bring to boiling point. Remove immediately as further cooking makes the arrowroot thins down slightly. It cooks out to be clear, whereas corn-starch gives a cloudy sauce.