Thai sweet chilli sauce

A little jar of this home-made condiment is now a staple in our household - it's quick and easy to make and rewards with flavours that are out of all proportion to the effort and cost involved. I add a splash to soups and sauces - especially salad dressing -  or to mayonnaise for a chicken sandwich filling, or use as a condiment or dipping sauce for spring rolls etc.
Seriously, you will never again be able to settle for a bottle of over-sweet gloopy orange goo from the supermarket shelf.
I buy galangal, lemongrass and frozen lime leaves in Chinatown but any Asian shop should have them and you can freeze what you don't use, for next time.
It is important to get the ginger, galangal and lemongrass pulped as finely as possible, because they can be quite fibrous and stalky.
You can double, triple or quadruple the recipe - it makes a great gift if you pretty up the jar with a nice label.

Ingredients

Sugar 300g
Water  75g
Coriander  (leaves and stalks)  50g
Garlic, peeled and roughly chopped 30g
Ginger roughly peeled and chopped 75g
Galangal roughly peeled and chopped 25g
Red chillies, tailed and roughly chopped 100g
Lemon grass, finely chopped (root end) 30g
Lime leaves (number)  4
Cider vinegar 100ml
Salt 25g
Soy sauce 50ml

Method
When you have prepped the veg as instructed, put them in a blender with the salt and half of the soy sauce and whizz to a fine pulp. Add more soy sauce if necessary.
Put the sugar and water in a big saucepan on a high heat, and stir until the sugar dissolves. Watch carefully as it comes to the boil, and wait until the sugar caramelises to a dark toffee / terracotta colour (it will be very hot and bubbling furiously so TAKE GREAT CARE).
Wearing a long oven glove(or wrap your arm in a tea towel!), pour in the cider vinegar. It will hiss and spit SO STAND BACK. Turn the heat off, add the chilli/ginger pulp and the rest of the soy sauce, and stir well to prevent lumps forming.
Allow to cool slightly before sealing in jars.



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