Thread: Scotty's Sweet Chilli Sauce

Originally Posted by Buzza

A bloke in Adelaide makes this every year, and now so do I. It's hot, make no mistake about that.



The chillis are ripe and ready in late July in South Australia. The bushes nearly always have some fruit on them, but July is when the crop peaks.

The author gets about 1 kilo of cut chilli from his two very mature plants

This is not really as sweet as the watery bottled sauce that comes from the shop. It has more bite. Knowing your own heat tolerance and that of your guests is important. Choose your flavour accents accordingly.

COOKING TIME = 1 HOUR
MAKES ABOUT 3 CUPS

250g of fresh chillies, or a half a cup of chilli powder. Thai type as illustrated above.
3 cups of white vinegar
250g dried sultanas
2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger
6 – 8 cloves of garlic peeled
3 teaspoons salt
3 cups sugar

1. If you’re using fresh chillies, put on gloves before removing stems & seeds. Be warned though, I’ve used a doubled pair of surgical gloves, and it still gets through to the skin. *
2. Put the chillis, salt and garlic into a blender, and puree
3. Put them into a stainless steel or enamel saucepan with the vinegar, the sultanas, the ginger and the garlic crushed with the salt.
4. Bring to the boil & simmer gently until the sultanas are soft Add the sugar, stir until dissolved & cook for about 15 minutes longer. Cool, then puree in a blender or push through a sieve. Pour into sterilised bottles & seal. Keeps well, as I’ve had some for three years and it’s as good as new.

NOTE: - If this sauce is too pungent for your taste, mix a serve with bottled or homemade tomato sauce, until you have the degree of hotness that’s right for you.

* It’s good idea to make sure you make all of your personal toilet preparations for a while, before you start. Do not touch sensitive skin areas or your eyes, and this includes touching other people as well. E.G. You might need to help a small child etc.

Buzza,

This sounds like something I will try at the end of the season with some of my chillies. Can you clarify the use of the garlic, as I read the directions it sounds like I am supposed to puree them in step two with the chillies, but then step three says ginger and garlic crushed with salt?

My mouth is already watering at the thought of some good homemade Chillie Sauce.

Heather

Sounds a great recipe and I love a good chili sauce myself.

We'll wait until Buzza returns, but I suspect he means to chop or crush the chili, garlic and salt together in the blender. They won't really puree without some sort of liquid being introduced to the blender as well, so you will end up with sort of a paste which should be just the ticket for adding at the next step.

G'Day All, I use a chefs knife to chop the garlic finely, and then lay the knife flat down onto the chopped garlic, and with pressure down, drag the knife across it. You can also use a mortar and pestle to crush the ginger and garlic along with the salt for the abrasive effect. A good blender will chop the garlic and ginger together with the salt. So long as it's all chopped finely, it will cook down when it's in the pot.

Take care, and have fun.

Buzza,

I have three Thai Dragons in a small patch out back, about 80 days from now I will be working in the kitchen wearing latex gloves. Will post the results when I am finished. Thanx for the info, I like mine with lots of bite.

Heather

Hi Buzza,
I just made up a batch of this sauce tonight, spur of the moment thing (pretty dull for a long weekend). Picked the remaining chillies to make up quantities using my headlamp!
I varied the recipe a bit: used a little balsamic vinegar with the white, and lightly fried the chillie/garlic/salt mix in some lime infused oil. I noticed after going through a few recipe books that most Asian style chillie sauces don't seem to fry the chillies and garlic, but add it directly to a liquid base, whereas Mexican/Spanish and Italian style ones seem to make a point of saute-ing before liquid is added. My reason for doing so is it brings out a stronger richer flavour. What's your take on it? Anyway the sauce is really good, quite pungent, thanks for posting it!

Just something else I want to ask, and can't bring myself to get online with the CWA home preserving website, is about jars. I keep a stash of suitable ones in the cupboard, ready for sauces and jams etc, and washed thoroughly after soaking. But no matter what I do, the jar will often still have a smell of the original ingredient! I wouldn't worry so much if it was, say, a garlic pong and I was putting in tomato chutney, but a weekend or so back I was cooking up cumquat and ginger marmalade (mmmm!) and I didn't want to pollute the taste. How do you go about cleaning jars??

Cheers for now,

Andy Mac, goodonya, you will have a great sauce I'm sure.

I have no idea if frying will do anything detrimental to the shelf life of this sauce, but as you say, frying off enhances the flavours. I've never done it with this sauce though.

BOTTLING Just before I bottle the sauce, I rinse the jars and bottles that were already cleaned immediately after finishing off the original residents remains. The I lay them on their sides in the microwave oven with a few odd drops of water in them. I give them thirty seconds or so in there, and they get real hot. Leave the microwave oven shut until bottle up time, and then fill em' up. Place a layer of cling wrap over the tops and screw the cap on. After that, there should be no trace of former aromas, as the Chilli Sauce will take over. (A friend cleans her jars, then she places a sheet of paper hand towel within, and closes the lid to store the jar - she swears by that method).

Honestly, I have bottles of sauce from 1997 that I have just finished, and they were as good as they day they were made. I have never had a bottle "go off".

When you are down to the dregs of a bottle, rinse it with some Rough Red wine and Worcestershire Sauce, and add to you BBQ chops and sausages etc.

I can vouch for the stinging power of birds eye chilli. A colleague during lunch fiddled with a chilli for about 10 minutes. Come 1.00pm he headed to the toilet for relief and drainage and then straight out the door rather quickly a very painful and embarrased lad.
Jim