Ass-kickin’ chilli sauce – can you stand the heat!?

So the other day I was wandering around my local farmers’ market. You know, as you do. And I see a whole punnet of chilli for a ridiculously cheap price. This was it, I thought to myself. It was time to finally make my own chilli sauce.
I guess you could say I get a huge amount of pleasure knowing I made something MYSELF. From SCRATCH. And so, I’ve made my own Kombucha, dips, sourdough starter and loaf, butter milk, salad dressings, pasta sauces, etcetera. All of different levels of difficulty, but there’s always one common theme: it ALWAYS tastes better home-made, and it’s always easier than what I had imagined.

I think we tend to have this idea that these items are clearly beyond the average person’s skills, simply because we’ve grown up buying off the shelf. But it’s not beyond us! It’s dead easy most of the time. It just takes a bit of patience and a bit of time. BUT you get the satisfaction of knowing that it’s FRESH, preservative-FREE, and you can control just how much salt and sugar goes into it! It also helps the environment by reducing all the excessive waste of packaging.

Anyway. I’m ranting. I’ll try to stop.




Back to my punnet of inspiring chillies’ (I’ve since bought my own chilli plant BTW. It’s BLOOMING with chillies. Hurrah! But that’s another topic all together and I promised I would stop… #growityourself).

I researched endlessly for the perfect recipe. I knew what I was going for. But the internet didn’t. And so, I made up my own. Klara and I spent an afternoon together, cooking and testing, and I was bloody happy with how it turned out!

Beware! This is not for the faint-hearted. My husband didn’t dare even touch it. I may have, foolishly, tried a whole teaspoon of it when it was finished. Milk was required after.




To tone it down, just reduce the amount of chillies and throw in some more tomatoes.

Ass-Kickin’ Chilli Sauce

Ingredients

200g red chilli (1 punnet)
3 cloves of garlic
1 brown onion
800g tomatoes (roasted)
2 cups water
¼ cup white wine vinegar
¼ cup white sugar
Salt
2x 500g jars approx., sterilised.
Cooking time = 45 minutes

What you need to do

1. Grab your sterilised jars. If they aren’t already sterilised, you can do this by scrubbing them in hot soapy water, and then placing them on a tray in an oven heated at 120° C for 30 minutes.

2. Pump the oven up to 220° C. Place tomatoes on a tray, spray with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. Roast tomatoes in oven for 20 – 30 minutes, depending on size.

3. While the tomatoes are cooking, wash the chilli, onion and garlic. Remove the chilli heads (and the seeds if you don’t want a super-hot chilli sauce!), and chop into small pieces – or blend with a processor. Dice the onion and mince the garlic.

4. Heat a fry pan at medium heat and sauté the chilli, onion and garlic for 5 minutes.

5. Once tomatoes are done, allow them to cool in a bowl. Peel the skin off them (this should happen easily), and let the water drain from the tomatoes (we don’t want all the liquid).

6. Add the tomatoes and water to the chilli pan. Bring to the boil. Add in the white wine vinegar and sugar. Lower the heat to simmer for 15 minutes.

7. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Pour into a jug and blend with a food processor.

8. Strain the mixture to remove the seeds and any extra bits of tomato skin.

9. Pour the mixture into the sterilised jars and store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Voila! Enjoy in a pasta sauce, marinating bbq meats, on top of your chicken nachos, or in a chilli con carne. It would be great in a how-hot-can-you-do-it game too 😉

See. I told you. Tastes amazing. Easy peasie.

Comment below with other suggestions on how to use a chilli sauce!