Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce
- Jizzy Green
- Mar 24
- 2 min read
They say that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade! Well, when life gives me chillies, I make my standard Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce, enough to last me a whole year. We use it to spice up any lack-lustre dish to stunning effect. Elevates the ordinary into the not-so-ordinary. I love simple things in life, so if it’s easy peasy, then I grab it with two hands and hang on tight! So it is with my Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce recipe, which I must have gleaned from some magazine or Google years ago and have been making it for the last 10 years or so. I have these perennial sweet little bell chillies which my husband found on his travels, I kept the seeds and have never had to replace them as they come back strong every spring and produce an abundance of these little spicy darlings each Autumn. I also have a perennial bush of Rocoto Chillies - man, these guys are spicey! They resemble the shape of a hand grenade, kinda like nature thought to warn us!!
Tools for the job: a good blender. My Breville The Boss does the job very well, and all ingredients fit into it in one go. No need to do it in messy batches.
Recipe:
Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce Recipe
500g fresh red chillies
3 cloves garlic, peeled
750ml apple cider vinegar (ACV) (3 cups)
3 cups organic golden sugar
Halve the chillies and place in a bowl of a food processor, along with garlic. De-seed the rest of the chillies and place in food processor. If I am using Rocoto chillies, I remove all the seeds or it will be too hot. PLEASE NOTE: use gloves when cutting chillies or working with the seeds! And don't rub your eyes!
Add 250ml vinegar and process in a blender till a smooth red pulp is achieved. Place chilli mixture, remaining vinegar and sugar in large saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring for 5 mins until sugar dissolves.
Increase heat to high and bring to the boil.
Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occassionally for 35-40 mins until sauce thickens. Pour into sterilised, airtight bottles and seal.
Depending on the type of chilli you use, the seeds are what pack a power-punch of heat, so de-seed all the chillies if you prefer less heat.
To sterilise my bottles, I wash them with hot soapy water and place in an oven at 100 degrees celcius for half an hour.
The other thing I do with my chillies is to dehydrate them, and then grind them in my coffee grinder, to use as dried chillies in future cooking recipes.
What may seem like a curse (too many chillies) can be a blessing (chilli powder and sauce).
With love (Aroha)
Jizzy
