Smooth Operator - Tom's Medium Chilli Sauce
This recipe makes a silken textured, rich and flavoursome mild chilli sauce. The flavour and heat delivery is smooth and consistent, with a luxurious mouth feel. This is one tasty and smooth operator. At the same time, we will also make a chilli chutney by adding apple and onion to the same recipe.
250 g chillies (yellow, red, and red Thai) roughly chopped, seeds left in
400 g tomato paste
6 cloves garlic
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp raw honey
¼ cup fish sauce
1 tbsp mango vinegar (substitute apple cider vinegar)
1 tbsp pineapple vinegar (substitute pineapple or lime juice)
1 tbsp tamarind paste
Place all ingredients except the tomato paste into a food processor and mix to a paste. Add the tomato and blend together. Spoon out 2/3 of the mix into one jar, and 1/3 into another. To the second jar, also add 2 granny smith apples (peeled and cored, then finely chopped), and one small onion, finely chopped. Cap both jars and ferment for 7 days, stirring every day.
Spoon the contents of the first jar (the one without the apple) into a strong sieve resting over a bowl. Add one third of a cup of mango vinegar to the jar, shake to get the remains of the paste, then pour slowly onto the sieve. Push the mass of sauce through the strainer, using the vinegar to liquefy as you push. This will take a fair while, and you will be left with a pulp of chilli seeds and skin. The pulp may be added to a jar with some pineapple vinegar to flavour it. Steep for a week, then strain. Meanwhile, in the bowl is our chilli sauce ready to be bottled. This makes enough for a standard sauce bottle with a little left over.
Add any leftover sauce to the second jar, along with a quarter cup of mango vinegar. Mix, and then transfer to small jars.
Keep both the chilli sauce, and the chilli chutney in the fridge.