Sweet Chilli Sauce

As promised, here is the recipe for the sweet chilli sauce.

A couple of weeks ago my sister gave me these chillies. They are milder than our birdseye chillies and she assured me that they are just perfect for making sweet chilli sauce.

2020-05-09 01

As always, I consulted Google for a recipe and found this one. It is from the Australian Women’s Weekly and it was refreshing to find an Australian recipe that I did not have to interpret or substitute either ingredients or measurements.

I had enough ingredients for a half quantity so this is what I used.

Sweet Chilli Sauce

125 gram fresh long red chillies
375ml white vinegar
250ml water
1 cup raw sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 cloves garlic, crushed

Remove green stems from chillies, chop chillies coarsely with their seeds. Process chilli until finely chopped.

Combine vinegar, water, sugar and salt in large saucepan. Stir over low heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves. Add chilli, boil, uncovered, 20 minutes.

Add garlic; boil, uncovered, about 20 minutes or until mixture is reduced to 3 cups (375ml). The sauce will thicken on cooling. Stand sauce 10 minutes.

Pour hot sauce into hot sterilised bottles, seal immediately. Cool, refrigerate.

NOTE:

I probably boiled mine a bit too long. I think the cooking times need to be reduced for the reduced quantity. It looked and tasted wonderful when I poured it into the bottle but the seeds and skin were too hard and chewy.

I left it for about a week while I considered my options.

Yesterday I removed it from the bottle and added about another 125ml of water. This all went into my high-speed blender which effectively blitzed the skin and seeds. I then simmered it for about 5 minutes before re-bottling it.

We had Zucchini and Corn Fritters last night and the sweet chilli sauce was the perfect accompaniment. It is rather more opaque and smooth than the commercial varieties but the taste is second to none.