Things to do with chillies: 1) Hot sauce

Copy of a post in the chilli growing thread, for those that missed it

Some of my own chillies here and some shop-bought ones. Nothing amazingly spicy - only growing properly hot ones this year, so I hope to make something more interesting this time around.





Recipe (an amalgamation of the best bits of MANY internet recipes):

• Rough-chop one white and one red onion and most/all of a clove of garlic. Stick in a pan and sweat with some olive oil.
• Peel and chop a carrot, slice a pepper and the chillies (number and inclusion of seeds according to taste!). Add those to the pan and sweat for a bit longer, taking care not to let anything burn.
• Add 1/4 cup water and 1/2 cup orange juice. Add a couple of chopped tomatoes and gently simmer down until it starts to thicken.
• During this time, season with all or none of the following: salt and pepper, a bit of (decent) vegetable stock, English mustard (for a slightly different kick), chilli powder and paprika, and mixed herbs.
• Juice a couple of limes and a lemon and get some of the zest from the lemon with a grater. Peel and stone a ripe mango and add with the lemon and lime juice to the mix.
• Add 1/2 cup white wine vinegar / cider vinegar to lower the pH for preservation and simmer down a bit.
• Whiz the mix with a hand blender to get the preferred consistency - I like slightly lumpy, but it's up to you. Continue to reduce it down to the preferred consistency if it's too runny, or strain it through a sieve to get rid of some of the liquid. Bottle with a funnel, allow to cool and stick in the fridge.

This should keep for a ages (many months) in the fridge as long as you take care to be hygienic throughout. Sterilise things like the funnel (+/- sieve) and bottles in the oven / microwave / with boiling water before using. If you see anything suspicious growing in the bottle after a while, don't eat it

Other things to do with chillies: 2) Sweet chilli sauce.

Looks great, will hopefully give this a try. I have a few chilli and hot BBQ sauce recipes bookmarked, for when my chillies ripen.

Deffo going to be trying this when my chillies finally ripen! Ill bookmark both of your recipes.

If you can't use all your chillies up fresh, they're really easy to dry. I just threaded a needle and ran it through a load of mine. Once it was done I hung them up in the airing cupboard and I've been using them dried since october last year.