The other day my husband and I were bored – we can only job hunt for so long before our minds wander! So with the princely sum of about a fiver in our pockets we went to our friendly local Tesco to purchase ingredients for a hot sauce. We made it a competition with Matt’s parents being the judges. I wanted to make something quite classic that we could throw into a chilli , have with cheese (cheese on toast with hot sauce is amazing!), or use in place of Tabasco in a Bloody Mary. So here is my recipe for an easy, cheap, classic ingredient hot sauce.
My ingredients – I didn’t use the second pepper
30 red chillies (I had a mixture of varieties, mostly birdseye and a few of the large milder red ones)
3 small garlic bulbs
a few sprigs of thyme
1 tbsp tomato puree
100-200ml red wine vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 bell pepper
1 small white onion
Splash olive oil over the chillies and pepper and threw them in the oven at 160 degrees for about half an hour (take the oven tray out when the chillies start to get a bit darker and you see the pepper browning round the edge). When the pepper has cooled, peel and throw away the skin and roughly chop the flesh along with the chillies.
Cut the tops off the garlic bulbs so each clove has a bit nipped off the end. Place the bulbs into baking foil with a bit of olive oil, a chilli and a couple of sprigs of thyme, and close the foil over to form a parcel. Roast for around an hour at 140 degrees. Once you’ve left the garlic to cool, you can squeeze the bulbs and the squishy roasted cloves will ooze out of the end. Yummy, but smelly!
Squeezing the garlic into the pot
Dice the onion, and fry on a very gentle heat in olive oil in a large saucepan. You don’t want to brown the onions, just cook them out a bit. I add a bit of water to the pan after a few minutes which helps to keep the onions moist and translucent. Then add the pepper, chillies, garlic, tomato puree and some thyme, and stir for a minute. Throw in 100ml of the red wine vinegar and about the same again of water and allow the mixture to bubble.
Once it has cooled slightly, tip the mixture into a blender and whizz for a couple of minutes until smooth. At this point grab a cracker and a glass of milk because you need to taste it. Add more vinegar, sugar, salt or a squidge of lemon juice if you think it’s needed, and at any point in this process add a bit more water if the mixture is too thick. Store the sauce in a clip-top jar and enjoy!
The finished article
I should point out all the chillies came from the in-laws’ garden and there were bags of em waiting for us in the freezer, so I guess you might spend more than a fiver if you include that as well. Don’t go to the supermarkets if you can help it, better and cheaper chillies are available at any Asian food store, of which there are plenty around the country. If you would like a milder sauce you could either replace some of the chillies with more bell pepper, or use milder chillies and avoid the likes of birdseye, scotch bonnet, habanero and other rather hot varieties like that.
This sauce turned out exactly as I had hoped, and we used it in a peri-peri chicken marinade as well as in soft tacos – and in case you’re wondering, this was the winning sauce!
goodingwithfood 