A chilli sauce can make or break your Chinese recipe. I don't like to use the store bought ones especially when it is so simple to make at home. This is part of a series of essential recipes that help build other recipes. This particular chilli sauce is a quick version of my mom's secret sauce. Her's is a fermented recipe that like a pickle takes days to make. This one you can have ready in 10 mins.
This is the chilli sauce you can use in all my Chinese recipes or any Chinese recipe. You can also use it as a side or use it as base for other more elaborate sauces that make you sound like a pro chef.
A home made version is not only cheaper but doesn't have any preservatives, acidity regulators and additional chemicals. Also it is naturally lower in sodium.
OTHER USES
I love using this to make more sauces. A simple one would be to add some roasted garlic, soy sauce and a little honey ( any sweetener) with a tsp of the sauce to get a thinner dipping sauce.
Base recipes like this can be used for many things. I use it as a base in all my Chinese recipes.
Use this as a base for my Chinese recipes or any Chinese recipe actually. It is low calorie and simple to make and store. You can also use this to make other dipping sauces.
Author: Simrun Chopra
Ingredients
1 cup Dried Red Chillies
3/4th cup Water, approximately
1/4th cup Garlic, crushed & roughly chopped
1 tsp Oil
1/4th cup Vinegar
1 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Sugar
Directions
De-seed the red chilies as best as you can. Just break each chilli in half and the seeds should all fall out. A few stray seeds are okay
Put the chillies in a pan with the water. The water should just cover the chillies. Heat it on the stove for 4-5 minutes, till the chillies become swollen and water is nearly absorbed
Add half the oil and chopped garlic in a pan and roast on low flame, till the garlic starts to brown around the edges
Coarsely grind the chillies and garlic
Heat oil in a pan and return the chilli–garlic mixture to the pan. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook till you see the sauce come together and the oil separating at the sides
Cool the sauce completely and transfer to a clean, dry jar and refrigerate
Recipe Note
Vinegar - use vinegar of choice. I used apple cider vinegar but any vinegar is fine
Oil - use an unflavoured oil Here Mustard or Coconut oil are not recommended as they will add an additional flavour profile that will effect the larger dishes you use it in.
Sugar - can be replaced with jaggery, honey, brown sugar, cane sugar ( basically any sweetener of choice) .If you are using honey you do not need to cook it. Add the honey at the end.
Salt - taste and adjust
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator
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