Today, different varieties of pepper are grown in many warm countries. Most varieties, united by the common name "chili", have a pronounced pungent taste. This name is applied not only to the vegetable itself, but also to sauces prepared on its basis. You can buy such a seasoning in almost any grocery store. But it’s not so difficult to make chili sauce at home. A huge variety of recipes allows everyone to choose a dish to taste. Consider several popular and uncomplicated cooking methods.
What is chili sauce?
As a rule, chili sauce is based on a mixture of vegetables. Often, tomato paste or fresh tomatoes are included, but there are many recipes based on other vegetables: rotunda, bell pepper and even plum puree. If you decide to make chili sauce at home, build on your family’s eating habits. Pick a variety of pepper, the severity of which will be to your taste. If you do not like excessive pungency or similar products are contraindicated for health reasons, you may like sweet chili sauce, which also has a pungency, but to a lesser extent.
Chili pepper and its varieties
Going to the market or to the store for the main ingredient, expect to meet it in one of the most common types. Along with fresh peppers, you may come across dried, powdered, or in pieces. On the shelves of supermarkets you can see pickled or frozen chili peppers. In some countries, such as Spain, dried and smoked peppers are popular.
All of these varieties are perfect for our purposes. Of course, if it happens in summer or autumn, the choice is wide enough. But if you decide to make chili sauce at home in the cold season, you are unlikely to get fresh fruits. Do not despair - buy dry powder. It is also suitable for giving the necessary sharpness, and for saturating the finished dish with a characteristic aroma.
Basic recipe
If you have never prepared such a sauce, start exploring it with a classic recipe. For him we need:
- hot pepper - 2 pcs.;
- Bulgarian pepper (red) - 2 pcs.;
- tomato paste - 4 tbsp. spoons;
- garlic - 3 cloves;
- salt.
You can use rotunda for this recipe. Culinary experts say that heat treatment is not necessary for pepper, and it muffles the taste. Therefore, the sauce can not be boiled. Just chop the vegetables in any convenient way: using a blender or a meat grinder. Touching the chili pepper or knife with which it was cut is not worth it. Cut it in gloves.
Add tomato paste, seasonings and salt to the vegetable mixture . If the sauce seems too thick, dilute it with vegetable broth or water. In case the mass turned out to be liquid, add a little corn starch.
Additional ingredients
You can diversify the taste of the sauce, make it more complete and rich. Fresh greens go well with it: dill, basil, watercress. Instead of salt, you can use soy sauce. Some add chopped pickled onions to homemade chili sauce. In this case, you will need to cut it smaller beforehand, pour boiling water over it, add a couple drops of vinegar, a pinch of sugar and a little salt. When the water has cooled, wring out the onion thoroughly and add it to the sauce. Thanks to boiling water, it will lose unnecessary bitterness, but high temperatures will not harm its aromas and pungency.
For those who like spicy
If you want to "increase the degree", that is, to make the sauce even more burning, feel free to experiment. Do not increase the amount of pepper immediately by 2-3 times, the result may be too expressive. If 2 pods are indicated in the recipe, but the cooked sauce did not seem sufficiently vigorous, next time use 3 pods.
In general, chili is a hot sauce that should cause a burning sensation. Strengthen the effect with garlic and dry seasonings. For a basic recipe, you can use both young garlic and ordinary heads. Love sharper? Double the amount of garlic. You can also add chili pepper powder to the finished sauce until the concentration reaches the desired level.
Harmony of flavors: sweet and sour sauce
If classic chili sauce refers us to the culinary traditions of Latin America, then its sweet and sour interpretation is a classic of the Far East. It is widely used for cooking Chinese and Thai dishes. If you want to make sweet and sour chili sauce, you can move away from the traditional vegetable base for Mexican cuisine. In Asia, the sauce is prepared differently.
We will need:
- water - 100 ml;
- garlic;
- corn starch - 1 tbsp;
- sugar - 50 g;
- chilli - 3 pcs.
- rice wine - 3 tablespoons
Preparing such a chili sauce at home is quite simple. Put water with sugar, salt and wine to boil, and at this time grind the vegetables into gruel. Dissolve the starch in a small amount of water, pour into a boiling mixture in a thin stream. Add vegetables and let the mixture boil. It remains only to salt to taste.
Sweet chili
There is an even sharper version of this dish. It combines a very slight spiciness with pronounced sweetness. It is achieved due to a small amount of honey, brown or cane sugar. Sweet chili sauce can be prepared according to any favorite recipe, only pepper needs to be taken half as much, and at the end of cooking, add 1 tsp. honey or sugar.
Harvesting for future use
Mistresses who mastered this recipe say that it makes sense to procure more wonderful treats. If you decide to make chili sauce at home for the winter, use the following recipe. Prepare these products:
- tomatoes - 4 kg;
- onion - 6 pcs.;
- vegetable oil - 30 ml;
- chili pepper - 0.35 kg;
- salt - 6 tsp;
- sugar - 12 tsp;
- wine vinegar - 40 ml;
- garlic - 8 cloves;
- greens.
Grind pepper, garlic, parsley in a blender. Tomatoes are passed through a meat grinder. In a cauldron we heat the oil, fry the pepper mass for about two minutes. Add the minced tomato, simmer for half an hour over low heat. Grind the mixture through a sieve to make the sauce tender. Add sugar and salt, boil again. At the very end, pour in the vinegar. We pack it in sterile jars, seal it and send it to the pantry.
Chili sauce on the table
Having prepared chili sauce at home for the winter, you can use it to prepare a wide variety of dishes. It goes well with pasta, side dishes of stewed vegetables. In the East, it is added to traditional soups, meat sauce. You can cook with the addition of this sauce marinades for meat and fish before baking or simply serve in a saucepan.