Sweet Chilli Sauce

Hubby loves sweet chilli sauce.  Last year he asked me why I don't make it for him.  Well, um, I guess it's because we don't grow chillies?

So we bought some chilli plants in spring and Hubby planted them among the capsicums and tomatoes.  He thought he'd kept hold of the labels telling us what type of chillies and peppers we'd bought, but it would seem not.  Or if he did, we have no idea where they've gotten to. We seem to have a mix of banana peppers, bell peppers, long red chillies and some that look like a small bell pepper - a little smaller than a golf ball.

Since the chillies have started ripening, I looked for recipes for Sweet Chilli Sauce.  I found one embedded in a blog that seemed great on the surface, but as I got deeper, it used Sambal Oelek, a pickled chilli jam, that I don't have, instead of chillis which I do have and want to use. Using them was kind of the point of the exercise. So I carried on looking.

I found one on Taste.com.au, it seemed simple enough so I thought I'd try it.

The only problem was the proportions.  My seven chillies weighed a grand total of 40g, the recipe called for 500g.  That was quite a bit different.  So I added approximately 60g of capsicum to make it up to 100g, much easier to convert the recipe then.

It cooked up quite quickly, I didn't simmer it for the full 30 minutes in the recipe and ended up with about a cup of hard chilli jam.  A very hard chilli jam that was almost inedible.  The tiniest bit on the edge of a teaspoon was enough to set your mouth on fire.

So I left it overnight while I considered my options.  Today, I blitzed up two whole bell peppers and made it up with the full amount of white vinegar and sugar in the recipe, as the sugar dissolved, I added my hard fiery chilli jam from yesterday and stirred it around until it dissolved too.

After a taste test, I added more sugar.

We've tested it tonight and it's sweet and it's spicy.  It's got a nice bite of heat to it without being overpowering.

So now I'm watching my chilli plants so I can make more.

Sweet Chilli Sauce

50g hot chilli peppers
2 whole red bell peppers
3 large cloves garlic
750 ml white vinegar
3 1/2 cups white sugar

Halve and deseed the chillis and peppers.  Put into food processor with garlic and a little vinegar.  Blitz until almost pureed. Put into a saucepan with the remaining vinegar and sugar.
Heat slowly, stirring constantly until the sugar has all dissolved.
Bring to the boil, then turn down heat and simmer until it starts to thicken. Taste test and add sugar if needed.
Be careful not to allow it to thicken too much - the sauce should still run freely when cold.