Chili lovers, you are going to fall in love with this sauce. Non-chili lovers, prepared to be converted!
This is a very simple recipe for a home-made chili sauce. The recipe was given to me by my friend’s father in law many years ago. He lives in Guillin, China, a place famous not only for its natural beauty but also for its cuisine and most of all – its chili sauces! It is an absolutely fantastic sauce to keep in the fridge. The real secret of this sauce is that its taste deepens and improves over time because of some of its ingredients slowly fermenting and infusing their rich aroma in the sauce. I guarantee you that you will be tempted to open the jar and smell it every time you open the fridge.
The sauce can be used for different purposes. It can be used in stir-fries, noodle dishes, as a base for other sauces, in stews and of course served as a dipping sauce for basically anything hot or cold.
The Ingredients:
Note: Some of these ingredients like the Chinese rice wine and the preserved black beans can be found in Asian Food stores.
Step 1: Soak the Dried Chilies in warm water for 30 minutes
This will soften them and make them easier to be crushed or blended in a sauce. You might be asking “why not use fresh chilies instead of re-hydrating dried chilies?” The reason is that dried chilies have a deeper, smokey taste. Fresh chilies are perfectly fine for other sauces but for this one we need to use the dried ones.
Step 2: Chop the Garlic and Shallot
Step 3: Put All Ingredients in a Pestle & Mortar or a blender
Step 4: Grind or Blend until it becomes a Homogenous Paste
Step 5: Jar it, Top it with Oil and put in your Fridge
Featured photo credit: Steven Depolo via flickr.com
