Thai sweet chilli sauce

Folks always ask me why I make my own sauces, especially when buying them in a ready-made bottle, which is so easy. The answer is simple: the sauces always taste better fresh. In addition, the chef gets to make the sauce to his liking and can play with the recipe tweaking it to make it to their liking, less sweeter, spicier or adjusting the salt. Finally, I never add preservatives, colouring agents and/or emulsifiers and other chemicals. It is natural and pure without the junk.

This lovely sauce can be spicy, especially if you make it the way I do. The combination of sweet and spicy is addictive. It is a lovely side for any Asian meal, but you can also enjoy it with eggs, on burgers, and on sandwiches.

This is a new cookbook on my shelf, one I have craved for a long time. The cookbook is from a chain of restaurants in London and across the UK. The recipes are very authentic, and they pop with flavours. Most recipes are super simple, and those I have made are always wonderful. You will see me cook from here again when I crave simple Thai cuisine.

For more recipes from this cookbook, click here.

Ingredients:

8-16 dried red chillies, arbol preferred, but you can use another dried chilli of your choice

1 cup water

1-2 Thai red chillies

1/2 cup rice vinegar

3-4 tablespoons jaggery or palm sugar

6 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon ginger paste

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 teaspoon fish sauce (optional)

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Salt, to taste

2 tablespoons oil

Soak the dried chillies in water for 1 hour. Drain.

Add r=thw softened dried chillies and all the other ingredients until the fish sauce to a small blender and blitz till you have a coarse sauce. Do not make the sauce too smooth.

Add the oil to a small pot. Add the sauce and the remaining ingredients and cook for 10-12 minutes for a thickened sauce. Cool and keep in the fridge for upto a week.