Saturday, March 26, 2005

African Bird's Eye Chilli Sauce

My chilli bush produces chillies profusely and I was at a loss as to what to do with them. This was my solution ...

20 African bird's eye chillies
1 large onion
6 medium tomatoes
5 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
2 tsp origanum
1/5 cup white spirit vinegar
2 cup sugar

- finely chop the onion and tomatoes

- remove the seeds from the chillies and finely chop the flesh. You might want to wear gloves for this. I chopped my chillies two hours ago and my hands are still, erm, warm. You also want to be very careful not to get any seeds in the chopped chilli, and not to rub your eyes, etc. This stuff burns like hell ;-)

- crush the garlic

- put all of the above in a pot with the tsp of salt and allow the tomatoes to draw for about five minutes over a low heat.

- if you've got one of those wizz-stick things, use it to chop everything in the pot up even finer (else do it right the first time ;-)

- add the origanum, vinegar and sugar

- simmer gently over a low heat for about forty-five minutes. you need to leave the lid on the pot for the first twenty minutes or so to cook everything and then you need to remove the lid to allow the mixture to reduce to a nice sauce.

- bottle whilst still hot in a clean, dry bottle/jar (makes about one chutney bottle's worth)

You should probably refrigerate this after re-opening the jar

posted by guy at: 16:42 SAST | path: /recipes | permanent link