Chilli recipes

This is a quick recipe. The only hassle is chopping up the chillies. They tend to burn your skin and washing doesn't help, so be careful. You have to sterilise a jar for this recipe, but that's easy. After you've chopped the chillis, put the jar and the lid into a pan of water. Bring it to the boil and leave it boiling while you finish making the sauce. When the sauce is ready drain the water from the jar and, without drying it, dump the hot sauce in and screw the lid on tightly.

The spiciness of this sauce will depend on the kind of chillies you use.

Ingredients

200g fresh green chillies
3 cloves of garlic
A quarter teaspoon of ground ginger (or some finely chopped fresh root if you've got it)
1 heaped teaspoon of sugar
I teaspoon of salt
4 dessertspoons of vinegar
4 dessertspoons of water
1 level teaspoon of black mustard
1 level teaspoon of coriander seed

Deseed the chillies if they are big enough to do that without too much fiddling about. Chop them finely. Pound the mustard and coriander seeds with a pestle and mortar then add the chilli, garlic and ginger. Pound away until you're getting some juice and the chillies are well smashed up. You won't get a really smooth paste. Ten or fifteen minutes should do.

Put the mixture in a saucepan and add all the other ingredients. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 or 10 minutes. Put the mixture in a sterilised jar and seal it tightly. Try to leave it for a couple of weeks before trying it. It should keep unopened for ages.

chilli recipes contd.

Red chilli condiment

'What's a condiment?' I hear you ask. Well it's too dry to be a sauce and it's a bit wet to be called chilli powder. Besides it's got things added to it. Keep it in the fridge and bang it on your food when you feel like sweating a bit and rolling around on the floor in agony.

Ingredients

1 cup of crushed red chillies
Juice of 1 lemon
2 or 3 dessert spoons of oil
1 tsp. of salt
1 and a half cups of water
Heat the oil in a pan, but not too hot - you just want to extract the essential oils from the chilli and maybe cook it a little but not burn it to a crisp. Add the chillies and stir around for a few minutes. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice, water and salt. Bung it in a small jar, cover and leave to cool before putting in the fridge. If you live with anyone else, put a warning label on the jar.

chilli recipes contd.

Sun-dried red chillies

Do this recipe in the morning so the chillies get a full day in the sun. If you don't live in a sunny country or are having an unusually wet summer, leaving the prepared chillies in an oven set at a very low heat for a few hours would probably work.

Ingredients

A pile of red chillis
A few teaspoons of cumin and anise seeds (three parts cumin to one anise)
A teaspoon of salt
Lemon juice

Roast the seeds and pound them well. Mix with the salt then add lemon juice to make a thick paste. Prepare the chillies by cutting off the end with the stalk, slitting down one side and removing the core. Spread the inside of each chilli with spice mixture and lay them side by side on a tray.

Lay the tray of chillies somewhere sheltered outside where it will catch the full sun. At the end of the day the chillies will have lost a lot of their water and will be looking fairly shrivelled. Pack them into thoroughly cleaned jars and store in the fridge. They should keep for a few weeks, maybe more.

more chilli recipes

even more chilli recipes indian style