Fermented Hot Chilli Sauce
Brought to you by Ozfarmer
I love making hot chilli sauce with my surplus chillis. You can add herbs and spices to the mix and experiment with different flavours but the basic mixture is always a winner. Use the freshest possible ingredients and use a jar with an airlock to keep oxygen out and to allow gases to vent out during the fermentation process.
Ingredients
• 500g fresh chillis (a mixture of types is possible)
• 2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 2 large fresh tomatoes
• 1-2 tsp sweetener such as unrefined sugar or honey, optional
• 1 teaspoon pickling salt starter culture dissolved in 1/4 cup water, or 1/4 cup fresh whey.
Method
Cut off the stems from the chillis, but leave the green star at the base of the stem intact as this adds an extra subtle flavour to your sauce. Mash all the ingredients in a food processor, or with mortar and pestle, until everything is finely chopped.
Spoon the paste into a pint size glass jar fitted with an airlock and allow the mixture to at room temperature for five to seven days. Depending on how much water content you have in your tomatoes, there may be some separation of the mixture but this is normal.
After the sauce has fermented for about a week, place a finemesh sieve over a large bowl and spoon in the fermented chilli mixture. Using a wooden spoon, press the mixture into the sides of the sieve so that the sauce drips from the sieve into the bowl below. You can then pour the resulting sauce into a sterile jar or bottle and store in the fridge. It will store in the fridge for several months. This recipe makes one small bottle of sauce. You can also use the mixture left in the sieve as a chilli paste or mix it up with some vinegar and tomato paste for a thicker sauce.