This recipe was developed out of necessity on the Easter weekend, 2008. We were holidaying at Hyams beach, there were eight people to feed and a Steamboat on the way, and I had forgotten to bring the chili sauce* from the big smoke. A quick phone call to a foodie friend (a previous local to the area) determined that the nearest Asian grocer to Jervis bay is Woolongong. A couple hours back to Sydney! So that is how this sauce was born...a combination of imagination, desire and necessity.
Angry Grandma's Chili Sauce:
- A couple of X large handfuls of whole dried chillies. The smaller chillies are hottest. For a milder flavor you may use the larger variety of dried chili.
- Approximately 6 large gloves of garlic, finely sliced and diced (1: 5, garlic to chili ratio )
- A few table spoons of sesame seeds (or more)
- A large handful of peanuts (or more)
- Fragrant Sesame oil
- Massel chicken stock cube.
- Approx three table spoons Celtic Sea salt (or other sea salt)
- Grape seed oil (or peanut oil etc, i like to use peanut for the heating, them add the grape seed afterwards)
- Roast the peanuts and sesame seeds in a pan on medium heat until golden, then place in the air tight jar you will use to store the chili sauce. You may wish to crush the peanuts up a bit eg. with the end of a rolling pin.
- Stuff dried chilies in an electric spice grinder and whiz and shake until you just reach a coarse ground (be careful not to over grind).
- Heat about 0.5 - 1cm depth of oil in a small saucepan until moderately hot. Test by adding a chili flake and see if it fizzes. Place garlic in oil & allow to sauté for a moment. Be careful not to burn or over cook, basically you just want to give the garlic a little bit of cooking. Follow this up by adding the chillies, broken up chicken stock cube and salt into the oil and mix. The chili should fizz up when poured into the oil. Remove from heat. Add a couple table spoons of sesame oil. Taste to see if you require more salt (Be careful - its spicy hot!)
- Place cooked chili mix in the jar and stir with the sesame seeds/peanuts, then add a little more sesame oil or grape seed oil to create the desired moisture (wet but not oily). Store in refrigerator. Go easy on this stuff, a 1/4 teaspoon added to a bowl of soup may suffice...its deceptively simple but is quite deadly.
* You can buy a pre-made-in-china chili sauce similar to this recipe in Asian supermarkets. It comes in a jar with a red lid, no English labeling ...but there is a black and white head shot of a very serious looking women in an apron (hence being dubbed angry grandma chili). I think the home-made version is far superior, particularly when you consider the growing opinion amongst many Chinese people living in Australia, that you can't trust food products imported from China. One thing is for sure...you don't really know whats in the sauce you buy, primarily because its not written on the label and also due to less stringent quality controls in other countries.
