Some people love chilli and some people hate it. Some people start sweating profusely and some just get a little light glow when they eat it. Most of the time I really enjoy it. It can enhance a meal, and take it to another level. Or it can also blow my socks off, make my eyes water like two taps, and make it impossible to converse with. As the subject at hand is only… dear god, how am I going to get through this meal! (Like a recent situation at a mexican restaurant with friends.)

My new favourite chilli sauce is a Louisiana Hot Sauce that my brother gave me. Damn, it’s good. I’m rationing it out as I don’t want it to end. It’s a little sweet, a little peppery, a little hot and a whole lot of tasty. Turns every meal that I’ve put it on into a mmmmm meal.

The recent Mexican meal certainly wasn’t the hottest I have eaten. That particular chilli was a sambal eaten in Sabah, Malaysia. A tiny little family run hole in the wall in the jungle. It looked hot, you could see it was hot. It sat in the middle of the table taunting fellow diners with its fiery temptation. I liked hot, I’d built myself up for this…I could do it. I was also not stupid, I knew that there was a small dish for a reason. Small dish means take a small amount. So I did. You could not have got a smaller amount of sambal on my tongue. It was minuscule, a pin head size. I took it straight, I wasn’t scared….So. Hot. So. Darn. Hot. My eyeballs shot out. My tongue was instantly numb. My hand reached for the glass of water. Then the jug. I’m not sure what I ate for the rest of the meal as my tongue was still lying in a comatose state against the side of my mouth. With taste buds stripped. I straightened myself up and continued on with the enjoyable meal with my companions. Hey, you should really try the chilli…

Sweet Chilli Sauce

200gms long green chillies

8 small red chillies

2.5cm long knob of ginger

7 cloves garlic

2.5 cups white vinegar

2.5 cups sugar

3 tps salt

Blitz the the chilli, ginger, garlic in what ever you have at home. A couple of seconds is all it needs. Pop it in to a pan, cook off for a minute, then add vinegar, sugar and salt. Stir, and keep it at a rolling boil until it thickens a little (30-40 mins.)

Now this little number is a bit hot, but not crazy hot and it still has flavour. After seeing a demonstration by Sally Wise at the Taste Festival and seeing how quickly she pulled this together, I was inspired. I’ll never, ever buy sweet chilli sauce again. There is absolutely no need. Whack a bottle of this in the fridge and it will keep for ages. Now if you don’t like it so hot. Simply take the seeds out of the chilli or at least some of them, (I didn’t though for this batch) as the heat is in the seeds.

Now go make something delicious to serve it with.