My 2 Best Ever Chili Preserves! One Sweet Chili Barbecue Sauce and one Hot Chili Chutney. These are both absolutely to die for!

The natural color is slightly lighter than what you see in the jar.

The first recipe was created by myself. The 2nd is a hot chili chutney which I stumbled upon whilst traipsing the internet looking for good recipes. I give you the first recipe followed by the second.

My best ever sweet chili Barbecue Sauce:

Absolutely divine! – Excellent for Smoked Pork hock or Eisbein. Lovely with Avo and for hamburger sauce. Great for deboned rolled smoked pork neck and or gammon ham but best with Smoked Eisbein. Try with chicken and burgers as a barbecue sauce. Just as lovely with fried fish and chips using my fish and chip shop batter. Excellent served with braaied – barbecued smoked snoek South African style.

Just to give the sauce a little body I dissolve a little litchi jelly powder into my HOT sauce by whipping in once done. DO NOT thicken the sauce with corn flour or cake flour as it will create a cloudy appearance! You may experiment with a combination of litchi or pineapple jelly but bear in mind the sauce must keep its red appearance.

Add your chilies to taste but remember the seeds are hot so remove them if you don’t like too much heat. This is a mild sweet chili sauce and is not too hot at all.

Note: Always use chilies with the brightest red color you can find – No need to peel tomatoes. Skins will add to that lovely red color. Jam oval-shaped tomatoes are best for this as their skins disintegrate far better and go unnoticed but you may also just use regular tomatoes.

Ingredients:

14 g red chilies whole with just the stems removed (nice to include 1 small or 2 g green chili)

8 g whole peeled fresh garlic cloves

14 g fresh peeled ginger, peeled

132 g sweet red pepper, chopped up (capsicum – not chili) seeds removed or retain if wish

226 g apricot jam

126 g Safari Apple Cider Vinegar

2 – 2.5 ml salt (I use 2.5 ml level measure or 4 grams) or to taste

248 g brown sugar or white if you don’t have

202 g jam tomatoes, with skin (Italian tomatoes – oval shaped) – Remove cores if you wish

20 g Litchi or pineapple jelly powder added to taste – Just enough to thicken the sauce (optional)

NEVER cook jelly or it will lose its setting properties.

Method: Place all the above ingredients into a micro-safe container placed on the scale and weigh. Seal the container and microwave steam in its own moisture for about a minute or two or until just softened enough to puree. Do Not overcook, especially with sweet pepper as it imparts a robust flavor which will be forfeited if you overcook it. Puree with a stick or immersion blender. Place the container back on the scale and weigh in your sugar, and vinegar together with an extra generous pinch of sugar if you wish.

Place back in the microwave and cook on medium-low power until all the sugar is dissolved. Puree once again.

Put back into the microwave and cook for about 3-4 mins and puree once again.

If the sauce tastes cooked bring to boil, remove, and beat in jelly powder, and bottle whilst steaming hot into clean jars with sealable lids. lids will automatically seal once the sauce cools down. Store refrigerated once opened. Warm the bottles before you add the hot sauce or you will risk them cracking. What I do is gradually spoon a little hot sauce at a time not to shock the glass but just to warm it before gradually adding the rest. To open lids, boil a shallow container of water in the microwave and invert the bottle upside down into it for a few minutes then open it with a dishcloth.

Sweet Chili Sauce with Smoked Pork Hock or Eisbein.

The above recipe was created by myself on 28 Jan 2013 – Enjoy!

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Amazing Grace’s Ghanaian Chilli Chutney

Love this stuff! It makes an EXCELLENT MEAT MARINADE! Esp for chicken which I love eating with this. After forgetting about this once bottled and stored on the shelf – Oh boy it develops and matures into something REALLY SPECIAL! – When I did eventually take it down weeks or even months later on using it I discovered it was THE BEST MEAT MARINADE EVER!! Due to its strength, it makes the perfect meat marinade! The marinade is hot on its own but when used as a meat marinade it turns out to have just the right amount of heat – Not too hot but just right! On its own, it is a hot chutney so be warned! When I made this I added some smooth apricot jam to taste and to take down the heat a notch or two. See the original recipe here Ghanaian Chilli Chutney – Thank You Kathryn Kurefor posting this recipe!

Ingredients:

600 g green chilies

200 g red chilies

3 bulbs garlic, whole (the whole bulb together with cloves)

4 medium or 3 large onions

Apricot jam (Optional)

Juice of 2 lemons

464 g (500ml) olive oil

30 ml salt

Method: Rinse chilies and remove stalks. Peel onions and garlic. Keep hands away from eyes. Place all in a food processor with a metal blade on and chop finely to around 2-3 mm in size. Put in a deep frying pan, on 5 (out of 6 on the electric stove), and cook until most of the water has evaporated. Stir continuously. We strongly advise you to keep the windows open. Once most of the water has evaporated, add 8 tbsp of olive oil. Cook on high. This process continues over the next 2 hours or so and you need to keep adding oil when the pot is starting to look like it needs a bit more. Stir to make sure it doesn’t stick to the sides. You may sit and enjoy your tea {/beer} at this time, checking the pot every 10 to 15 minutes or so to stir. After about half an hour or so, whilst the mess is cooking away, add 2 tbs salt and the juice of two small lemons. Let the chutney continue to cook until all the juices are out. Cook until it looks like porridge. You may need to add more olive oil towards the end. A thin layer of oil should cover the entire layer when it is done. It is difficult even for experts like Grace to gauge precisely how much oil is required, she added oil about 5 times during the two-hour process, thereby ensuring that the chutney pot resembled mud popping at hot springs, more dry than oily. The chutney is ready when it coagulates together, and pulls off the spoon. At this stage, you would ensure that there is a layer of oil covering the chutney, which will help preserve it and into which oil the flavor of the chili will exude. If need be, add more oil. Grace ended up adding about half a cup at this final stage. At some stage during the above, boil the glass jar(s) that you are going to be putting the chilies in, thoroughly, in a pot on the stove. Lift out with a set of braai tongs when the chutney is ready. Obviously, the hotter the glass, the less likely it will break when you place the hot chili mixture into it, and the boiling also serves to sterilize the glass too – be sure also to place the lids into the boiling water too. NB: No preservatives are used, so keep chutney in the fridge. It makes a superb substitute for chili powder, particularly in Gladys’ delicious and quick Sierra Leone Peanut Butter Chilli Chicken. Since it is already cooked, it adds a wonderful depth of flavor to any dish, and the burn does not continue for long. Keeping the same proportions, it should be possible (and one would assume a trifle quicker) to make a smaller amount, utilizing: 200 g green chilies, 1 bulb of garlic, 1 large onion, red chili for color, and 2/3 cup of oil, juice of one small lemon and 2/3 tablespoon of salt. However, this way you can make lots of presents for extremely grateful friends, relatives, and work colleagues. If you are a real pepper-head or hard-core chili fan, you may find it perfect to eat with cheese on a Provita or other cracker – for lunch or even breakfast. – Enjoy!