Tomato Relish

A quick and easy burger relish

1kg ripe red tomatoes
2 cloves garlic (crushed/minced)
10g grated ginger
2 long red mild chillis, chpped, seeds out.
130ml cider vinegar
175g white sugar
30g salt

skin, core and rough chop the tomatoes. add to a saucepan and boil/reduce over about 1 hr to the right consistancy.(remember it will be thickr when cold).

Bottle in a clean kilner jar, keep in fridge.

Piri Piri Sauce (aka Massa pimentao)

In Portugal, in every bar and restaurant you can get piri piri chicken, cooked on an open BBQ. It’s fantastic! On holiday I looked round for a Portugese recipe book to find out how to make piri piri. I found one, and it’s the coolest ingredient list ever:

Take:

1kg of red chilis (pimento traditionally, but a a mix of heats is nice)
1 cup of salt
1 clove of garlic

Rough chop the chillis into discs (keep the seeds in) and put the chillis into a stoneware pot. I suggest you wear some rubber gloves for this bit, because after chopping 1kg, you’re going to have chilli on your hands for a long time.

Mix the cup of salt into the chopped chillis. Put the lid on the pot, and leave it for 10-14 days. Every day take the lid off, stir the chillis and put the lid back. The chillis will go soft and shrivvled, and semi-disolved salt and juice will collect in the jug. The smell is immense!

After the 10 to 14 days take the contents of the pot and blend it to a fine paste, along with the clove of garlic.

Put the paste into jars, and cover with a layer of olive oil to store.When you want to use some of the sauce, take out a couple of spoons full, and make sure it’s covered with oil.

‘Smoke Bomb’ Chilli Sauce

This is a really nice smokey hot sauce, that’s good in stir-fries, in wraps or splashed round nachos for a little fiery hit! The smell is fantastic- it can catch your throat if you stir-fry with it though.

6 dried, smoked cipottle chillis,
6 dried habinaros chillis (the reaaallly hot one), use a lesser chilli for a milder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp sugar
cider or white wine vinegar to mix to the consistency you want.

You can make this into either a runny sauce, like tabasco, or something more ketchup like. the amount of vinegar you add will determine this.

To make it, allow the chillis to soak in some vinegar for a couple of days. Once ready, blitz all the ingredients together, and store in a clean glass jar.

Simples! Except watch out for contamination. Habinaros are very hot, and it’s difficult to wash off the heat from your hands- be warned contact lens wearers.