Some days I wake up and start my routine of drinking lemon/lime water and celery juice and before I know it, I am head first in to a cooking project. Usually it is something I have been thinking about and mulling over the previous few days.
This morning I found myself preparing onion, garlic, red pepper and tomatoes for roasting and taking out my air fryer (that has a roasting option) and heating it up.
I made hot sauce. It has the depth of roasted vegetables, a slight earthy quality from a few roots and the stems of fresh cilantro and a lot of spice from both fresh and dried Thai red chillies. It is a good all round hot sauce for pretty much everything - dressing, sauces, soups, sandwiches, wraps … whatever and wherever you like to use hot sauce!
This batch made 3 cups of sauce and 4 small jars plus some.
Hot Sauce
Ingredients
1 medium red pepper
6 ripe chemical free roma tomatoes
1 brown or white onion, one end trimmed
3 cloves garlic, one end trimmed
1/2 cup Thai red chillies (or a combination of fresh and dried Thai red chillies), roughly sliced (adjust to your preferred spice level)
6 cilantro roots and small handful of stems
3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
2-3 tbs fresh lime juice
1 tbs + 1 tsp raw honey
1 1/4 Himalayan pink salt
Method
If using some dried chillies, place in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside.
Put a pot filled with hot water and 4 small jars (without the lids) on the stove and bring to a boil. Boil the jars for 5 minutes or more. Turn off the heat. Remove the jars with tongs and place on the counter to air dry. Put the lids in the hot water for several minutes. Remove the lids with tongs and place on the counter, inside facing upwards.
Wash a red pepper and 6 roma tomatoes. Trim one end off a brown or white onion and 3 large cloves of garlic. Heat up an oven to 200c. Place all the vegetables on a ceramic tray (lined with baking paper if going in the oven) and bake for 20-25 minutes.
While the vegetables roast, peel and slice the garlic, roughly chop the cilantro root and stems, trim the ends off the fresh chillies and slice and juice the lime. Add the garlic, cilantro, fresh and soaked chillies (without the soaking water), fresh lime juice, honey and salt to a blender jar.
Take the roasted vegetables out of the oven. With tongs, place the red pepper, onion and garlic cloves in a glass storage container and seal the lid. Set aside to cool.
Take the skins off the tomatoes with tongs and add to the blender. Once the vegetables are cool enough to handle, remove the skin from the garlic and onion. Take off the stem, seeds and skin from the red pepper and add them all to the blender.
Blend the hot sauce for 2, 1 minute cycles. Taste. Adjust according to your preferences. Blend 2 more times to make sure all the seeds are completely incorporated and the sauce is smooth.
Pour the hot sauce in to sterilised jars. Secure the lids firmly. Leave to cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until ready to use.
