Sweet chili sauce

Makes around 240ml

Ingredients:
2-3 small red chilies or 1 bigger
2-3 garlic cloves
90ml water
30ml apple cider vinegar
50g sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp chili powder or flakes (optional)
1/2 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp (15ml) water

Method:
Chop the chili peppers and garlic together in a small food processor. If you only have a blender, pulse until the pieces are very small but not puréed. 

Place in a small saucepan with 90ml water, and the vinegar, sugar and salt. Add chili powder or flakes if you like highly spiced chili sauce, or if the chili peppers are very mild. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat, and then simmer for around five minutes. 

Blend the cornflour into 15ml water in a small dish, then add to the simmering sauce. Stir with a wooden spoon or silicon spatula, and continue simmering until it thickens slightly. This can take a couple of minutes. 

Cool, then store in a covered jug or sealed container in the fridge. 

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We only discovered commercial Thai-style sweet chili sauce a couple of years ago. It makes a good alternative to ketchup for people who like to add a little extra zing to food. Some of the commercial brands have additives that make them ultra-processed, but we found one that doesn't look too bad. However it's quite expensive for something with water as the main ingredient, and sugar as the second one. 

I was on a mission to make as much as possible at home and did a lot of research online. Many of the recipes I found required rice vinegar, something I can't easily find in Cyprus. Some wanted white vinegar which I think of as cleaning vinegar - and it gives me a migraine. All of them wanted the small, highly-spiced chilies that can easily be found in the UK. But Cypriots don't seem to like hot spices such as chili, and all I could find was the larger, mild kind.  It seemed little different from a standard bell pepper when I - rather gingerly - tasted it.

So I decided to adapt a recipe I found on the closetcooking site. It uses apple cider vinegar, and mentions that chili flakes can be used if one can't find fresh red chilies. 

Since it was an experiment, and we don't get through it all that quickly anyway, I opted for just half the given recipe. I translated the American cups into millilitres and grammes, and used my mini food processor (the one that comes with my stick blender) to process the chili pepper and garlic. 

It worked beautifully. The consistency was just right, and if it wasn't quite hot enough, it was quite an acceptable alternative to the commercial brands. It's inexpensive to make, and quick, too. 

The reason my first attempt wasn't very hot is that I'm always worried about making something too spicy, so I used less than quarter of a teaspoon of chili powder. Next time I will use the full amount - or even slightly more to make it hotter. Even then, it depends on whether using a fresh container of chili powder or one that's nearly empty, as it becomes less potent over time. Basically, one needs to try it out, and go with personal preference.  If using mini chilies that taste hot, extra powder isn't needed.