Sichuan Chile Sauce - garden onion, garlic and hot peppers

An "all purpose" Asian-style hot sauce you can whiz up in the blender in just a few minutes. It is fresh and doesn't contain hideous amounts of sodium or additives like many store blends. I store any leftover in the fridge.

Makes 1 1/4 cups (300 ml)

2 Tbsp vegetable oil - 30 ml
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, rough chopped
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
6 fresh red chiles such as cayenne or jalapeno (deseeded if you don't want it really hot)
1/4 cup white rice vinegar, unseasoned - 60 ml
1 Tbsp sugar - 15 ml
2 Tbsp ketchup (I used organic - or you could use tomato sauce) - 30 ml
2 Tbsp black or brown Chinese vinegar - 30 ml
1 tsp salt - 5 ml
1/3 cup cold water - 80 ml

I put all the ingredients into the blender bowl and liquefied. I added cold water to achieve the desired consistency. This blend was quite thick but you could thin it down with more water, vinegar or even lemon juice.

The original version called to heat oil and saute garlic, ginger and onion first and then add in other ingredients and simmer for 5 minutes. I didn't do this and me and the four teen tasters all thought it tasted great.

© Nancy Guppy, RD, MHSc

Our next cooking class at Chapman's Landing is "Meal from Oaxaca" Southern Mexican cooking on Saturday August 29th. Please see my menu and register online at http://www.chapmanslanding.com