I don’t get people who don’t like spicy food. It’s like saying you don’t like puppies or rainbows or nailing the lyrics to Ice Ice Baby when it comes on the radio. Spicy food is the tits and if you don’t agree well, I’m afraid you’re wrong. So if you’re easing into adding a wee bit of spice to your life, this sweet and sticky jam is a good place to start. It’s more tangy with a little kick, not sphincter-puckering hot and is a good guy to have in the fridge to take dinner from boring to bang on the money. Smear it on fish or chicken before baking, add it to stir fries, cauliflower fried rice or your asian greens.
Sweet Chilli Jam
Method
Soak the dried chillis in hot water for about 15 minutes.
Squeeze out the excess water and put the soaked chillis into the bowl of your food processor/blender. Add to this the capsicum and onion (roughly chopped) and coconut oil. Add the garlic, lemongrass and ginger. Now depending on how good your appliance is, is how you prep these ingredients before you chuck them in. If your food processor is a bit shit, you might want to grate your ginger/crush garlic/finely slice your lemongrass. Pulse these ingredients to a medium course paste.
Transfer to a saucepan and sauté for about 10 minutes. Add the tamarind, sugar and 1/2 cup of water. Cook, stirring often for another 15 minutes until the mixture has reduced and is glossy and jammy. Stir through the fish sauce.
Store in jar in fridge for up to a month.
Makes about 1 1/2 cups.
Ingredients
- 10 large dried chillis
- 1 red capsicum
- 1 medium onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 stalk lemongrass, hard outer layer removed Thumb of ginger
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
- 2/3 cup coconut sugar
- 2 tablespoons tamarind paste
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce