Red Hot Sauce Book

Senior Designer Barbara Zuñiga

Commissioning Editor Céline Hughes

Production Controller Gary Hayes

Art Director Leslie Harrington

Editorial Director Julia Charles

Food Stylist Lizzie Harris

Prop Stylist Róisín Nield

Indexer Hilary Bird

First published in 2013 as

The Red Hot Chilli (Chile) Sauce Book

This revised edition published in 2022 by

Ryland Peters & Small

20–21 Jockey’s Fields

London WC1R 4BW

and

341 E 116th St

New York, NY 10029

www.rylandpeters.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Text © Dan May 2013, 2022

Design and photographs © Ryland Peters & Small 2013, 2022

The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-78879-440-4

eISBN: 978-1-78879-464-0

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

A CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

Printed in China

NOTES

• The recipes in this book are given in both metric and imperial measurements. However, the spellings are primarily British and this includes all terminology relating to chilli peppers. British chilli and chillies are used where Americans would use chile, chili and chiles.

• All spoon measurements are level unless otherwise specified.

• All herbs are fresh unless otherwise specified.

• All eggs are medium (UK) or large (US) unless otherwise specified. Uncooked or partially cooked eggs should not be served to the very young, the very old, those with compromised immune systems, or to pregnant women.

• When a recipe calls for the grated zest of citrus fruit, buy unwaxed fruit and wash well before use. If you can only find treated fruit, scrub well in warm soapy water and rinse before using.

• Ovens should be preheated to the specified temperature. Recipes in this book were tested using a regular oven. If using a fan/convection oven, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for adjusting temperatures.

• Sterilize preserving jars before use. Wash them in hot, soapy water and rinse in boiling water. Place in a large saucepan and then cover with hot water. With the lid on, bring the water to the boil and continue boiling for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat, then leave the jars in the hot water until just before they are to be filled. Invert the jars onto clean kitchen paper to dry. Sterilize the lids for 5 minutes, by boiling, or according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Jars should be filled and sealed while they are still hot.

contents

Introduction

Mexico & South America

Africa

Caribbean

Mediterranean

USA

India

South-East Asia

China & Japan

Suppliers

Index

Acknowledgments

Introduction

When I wrote The Red Hot Chilli Cookbook it gave me the wonderful opportunity to share some of the things I have always loved to cook. Their roots were in places I had visited and things I had tasted but their unifying thread was that they had been gathered almost by chance over many years – and of course contained lots of chilli!

This book was slightly different; many of the recipes were ones I have, in principle, known for years and have loved to make but as I began to look at the ingredients and the way people cooked around the world I realized that each culture’s approach to their food needed to be considered before I could really understand the processes and skills that make each recipe special. The traditional techniques that can so often be replaced with modern kitchen conveniences had genuine value in the flavour and consistency of the finished paste or sauce. Each one is special because it represents a particular flavour combination or way of doing things that is often unique to a small geographic area. Although this book is undoubtedly about chillies and the love of chillies it is also about cooking, eating and sharing and how universally important these things are no matter where you happen to live.

The inescapable fact is that food is key to our existence. The only thing we require with more regularity if we want to stay alive is water; and yet we have continued to erode its importance with our constant scrabbling to find some way of producing it more cheaply, more quickly or more conveniently as though our basic human requirement was in reality an inconvenience. I believe that something so vital and with the potential to provide so much pleasure should be afforded the time and attention befitting its role in our lives. If we look out into the wider world we see culture after culture where food is respected and dishes are made by tried and tested methods that show an understanding of the ingredients. This understanding combined with the patience required to make sometimes complex pastes and sauces illustrates the importance of food and its preparation in the regions in this book.

People often associate the decline in an interest in real food and an increasing love of heavily processed food with increasing wealth; this in itself seems weird but to a degree the figures back this up. We do seem to be exceptional in the way we insist that our food should be as cheap as possible, no matter what the real cost.

With the exception of the USA, people in the UK spend less as a percentage of their income (less than 8%) on food than any other comparable country in the world. If we make a direct comparison with average expenditure across other European countries we find that the UK only spends 53% or just over half the amount our European counterparts regularly spend per person on food. It is a simple fact that (for example) Indonesia which spends 43% of annual income on food has to do so because average incomes are considerably lower, but given the European example it is clear that some countries just place a higher value on the quality and freshness of their food and on paying the producers a fair price to make it for them! They also like to have a say in the way it is delivered to them – weekly food markets, butchers, online, and also via the supermarket. Food undoubtedly becomes cheaper if it is heavily processed (thus has a longer shelf life), is sourced on a huge scale and sold through a few channels. But this model does little for maintaining real choice, quality and an understanding of the food we are eating. In an effort to feed the profits of the delivery channel everything else involved suffers and inevitably corners are cut. In the population as a whole it inexorably leads to less fresh food, less cooking from scratch and even more worryingly, fewer of the skills required to do this being passed to the next generation; and this doesn’t even begin to address the inherent health issues.

By the time I was 10, against my better judgement, I could have a pretty good stab at spaghetti Bolognese, a roast dinner or a decent curry and I was not exceptional. I recently carried out an ad-hoc survey with a group of my 10-year-old son’s friends and found not a single one could cook any of these dishes or even similar, and more than half of them had never even helped to make a single meal they had eaten. To me, cooking is a life skill; it enables you to look after yourself. It is inconceivable to imagine this as less important than, for example, the ability to create a PowerPoint presentation, use social media, or drive.

Culturally it seems preparing fresh home-cooked meals is not regarded highly enough within our modern families to warrant the time or effort involved – why bother if no one appreciates it? It is interesting (or should I say impossible) to imagine say an Italian, Spanish or Greek family having no regard for the person who cooked for them or interest in the story of their food!

But it is not solely health and nutritional benefits that are gained from complete cooking – to me these are almost side issues. The real benefit comes in the social aspects of food, of taking the time to sit down and eat and talk. If I search my mind for significant days in my life, those that immediately spring forward are ones that involved cooking and eating with family and friends and the fun that ensued.

The most popular dishes of countries give us great insight into their culture, and the British willingness to adopt ideas and flavours from all over the world makes our food among the most interesting anywhere in the world. We readily accept and encourage change, which is probably what has kept our culture so alive and exciting over the past 150 years. There are few places in the world where chillies and spicy food have been so enthusiastically embraced or where the culture of eating chillies and challenging your palate reaches such extremes.

Despite the huge cultural differences between the Caribbean, the UK, Spain, South Africa, India, China, the USA and all the other regions covered in this book, there exists a unified chilli culture that dares itself to eat hotter and hotter food, that loves to laugh at anyone who exceeds their tolerance and loves to share their food and experiences with anyone who is interested. There is fun and experimentation, and behind it all there is more often than not a willing social interaction, collaboration and good food!

So do we use cooking as an excuse to use spices and chillies or are they the excuse to cook? I don’t think it really matters; as long as the two go hand in hand we get the fun and the benefits of both; as well as hopefully preserving some pretty fantastic old recipes and learning how to use them. To paraphrase the legendary but apocryphal quote by Benjamin Franklin about beer: maybe chillies are proof that God loves us and want us to be happy!

Noted Chillies: The Poblano which, when ripened fully and dried, is referred to as the Ancho, Chipotle, Orange Habanero, Rocoto, Pasilla, Brazilian Starfish, Aji Amarillo (pictured here), Aji Limo.

Chilli Facts and Fiction: Aztec Kings used to drink a combination of hot chocolate and crushed dried chillies to stimulate themselves before visiting their concubines.

Chapter One

Mexico & South America

The home of chillies. All chillies originate from the northern Amazon basin, the northern part of South America and Central America.

•The Chiltepin or Tepin chilli is commonly regarded as the oldest variety in the world. The Mother Chilli, as it is also known, still thrives in the wilds of Northern Mexico where, despite the harsh environment, it can live and fruit for up to 20 years.

•Peru and Bolivia were the first countries to grow chillies for food and medicine. There is evidence of chilli cultivation taking place 5000–6000 years ago not only in both these countries but in Ecuador too.

•Brazil seems most likely to be the country from which chillies began to spread all over the world at the hands of Portuguese traders, beginning in 1500 when Cabral landed on the Brazilian coast.

•Most varieties of chillies thrive in this region, but South America is especially known for the Capsicum Pubescens (Rocoto, Locoto and Manzano), famed for their hairy leaves and stems, and Capsicum Baccatum species (Aji chillies – Aji Amarillo, Aji Limon), with a delicious citrusy overtone to their flavours.

•Mexico has the widest variety of chillies in commercial production and is the source of most of the world’s Chipotle chillies – dried, smoked red Jalapeños, used in countless barbecue sauces and marinades.

•Our English word chilli is actually derived directly from the Aztec or Nahuatl language.

Ají Criollo

This is a very fine salsa recipe from Ecuador. Although Capsicum Baccatum chillies are the least common throughout the rest of the world, in South America (and to a certain extent Central America) they are the most prevalent. The various Ajís grow remarkably well in a greenhouse or on a windowsill. However, if you haven’t grown any or can’t source any, just substitute with Habanero chillies at a 50–75% ratio, as they can be considerably hotter!

4 Ají or 2–3 Habanero chillies, deseeded and chopped

a good handful of coriander/cilantro stalks and leaves, chopped

3 plump garlic cloves, chopped

juice of ½ lemon

1 small onion or shallot, finely chopped

sea salt

100 ml/scant ½ cup water

1 spring onion/scallion, chopped into 5-mm/¼-inch pieces

Put the chillies, coriander/cilantro, garlic, lemon juice and onion into mortar and pound with the pestle to combine. Season with salt and add as much of the water as required to loosen the mixture.