This Green Chilli and Lime Sauce is great way to add spice and flavour to dishes, especially when you make your curries mild to please fussy children. It goes great with BBQ meat and seafood, can be added to classic mayonnaise recipe to give it some flavour, and can be used as a marinade. It is gluten free, and low in FODMAPs.

Green Chilli + lime Sauce

MAKES

About 2 cups

INGREDIENTS

• 250gm green chillies
• 2 tsp garlic infused oil
• 3cm piece of ginger root, peeled (about 1 to 2 tbsp once finely grated)
• 1.5 cups white vinegar
• 1.5 cups raw organic sugar
• 5 kefir lime leaves
• 2 limes (zest & juice)

METHOD

1. Remove stems from chillies.
2. If you prefer it to be less spicy, remove the seed and white pith, by slicing open one side of the chillies, then carefully running a small spoon along to dislodge the seed and pith. Wear gloves, wear glasses, do not wipe your eyes, your nose, or go to the toilet without washing your hands first!
3. Finely dice the chillies (seed in or out), or chop finely in a food processor
4. Finely grate the ginger, using a 2mm kitchen rasp/ microplane
5. In a large microwave proof glass jug or bowl, or in a large saucepan, combine the chopped chillies, garlic oil, grated ginger, vinegar, sugar, kefir lime leaves, lime zest and juice.
6. Whisk or stir to combine, and make sure the sugar isn’t stuck in a big lump.
7. For the stovetop version, heat over high heat, stirring every few minutes, until it starts to boil. Reduce to medium heat, and cook for about 35 to 45 minutes until it starts to thicken, stirring frequently.
8. For the microwave version, cook on high in 10 minutes time intervals, stirring in between each, until mixture starts to thicken, about 30 to 40 minutes.
9. Test to see if the sauce is starting to thicken up enough, by putting a spoonful onto a plate, and tip the plate slightly. If the sauce runs straight across the plate, it needs more cooking time. If it slowly meanders, it has started to thicken, and it will set more as it cools down. If you want a pouring sauce, stop cooking it at this point. If you want a spooning ‘jam’, continue cooking for another 5 to 10 minutes. If you want toffee, keep cooking indefinitely.
10. Remove kefir lime leaves.
11. If you intend to keep this in the fridge and eat within a couple of weeks, you can now pour the hot sauce into hot, clean jars or bottles. If you intend to store this sauce in the pantry, or give as gifts, prepare a boiling water bath to process the bottles of sauce in.

TO PRESERVE

• If you want to learn more about preserving bottled foods, check out my Beginner’s Guide to Boiling Water Bath Preserving.
• Please note I have tested the pH of this recipe by litmus paper only. The amount of high acid vinegar to low acid chillies makes this sauce ‘high acid’ (with a low enough pH, below 4.6 to be safely boiling water bathed). If you are looking for a similar recipe by a food safety authority, check out the Ball/ Fresh Preserving Singapore Chilli Sauce.

NOTES

• If you accidently overcook the sauce, and it becomes very thick once cooled down, you may be able to ‘rescue it’ by adding equal parts of water and vinegar (start with 1/4 cup of each), then reheat it gently, mixing the extra liquid in.
• You might also like my Sweet Chilli and Ginger Sauce recipe.