When a cook in Asia wants to add a zing to dishes, they often reach for a familiar jar in the pantry that is little more than blended garlic and chile. Both benefit from time spent percolating together. Two flavour birds with one stone as it were. The west has discovered this secret and now you can find ubiquitous ‘chile-garlic’ sauce on most any store shelf by any number of makers.
While the likes of Lee Kum Kee and Huy Fong brands make perfectly acceptable versions of this pantry staple, a quick way to save a trip to the sometimes murky import section of the grocery store and guarantee you have a fresh batch of flavour at the ready in the fridge door couldn’t be easier, especially if your garden is in full harvest swing. Traditionally the chile seeds are left in the mix but you could calm it down by removing them as well as the internal membranes of the chiles. Similar sauces are often made with the addition of either mildly fermented black beans or gung bao sauce which is a soy-based sweet and sour combination. I prefer to keep them all separate and blend sauces on a recipe-by-recipe basis.
Chinese Chile-Garlic Sauce at Home
90 grams (3 ounces or about 20 cloves) fresh garlic, peeled
120 grams (4 ounces) fresh red chiles, Thai or similar, stemmed and cleaned
100 ml vegetable oil
1 teaspoon fine sea salt or 1 tablespoon light soy
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar (or substitute plain distilled white vinegar)
Yield: 250 ml (one pint)
Mince the garlic and chiles together in a food processor with short pulses – a blender will turn them into too fine of a paste. Add to remaining ingredients in a separate mixing bowl and blend well by hand. Depending on your chiles that day you may need to add a tablespoon or two of water to get the desired consistency. Pack into glass jars with non-metallic lids. The best flavour comes after several days when the ingredients have had time to settle in together. This will keep months in the fridge.
