Homemade Chili Garlic Sauce

Weeks ago we started a conversation about how to make Vietnamese chili garlic sauce without preservatives. Josh Levine began the whole thing by asking me if Huy Fong made a preservative-free version of their ubiquitous Rooster-brand sauces. Lili and Chuck ended up sharing their family recipes.

I mostly eat raw, unadulterated sliced chiles, so while I have those prepared condiments around, I use them only once in a while for certain applications, like when I mix up a little dip for corn and coconut fritters. Many people think the Rooster sauces are great but I find them a tad vinegary, too hot, and often overpowering. But something happened recently that changed my mind.

Two weeks ago I dined at a Vietnamese restaurant in San Jose, CA, and instead of chili garlic sauce on the table, there was a small container of fresh pureed chiles. I was delighted at the prospect of having actual fresh zip for my food since most times when I ask for fresh ot hiem (hot Southeast Asian type chiles), the response is: "Sorry, all we have are green jalapenos." Those don't do much for me and yep, I'm sorry too.

We threw a dollop of the pureed chiles  into our dipping sauce but were woefully disappointed. It lacked punch. No heat. Just red color. Bland.

That lackluster experience inspired me to experiment with Lili and Chuck's recipes. I headed to the farmer's market and found an abundance of red hot peppers. Now is the season to grab the last of the harvest before the pepper plants die off for the year. I remembered from an article I read long  ago that Huy Fong used red jalapenos so of course, I went through the pile to collect a bunch of red ones with cracks -- signs of maturity and heat. The market also offered smooth serranos and Portuguese hots which despite the farmer's assurance, were actually Italian sweets as I suspected; I sauteed the Italians in peanut oil and ate them with rice. In my home fridge were a few lingering red Fresnos so I threw them in too. Chuck's recipe called for habaneros but he said you could any variety you liked. Lili didn't specify any particular kind but noted that her aunt used whatever she grew in the yard.

From a pound of chiles, I came up with two bright, fresh, hot condiments that had a pleasant taste but didn't burn or take out all your taste buds. They're simple to make and the difference is that Lili's (on the right below) is cooked after being pureed while Chuck's stays raw. Hers is a tad sweeter, lighter in color and thicker than his. (If you've sampled Cholimex in Vietnam, hers is a superior version of that high-class sauce made in the Motherland.) On the other hand, Chuck's has a marvelous funky heady, almost floral quality. I took the two homemade chili garlic sauces to a Vietnamese Slow Food event that I did last Sunday and people ate the jars clean. I like them both.

Here they are for you to try. Let me know your thoughts . . .

Lili’s Cooked Chili Garlic Sauce

6 ounces hot chiles (e.g., cayenne, Fresnos, habanero, jalapeno, long, serrano, Thai, or a combination of them), stemmed and chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
½ teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

Put all the ingredients in an electric mini-chopper or food processor. Process to a coarse texture. Take a whiff and it should make you sweat a bit. Taste and adjust the flavor with add extra salt or sugar. Transfer to a small saucepan, bring to a vigorous simmer over medium heat, lower the heat to gently simmer for about 5 minutes, or until it no longer smells raw. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Transfer to a jar and store in the refrigerator. Makes a scant 2/3 cup.

 
Chuck’s Raw Chili Garlic Sauce

6 ounces hot chiles (e.g., cayenne, Fresnos, habanero, jalapeno, long, serrano, Thai, or a combination of them), stemmed and chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

Put all the ingredients in an electric mini chopper or food processor. Process to a coarse texture. Take a whiff and it should make you sweat a bit. Taste and adjust the flavor with add extra salt or sugar. Transfer to a small jar and refrigerate. Let stand at least 30 minutes before using to allow the flavors to blend. Makes about 2/3 cup.

Note: Chuck says that if your concoction is too hot, add some bell pepper to tone it down. You can also mitigate the heat with sugar, salt and/or vinegar.

Comments

[HolyBasil]

Hi Andrea,
Thank you for posting these recipes. I've got all these pretty peppers that I bought at the farmer's market here. First, I thought I'd dry them, but I think I'll have to try these now. I'm always looking for a way to decrease the amount of preservatives in my food. Cám ơn rất nhiều!

[Lili]

Hi, Andrea!

Great looking chili sauce and it totally looks like what my aunt makes, though I think it should be called Andrea's Chili Sauce since I totally forgot the salt and the vinegar in my original post. And I think the peppers that my aunt used were red jalapenos. I prefer this sauce over the Red Rooster which I find a bit too sweet and lately, really hot. Can't wait to try your recipe. Thanks for working out the mechanics!

[Chuck]

I'm glad you liked the chili garlic sauce recipe. I'll have to try Lili's cooked sauce the next time I make a batch. Your experience at the Vietnamese restaurant is the exact reason I bring my own chili peppers! I know my chilies will be hot and there's no wait for them. I won't bring them to a restaurant like Ad Hoc, but if I'm going to an ethnic place... a chili or two are coming along!

[Andrea Nguyen]

Lili and Chuck, My pleasure. They're both terrific approaches and may inspire other versions. As for Ad Hoc (Thomas Keller's casual restaurant in Napa wine country), you never know how their food may sing with a little touch of tuong ot toi. Maybe you can do feature your sauce in one of your Sunday night suppers, Chuck? Let us know if you do.

[Ashley]

Awesome. I'll never buy Sriracha chili sauce again because I can make my own using these recipes. The fact that Andrea had made and tweaked the recipes will encourage more people to try making them at home. Thanks.

[lolobstersquad]

Hello Andrea
I´ve just been given a copy of your book Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by a very kind friend for Singapore. I´m completely blown away. I´m Spanish, and we don´t know anything about Viet food here, so it´s been like discovering a new world. Congratulations, it´s a lovely book.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Lolobstersquad,

Thanks for the nice words. Someone told me a while ago that Roman fish sauce (liquamen) production facilities were discovered in Spain. Spain has wonderful seafood so I'm sure you'll be making lots of good Viet fare.

Btw, do you create the wonderfully adorable illustrations on your blog?
http://lobstersquad.blogspot.com/

[holybasil]

Hi Andrea,
I ended up making both versions with cayenne pepper and found them both to be great. Thanks for posting these recipes as I think I won't need to use the store-bought stuff anymore. I have posted my adaptation on my own blog - hopefully it does justice to the original recipes!

[Andrea Nguyen]

I know, they're both remarkably good and much fresher tasting than the Rooster brand. Not everyone has time to make their own, but you did get your hands on lots of fresh chiles. What a marvelous way of preserving the summer heat for the long, cold winter haul.

Thanks for alerting us to your tweakings posted at:

http://holybasil.wordpress.com/

As always, nice photography!

[Lori K]

Hi,

I'm eager to try this with my last crop of hot peppers. A question, though: Two-thirds of a cup is a lot of hot chili sauce to use up quickly (for us at least). How long can this preservative-free sauce keep in the fridge? Can it be frozen?

[Andrea Nguyen]

Hi Lori,

That is a lot but you can surely freeze it. It should keep in the fridge for a month or so. Freezing it in small batches will enable you to stretch out the bounty of your garden.

[Daniel Z.]

Hi Andrea,
As usual, an excellent addition to my fridge. I always like to make my own sauces if I can. Thanks for those excellent recipes and explanations of how and why you arrived at them. I'm a bit of a theory nut!

Daniel in Canada

[Steamy Kitchen]

Will be trying the cooked version tomorrow!

omg this sauce is like so amazing i told ma friend like all aboutit and they tired it an they told me it was super good i could eat this sauce every day ,like totally.rock on ..jah rasta fariiiddd bless up 2 the people awesome sauce:)

[gfh]

ghf

[rhonda bobrick]

I grow a variety of hot peppers and always searching for different sauce recipes.While looking for a simple chili/garlic recipe I went to yours and was totally pleased after tasting Chucks sauce with a smoked pork butt hot out of the smoker,as were a couple of friends.Thanks a bunch.Look forward to trying other recipes from your site. jbeeo1

[steve]

Viet chili paste vs chili sauce?

If a recipe (a southern style nuoc cham) calls for "ground chili paste" is it safe to assume we're talking tuong ot toi? I can follow your cookbook/directions but am having some trouble reconciling terms/ingeredients with other's recipes. A trip to the market further complicated things when I found various jars labeled chili paste (containing holly basil, sweet basil, and/or shrimp paste)... Is there a difference between paste and sauce in Viet cooking?

Thanks.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Steve, your assumption is spot on! The thing is that we don't have a standard vocabulary for Asian food terms. I know, it's crazy. Then people who write cookbooks may not be fluent in all the common terms used in English.

I think people often confuse paste with sauce. I tend to think of a paste as being on the dry side. A sauce is more wet and has liquid. A paste mounds on a spoon.

However, if someone's pounding something into a paste -- like chiles, garlic, sugar and salt and using that to flavor their nuoc cham, then that's technically a paste. But you can substitute tuong ot toi -- which is basically a more liquid form of the paste that's been preserved with a little vinegar. Its wet texture takes it over the line into a sauce.

We're splitting hairs here. At the end of the day, it's just got to taste good!

[Jeff]

Andrea I'm intrigued by the chilli sauces, but without preservatives just how long will they keep.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Jeff, I kept mine in the fridge for about 9 months. The flavor diminishes just slightly but it never failed to brighten up foods.

[Lauren Harrington]

I love homemade sauces and you have provided many great recipes and I look forward to trying them all. Can you buy fresh chilis online during the winter? I thought someone might know a good source.

[Zulema]

Hi Andrea,

I was confused on the part about which chili to use. If i use a green jalapeno the sauce would be green correct? Also do i use fresh or dry chilies?

Thanks

[Andrea Nguyen]

Zulema, use fresh (not dried) red chiles. Yes, a green jalapeno will yield a green sauce. But if that's all you have, then make a green sauce. Try some serranos in the mix too for extra heat.

[Tony]

I have tried these a couple of times and love them,so simple to make,question..if i add some red peppers to it will it be ok?

[Noah]

Since these have no preservatives (which is wonderful), how long will they stay fresh in the refrigerator? I can buy bucketloads of fresh chilies here (Kansas City) in the summer. Thanks! These recipes look really good and I'm eager to try them!