This sauce – originally based on a non-recipe recipe – “toss this, that, and the other in a pot and cook until you’re happy with it” – just keeps getting better and better. The last time I posted my recipe, the combination of white, malt, and red wine vinegars, made for a slightly, ermmm, assertive sauce.
Who knew that adding a fourth (cider) vinegar, along with a good knob of garlic and an extra jalapeño would yield a rich, nicely balanced chili sauce that is gonna make a great cocktail sauce, and more!
INGREDIENTS
•3 large (24 oz) cans diced tomatoes
•4 cups diced red and/or yellow onion
•2 jalapeños, sliced
•8 cups seeded and diced sweet peppers
•4 cups celery, diced
•4 cloves garlic, minced
•1 cup sugar
•1 tbsp seasoned salt
•1 tbsp celery salt
•1 tbsp sea salt
•1 tsp cinnamon
•1/2 tsp allspice
•1/2 tsp ground cloves
•1 tsp celery seed
•1/2 tsp Tellicherry pepper
•1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper
•2 cups white vinegar
•1 cup malt vinegar
•1/4 cup red wine vinegar
•1/4 cup cider vinegar
Note 1: yes, I start the chili sauce with diced canned tomatoes, but I’ve taken care to keep the additional salt added to a minimum to compensate. There is also (in my opinion) more than enough chopping and stirring and blendering involved to enable me to proudly claim that this, I made!
Note 2: I’ve also, in this version, streamlined the cooking process a wee, tiny bit by just tumbling everything into a large pot at the start and going from there – no more cook, season, stir, then simmer, then add the vinegars and simmer some more.
In that regard, ermmm, just tumble all of the ingredients in a large pot, stir to combine well, then bring to a boil and simmer, stirring often, for about 90 minutes, until the sauce has thickened and reduced to your liking.
Give the sauce a good whizzz with your immersion blender (or purée in batches in a regular blender), then simmer for another 30 minutes while you prepare the canning jars and lids.
This batch made 18 half-pints of the good stuff, more than enough for our personal use and holiday gifts, and way more than I would want sitting in the fridge.
Canning is the way to go here.
Ladle the hot chili sauce into the prepared canning jars, then add the lids, fingertip-tighten the bands, and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.
Done, and done nicely, if I do say so myself.
Still, 18 half pints of chili sauce?
That’s a lot of shrimp cocktail!
Well, gift giving aside, this chili sauce is also pretty nice on eggs, will do a decent job of replacing ketchup (even ‘sup!) in meatloaf, and makes a very fine Western French salad dressing.
The possibilities are staggering… mebbe I should’ve made more sauce!