This nicely sweet – and surprisingly zippy! – chili sauce is based on a recipe from the nice guy at Closet Cooking on the interwebs and facebook.
He called for two each, Cayenne and Bird’s Eye peppers, which I substituted three jalapeños for – with the ribs and seeds. I figured it would make for a pleasantly punchy sweet chili sauce, and it does – with an afterburn that can be surprising.
Still tasty, tho, and think of the possibilities!
Mebbe dip a cream cheese stuffed wonton into a bowl of chili sauce for a sweet, creamy, spicy hot bite. Or mebbe slip a bit in between two halves of Brie, wrap ’em in puff pastry or crescent roll dough and bake it.
Mmmm.
INGREDIENTS
•20 oz can pineapple chunks in juice
•3 jalapeños, roughly chopped
•4 cloves garlic
•1 lime, juiced and zested
•3/4 cup pineapple juice (from the can)
•2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
•1 tbsp golden pepper jelly*
•1 tbsp butter
•1/2 cup turbinado sugar (sugar in the raw)
•1-1/2 tsp salt
•1 tbsp cornstarch
•2 tbsp water
*Or any mild-ish pepper jelly – the recipe for this mix of assorted yellow peppers will be posted here sometime next week.
Drain the juice from the pineapple into a measuring cup, then add the pineapple chunks, jalapeños, garlic, and lime zestto the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse until nicely chopped, but still a bit chunky. Transfer to a small pot.
Stir in the pineapple juice, rice vinegar, pepper jelly, butter, sugar, and salt, then bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar.
Stir the cornstarch into the water and add to the pineapple mixture.
Reduce heat and simmer, stirring, for another minute or so, until the chili sauce has thickened up a bit.
Allow to cool, then transfer to a jar and stash in the fridge until needed.
Our friend, Farida, likes this over rice or yam noodles, Donna enjoys it with crackers or blue corn chips; me? I’m holding out for the cream cheese stuffed wontons.