Thread: Thai Sauces

I'd never been a fan of the various condiments that appear on Thai tables, treating them with usually well deserved suspicion. However, a recent attempt at making Sriracha sauce has me hooked as a fan. The only problem with the effort was that I hadn't made enough. M'Sahib did a foray into Makro yesterday, and amongst the treasure she returned with was a decent quantity of chillis, so another go was called for. I also quite like the sweet chilli sauce for a side with spring rolls/chicken etc so that was also on the agenda.

For the Sriracha, prepared the chillis (using large ones along with the smaller but deadly spur chillis. These were just roughly chopped, and I also added half of a red pepper to beef out the flesh of the sauce. Lots of garlic in the pot of course.



This was just covered with rice vinegar, brought to the boil and simmered for 15 minutes until the garlic had softened.



Using a slotted spoon, transferred the chillis and garlic into a bowl, then poured the vinegar into the bowl through a sieve to capture most of the seeds.



The sauce went back into the saucepan, joined by some sugar and salt, brought to the boil again and simmered to dissolve the sugar.



Time for the sweet chilli sauce. Again different chillis, though less of the hot spur type, garlic and the other half of a red pepper.



Everything chopped up into a bowl, with the garlic cloves smashed up.



A small amount of water added, then used a hand blender to roughly turn into a very coarse paste.



Into a saucepan, sugar, salt and vinegar added, then brought to a boil before simmering for 5 minutes.



Made a slurry of corn starch and water, added to the pan, and brought to a simmer again. She's ready.



A decent amount of both, and apparently they'll keep for months in the fridge.

Top man PAG

Looks fantastic.

Do you have any others planned?

Originally Posted by PAG

you've put the time on

Originally Posted by malmomike77

you've put the time on

Churlish not to.....

Originally Posted by Edmond

Top man PAG

Looks fantastic.

Do you have any others planned?

If I'm doing a recipe that calls for a specific kind of sauce or marinade, then I'll make them from scratch rather than 'ready made/out of a packet/jar etc'. Probably down to how often I'm going to use it, and how long the fridge life is. Certainly some pastes last for ages (Panang as an example). Certainly with Thai sauces and pastes, M'Sahib will use them, so I get to know if they're any good or not.

^ Any plans for fish or oyster sauce or your own take on Pla Raa?

Surely none.will taste authentic without a shit load of msg?

Originally Posted by Reg Dingle

^ Any plans for fish or oyster sauce or your own take on Pla Raa?

Surely none.will taste authentic without a shit load of msg?

Not really into those Thai foods that would require either, but never say never. Probably get into more of the curry foundation pastes, yellow/green/red curry etc, and maybe nam pla wan for M'Sahib as she eats a lot of fruit. A benefit of making your own is of course controlling sodium/sugar etc, both of which appear to be heavily loaded in today's preprepared foods.

Originally Posted by Reg Dingle

^ Any plans for fish or oyster sauce or your own take on Pla Raa?

Surely none.will taste authentic without a shit load of msg?

Uncle Roger love MSG

M'Sahib finished off the last of the previous batch of Sriratch sauce on her pizza yesterday, so another batch was required today. Had a bunch of the large chilli peppers in the freezer (they freeze great in the bags they come in), so makings not a problem. Not a great deal of ingredients, the large chillis, small spur chillies for heat, garlic, rice vinegar, sugar and salt.



Chopped up both kinds of chillies, added the garlic cloves, and covered with vinegar in a saucepan.



Brough to a simmer for around 20 minutes until the garlic softens.



Took the chillies and garlic out of the pan with a slotted spoon, trying to leave as much of the seeds in the vinegar as possible.



Strained the vinegar through a sieve to catch the seeds, with the liquid joining the chillies and garlic.



Then into a bowl for an attack with a hand blender, to the mix as smooth and as free of lumps as possible.



The mix is then spooned into a sieve, using a spatula to push as much sauce as possible into a saucepan or bowl below.





You're then left with a pretty smooth sauce.



Back into a saucepan, and gently heated, adding sugar and salt a little at a time, tasting until you get whatever is right for you (or in my case, M'Sahib is chief taster).





The last batch was made on 7th July, so easy to change the label of the jar to 27th August.

Great stuff.

I would recommend planting some chillies if you have a space for it. Our chili bush provides more peppers than we could ever use at home or in the bar's kitchen.

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

Great stuff.

I would recommend planting some chillies if you have a space for it. Our chili bush provides more peppers than we could ever use at home or in the bar's kitchen.

We've grown chillis before in pots, which have been OK, we don't really have room for larger scale growing. To be honest, Makro are so cheap for chillies, plus you need two different kinds, the larger and mild type which provide the bulk of the pulp (you can even use a red capsicum for this in addition), and the small spur type which give the heat.

Though not strictly a Thai sauce, we had a couple of kilos of tomatoes in the fridge which were never going to be used before having to be thrown out, so decided to roast them for freezing.

Washed first of all, then halved and most of the seeds removed. Into a couple of roasting trays on parchment, loads of garlic in there as well, some dried herbs including oregano and basil, and a heap of fresh herbs with rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil playing a part. Good drizzle of olive oil and in the oven for 1.5 hours.



The woody herbs removed



and into a bowl to be mashed into a coarse puree.





The taste is great, and will be the foundation of pizzas and/or bruschetta. Into zip lock bags and pressed flat to remove most of the air before freezing.