Sweet chilli sauce stolen from Zarah Maria. This stuff is tasty. It has a different flavour from the sauce you’d buy in a bottle, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s a much more complex flavour that also tastes fresher. I can’t quite describe the “fresher” thing, it just does.

Take: 

10 cloves of garlic, peeled
4 large red chilies, stems and seeds removed
3 thumbs of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 thumb of galangal, peeled and roughly chopped
8 lime leaves
3 lemon-grass stems; remove the two outside leaves, discard the top third of the stem and finely slice the remainder
1 cup fresh coriander leaves

Put in a food processor and purée to a coarse paste. It won’t really go to a paste since there’s not enough liquid, but I can’t think of any better way to describe it.

Then put
1½ cups caster sugar
together with 4 tablespoons water in a saucepan, place on a moderate heat, stirring well intil the sugar dissolves. When it has, remove the spoon and turn up the heat to full. Boil for 5-8 minutes, do not stir, but of course, don’t let the caramel burn either.

Stir in the paste, bring the sauce back to the boil and add:

100 ml cider vinegar
50 ml Asian fish sauce
50 ml tamari

Return to the boil and simmer for 1 minute. Pour into sterilised jars, and leave to cool before eating.