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Basic Red Chilli paste

When in season, at my local grocery market I get a large bowl of fresh chillies for almost nothing, and I make chutney, jam, pickle or paste from them. This basic chilli paste is very simple and an excellent base for other sauces or can be used to add a bit of zing to marinades, dips, toppings and spreads. Keep it chilled in asterilized jar.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Resting Time 4 hours
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings: 6 people
Cuisine: Greek, Italian, Mexican, Middle Eastern, North African, South East Asian, Thai
Calories: 1234
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • About 250g red chillies
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 garlic clove raw or 3 roasted
  • ½ tsp salt
  • Juice of ½ lemon or lime
  • 1 Tbsp tomato purée
  • 1 handful fresh herb such as Coriander, mint or basil

Method
 

  1. Place the chillies in a roasting tray and rub them with olive oil. Roast them in the oven until golden. ( You can roast the garlic cloves too, unpeeled).
  2. Transfer the roasted chillies to bowl, put a lid on, and let them sweat. When cool, remove the stalks of the chilli (and the skin if you like) and the seeds, if you don’t want the paste to be too spicy. (I normally leave the seeds in and the skin on).
  3. Put the chillies in a food processor together with the cooking juices. Add the garlic - roughly chopped, if raw, or scraped out of their skin, if roasted. Add salt, lemon/lime juice and tomato purée. Whiz until smooth.
  4. Transfer to an airtight jar. Chill in the refrigerator.