Pineapple hot sauce

We teach this hot sauce recipe in our chilli preserving workshops at Cornersmith. It’s a great base recipe for making spicy sauces from excess fruit. We make this mostly with pineapples and green chillies, but peaches, plums or green tomatoes work really well, too. If you are using pineapple, save the skins for pineapple skin syrup.

Credit: Murdoch Books / Cath Muscat

• makes

  4 cups

• prep

  25 minutes

• cook

  20 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 50–150 g (1 ¾  – 5 ½ oz) long green or red chillies (depending on how hot your chillies are), roughly chopped
• 35 g ginger, grated
• 2 garlic cloves, grated
• Zest and juice of 2 limes or 1 lemon
• 800 g–1 kg (1 lb 12 oz–2 lb 4 oz) skinned pineapple, chopped into 3 cm (1 ¼ inch) chunks (or use peaches, mangoes, green tomatoes, cherries, plums)
• 1 cup (250 ml) apple cider vinegar
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp salt

Instructions

1. Place the chilli, ginger, garlic and lime or lemon zest in the bowl of a food processor and blitz to a paste. With the motor running slowly, pour in the lime or lemon juice.

2. Add half the chopped pineapple and blitz until smooth, then add the remaining pineapple and blend again to form a smooth paste. Pour the paste into a saucepan and stir through the vinegar, sugar and salt. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 15–20 minutes, until you have a thick sauce.

3. Pour the sauce into sterilised bottles and keep in the fridge for up to 8 weeks. Alternatively, heat-process the bottled sauce for 15 minutes (you can find more about this method in the book) and store in a cool, dark place for up to 1 year. Once opened, store in the fridge and use within 4 months.

Tip

• You can also add coriander roots, shallots or spring onions when blending.

Recipe and image from Use It All by Alex Elliott-Howery and Jaimee Edwards, photography by Cath Muscat. (Murdoch Books, $39.99)

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.