YJL

A few weeks ago, I got the idea to make fermented chili sauce, not hot, just sauce made out of chili. And yesterday, after eight days, I made noddles with the sauce.

If I can mix this sauce with peanut sauce or sesame sauce, it would be better, but it still tastes good as it is. It doesn’t taste spicy, with slight hint of the sourness, or should I describe it as fermented flavor?

Here are the ingredients I used:

• chili
• bell pepper
• tomato
• onion
• apple
• sauerkraut juice
• pickled chili juice

I added red chili flakes, just a table spoon, because I was worrying it would only look green. Many recipes have stated that you can have some kick-starter to get the fermentation process begun faster, so sauerkraut is only option for me. As for the pickled juice, just a way to prevent air contact.

Tomato and apple are just experimental, I know some tomato sauces are fermented, and apple always is an ingredient I want to try to ferment, so why not blend it into mash and ferment it with chili to add some flavor?

Bell pepper might have given an extra sweetness in end result. Note that I had not seeded the chili or the tomato, I wanted the seeds in the sauce.

It doesn’t need any directions, I just dumped everything into blender and blended until it looked like:

Then top it off with the juices in the ferment jar, so air wouldn’t have chance to contact. I actually used a plastic bag and a rubber band to seal it off. Probably three or four days later, the fermentation was bubbling crazy, some liquid seeped through, should have used a bigger jar.

Let it ferment in dark and cold place, that is what I read from most recipes online. I decided to move it to fridge after eight days, it is still bubbling.

I know some recipes are only about the liquid part, so they strain and discard and solid parts. For me, a chili sauce is more like a paste. Frankly, I am no expert in (hot) chili sauce, I couldn’t even describe the flavors of the famous Tabasco. All I can say is, I like this sauce with my noodles.