Four Flavored Thai Sauce

This Sauce can be used as a dip, in stir fries, in soups to add flavor to noodles or fried rice etc.

Its a blend of sweet,spicy,salty and sour , you can adjust the balance as per your preference , I like it less sweet and hence reduced the amount of jaggery to 2 tbsp. White sugar is sweeter than jaggery so if you are substituting it ,use a bit less as per your taste.

Ingredients:

1. Ripe red chilies – 20 washed and stems removed (chopped fine or pulsed in a processor to a rough paste) . The chillies I used were extremely spicy , so for colour and body ,I added ½ of 1 red bell pepper.
2. garlic cloves – 10 large or 15-20 medium (chopped fine or pulsed in a processor to a rough paste)
3. Shallots – 8  medium (chopped fine or pulsed in a processor to a rough paste)
4. Cilantro Roots and stem -  chopped fine – 5 tbsp or ½ cup
5. Jaggery or Palm sugar – 2 tbsp
6. Water – ½ cup
7. Fish Sauce – 1/3 cup
8. Tamarind pulp – 2 tbsp
9. Vegetable Oil – 3 tbsp

NOTE : You should have approximately equal quantity by weight of chilly, garlic and Shallots and about ½ of that amount of corriander root and stem (eg 50 gms each of chilly,garlic,shallot and 25 gms of cilantro – to give a rough idea of the ratio)

Method:

In a nonstick pan saute the garlic-shallot-cilantro-chili paste/mix in the vegetable oil over medium-high heat just until fragrant.

Add the remaining ingredients to the saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, lower the heat to maintain a simmer.

Reduce the sauce down until its slightly thick ; remove from heat .

Store the cooled sauce in a glass jar and refrigerate for upto a month.

Steamed Perl Spot with the 4 flavored Sauce