Hot And Sour Chinese Chili Sauce

It has been a while since I made my own real Chinese chili sauce. My recent kitchen activities has been focused mostly on Indian food. But now that Nupur asked for a 麻婆豆腐 ma po dou fu recipe in her Saturday´s article, (did you get the one I sent you, btw?), I somehow got a sudden urge to dust off my cooking Chinese skills. So just a couple of minutes ago, I made a jar of goes-well-with-whatever:

HOT AND SOUR CHINESE CHILI SAUCE:
(酸辣酱) Suan La Jiang

spice ladder: ***

prep time: 10 minutes
makes: 100 ml

• 5 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp chili flakes
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp salt

In a bowl, mix in lime juice with sugar. In a small pan, bring it to boil. I microwaved it for 1 minute instead, because it saves time and there was not that much of sauce anyway. Let cool down partially. Add salt, chili flakes and pressed garlic and mix well.

Store in an airtight container.
There are zillion of ways to use the sauce, e.g. as a:

• Dipping sauce - to any kind of tempura (probably not to my fiery hot Beer Batter Stuffed Chili Pepper Tempura) or spring rolls, or on omelet.

• Glaze or marinade - for firm veggies or Tofu.
  

• Stir-fry sauce - simply add a few tablespoons to stir-fried vegetables.

For today´s lunch, I tried Lisa´s Gobi Manchurian, whose blog I discovered only recently. I loved the recipe as soon as I saw the beautiful picture. Here is my (un-deep-fried) version of her recipe for my reference:

• 250 g cauliflower
• 1/4 tsp white pepper powder
• salt to taste
  
• 3 tbsp oil
  
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1'' piece ginger
• 2 green chilies, chopped
• Hot and sweet sauce (combine the following)
  
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 4 tbsp Hot and Sour Chinese Chili Sauce
• 1/2 tsp vinegar
• splash of Worcestershire sauce
• spring onion, as a garnish
  

Wash the cauliflower and separate into florets. Sprinkle with some salt and white pepper powder. Fry in a wok, in 2 tbsp oil.

Meantime, heat the remaining 1 tbsp oil in a pan, add chopped onion, green chilies, minced garlic and ginger. Saute over the high flame for 5 minutes until they turn slightly tender. Lower the heat and mix in Hot and Sweet sauce. Saute again for 3 minutes.
Add the fried cauliflower and mix them so all the florets are covered with the sauce. Remove from flame and garnish with chopped green onion and coriander leaves. When serving, add a final splash of Worcestershire sauce onto each plate. Serve with rice.

Ok, mine isn't as gorgeous as Lisa´s, but.... I fried the florets in almost no oil, so they turned slightly black (= crunchy) and the sauce is home-made, so naturally it´s missing all the artificial fancy red colorings :(
This one was very spicy and simply fantastic. Thank you Lisa for a wonderful recipe. I will definitely be making this one, again :)