I promise you once you’ve had this home made version, you will never be able to go back to shop bought stuff again! I tend to make this twice a year and we get through at least a jar a month in this house! Five ingredients, that is all. It tastes so fresh and is fantastic with fishcakes, and awesome with fried courgettes!

Ingredients:

300g plump red chillies, deseeded

Two large red bell peppers

One litre cider vinegar

200ml white wine vinegar

Two bags of jam sugar (2kg) n.b. not preserving sugar, not granulated either!

Method: 

De-seed your red chillies and red peppers, don’t worry about chopping, just pop into a food processor and blitz until literally mush.

Put your vinegars into a preserving pan and pour in the sugar. Bring to the boil until the sugar is completely dissolved. Use a plastic spatula to take all of the chilli and pepper mix from the food processor and add this to the preserving pan. Allow to boil for 20 minutes before ladelling into jugs and then carefully pouring the sauce through a funnel into warm, sterilised glass bottles. Can be used immediately but also will keep perfectly for at least six months.

If you cook it for longer then you can make a thicker chilli jam which you can store in jars.

  
Note: I always keep the glass bottles that the vinegar comes in when I make this sauce. I wash them well, sterilise in the oven and then use them to make a flavoured chilli oil with a few fresh chillies and garlic cloves topped up with extra virgin Olive Oil. A great gift! The bottle necks are not quite wide enough to be suitable for this thick and delicious chilli sauce so this recycles the bottles beautifully.