Fogos Hot Sauce

For sandwiches, tacos, eggs, toasties, late night snacks...

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If I were to ever make a commercial food product…

It would be hot sauce.

I’ve worked for a very long time on my iteration of a perfect hot sauce and I think I have it.

I would call it Fogos (fire in Portuguese) and I would make it from Portuguese-grown chillies.

This is a non-fermented hot sauce which takes less than an hour to make. 

Swap the chilli variety depending on what you can get your hands on. Usually I opt for long red chillies with a medium heat.

Whatever you do, don’t use bird’s eye chillies. They are too small and hot.

My go-to vinegar in the UK was distilled malt vinegar but now I use a decent white wine vinegar. A good quality cider or distilled white cooking vinegar will work too.

Sterilise your jars with boiling water or by sticking them in a cold oven and heating it to around 150C (300F). Once it reaches temperature, keep the jars in the oven for around 15 minutes before carefully removing and allowing to cool.

Once the hot sauce is open, keep it in the fridge.

Depending on the size of your chillies, this recipe will make around a one-pound / 500g jar. Or do what I do and make smaller jars, storing them upside down in a cool, dark place.

• Approximately 15 long red chillies (around 200g / 7oz)

• 8 medium to large garlic cloves

• Half a tennis ball sized brown or white onion

• One third of a medium sized carrot, peeled

• 1/2 cup / 120ml water

• 3/4 cup / 175ml vinegar

• 2 tsp fine sea salt

• 2 tsp white granulated sugar

• 1/4 tsp hot smoked paprika (optional)

Using gloves, cut open the chillies and remove the ribs and seeds. Roughly chop them along with the onion and carrot.

Pulse the chillies, onion, garlic and carrot in a mini food processor until you’ve got a medium-fine dice. You can also use a knife for this.

Add all ingredients to a pan and bring to a simmer. Simmer with the lid on for around 30 minutes.

Take a stick blender to the sauce. I like my sauce on the chunky side, akin to a pesto. It’s up to you, it can be as chunky or smooth as you like.

Thickness is again, chef’s choice. I like mine on the thicker side. Don’t forget that the sauce will thicken as it cools so you want it just on the side of too runny of your preferred viscosity whilst it’s hot. If you think it’s much too runny, you can simmer it a little longer.

Carefully pour into a jar whilst it’s still hot, stick the lid on and you’re done.