You Saucy Thing: Passionfruit Chilli Sauce

Have you ever tried passionfruit chilli sauce? It is absolutely delicious. I first tried this in Peru and it went perfectly with so many dishes, especially one called Salchipapa, a mix of fries, egg and sausage. I wanted to recreate it again here which I have but with two types of chilli sauce: a classic Peruvian passionfruit chili sauce as well as a Sweet Chilli Passionfruit version!

The first recipe is for a classic Peruvian sauce but ideally you really do need special chillies for it. I was lucky enough to get some sent to me by Carlos from Mr Papa food truck in Canberra. As fate would have it, we were in Lima at the same time and we got to hang out in Lima. When we were back, he sent me some rocoto chillies and I was so grateful and excited to get them.

I knew I had to make a passionfruit chilli sauce with them below. I also follow it with a Thai sweet chilli sauce made with passionfruit which is easily made using chillies you can get here in Australia and it tastes fantastic. If you're not convinced, try adding the inside of a passionfruit to some sweet chilli sauce and you can see what a natural fit it is. It's fantastic with crispy spring rolls and is a great baste for roasted chicken wings too!

Apart from chillies there are a few more things in my kitchen now. These were a purchase from our recent trip to the Southern Highlands from a shop called Nest and Burrow. I am obsessed with feathers and I'm now thinking about Christmas tree decorations (arrghh what!!). I also love small glasses for props and this retro style juicer because we go through a lot of citrus fruit in this household.

The last item is a box of Butterfly Pea Flower and Hibiscus Flower items I was sent. It's an Australian company owned by Jocelyn Etherington and her husband Lee who started using native hibiscus flowers as well as Bulgarian rose. Their newest product uses the butterfly pea flower, a native Thai flower that colours food beautifully and naturally blue. The added bonus to this is that when you mix acid or lemon juice to the blue tea then it changes it to purple. It's a really strong colour and they also have a Butterfly Pea Flower Match Tea Powder that I can't wait to try.

Take a look at Sherry's blog to see who else has something new in their kitchen!

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried passionfruit with your chilli sauce? Have you ever seen butterfly pea flower before? Have you got anything exciting in your kitchen?

Peruvian Passionfruit Chilli Sauce (Maracuya aji)

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

• 1 onion, peeled and finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely diced
• 2 Rocoto chillies
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2-3 teaspoons passionfruit (yellow skinned passionfruit if you can get them)
• Salt to taste

Step 1 - Halve and seed the chillies using gloves as they can be hot. Chop roughly. Add a couple of teaspoons of oil into a frypan and saute them along with the garlic and onion for around 5 minutes or until soft.

Step 2 - Blend these with the olive oil until smooth. Add the passionfruit and salt to taste. I added a tiny amount of sugar because yellow passionfruits are sweeter than purple ones.

Sweet Chilli Passionfruit Sauce

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 15-20 minutes

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 jalapeno chillies
• 3 passionfruit, halved
• 1/2 tamarillo

Step 1 - Boil the sugar, water, rice wine vinegar, chillies and garlic together for 10 minutes until thicker in texture. Add in the passionfruit (seeds and all) and the inside of 1/2 a tamarillo (which is what colours it purple) and bring back to the boil for a couple of minutes. It will thicken upon cooling.