Sweet Chili Sauce, Camp Version
Ginger, garlic, chili, and a lot of sugar cooked down into a dip that keeps without a cooler.
- calories
- 205
- weight
- 2.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 79
- protein
- 1 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 25 min
- water
- 250 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Rice vinegar | 250 ml | carried in a screw-top bottle |
|---|---|---|
| Water | 250 ml | |
| Sugar | 400 ml by volume, about 340 g | |
| Dried chili flakes | 3 tbsp | stands in for 100 g of fresh green and red chili |
| Garlic powder | 2 tsp | or 6 cloves fresh if you are car camping |
| Ground dried ginger | 2 tsp | or 2 tbsp grated fresh |
| Ketchup packets | 4 tbsp | |
| Cornstarch | 3 tbsp |
Method
- Put the vinegar, water, sugar, chili flakes, garlic, ginger, and ketchup in the pot. Stir once.
- Bring it to a boil, then back the flame off. Simmer until the sugar has fully dissolved and the liquid runs clear rather than grainy, about five minutes.
- In a mug, stir the cornstarch into a few tablespoons of cold water until there are no lumps.
- Pour the slurry into the pot in a thin stream while stirring. Bring it back to a boil and hold it there two minutes.
- Pull it off the heat and let it cool all the way down. It thickens as it drops in temperature, so judge the consistency cold, not hot.
- Thin with water if it sets too stiff. Add another teaspoon of slurry and reboil if it stays loose.
The original is a fridge sauce built on fresh chili, garlic, and ginger. Dried versions of all three work here because the sauce boils for long enough to rehydrate them, and the vinegar and sugar do most of the flavor work anyway. Nothing in the finished sauce needs cold storage: the acid and the sugar concentration are the preservative, which is why the sugar quantity looks absurd and should not be cut.
Cornstarch is the only fussy part. Dumped in dry it seizes into lumps you will never stir out, so it goes in as a cold slurry, off a rolling boil, poured slowly. It also has to boil for a minute or two afterward or the starch never sets and you get sweet vinegar. Make it at the trailhead or on night one; it keeps a couple of weeks in a bottle out of the sun.
Packing
Combine sugar, chili flakes, garlic powder, ginger, and cornstarch in one bag at home; label it, since the cornstarch has to be held back until step three. Vinegar rides in its own bottle. Ketchup packets come from the last gas station.
Variations
- Halve the chili flakes and the sauce turns into a dipping sauce kids will touch.
- A tablespoon of soy sauce in place of some of the water adds salt and depth. It is no longer gluten-free unless you use tamari.
- Cook it down five minutes longer without the cornstarch for a thicker glaze to brush on fish over the coals.
https://www.matprat.no/oppskrifter/kos/sot-chilisaus