Some like it hot

Here is an easy (boat) recipe for those of you who like hot food. It's loosely based on a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe. But please adjust to your taste…

We've used the following ingredients for this:

• Peppers to your liking (I've used habanero, Thai pepper, scotch bonnet peppers, and some more)

• 4 garlic cloves

• 2 teaspoons of cumin seeds

• 1 tablespoon of coriander (use seeds if you have - I didn't)

• 1 tablespoon (or to your liking) of tomato paste

• 1.5 teaspoons of sugar

• 1.5 teaspoons of paprika

• 1 lime

• 2 tablespoons of rose water

• 4 tablespoons of vinegar (use apple vinegar if you have. I used red wine vinegar)

• 1 - 2dl of olive oil (depending on the viscosity you want to achieve)

Place your dried peppers and the garlic in a hot frying pan over high heat. Once charred, remove everything and set the garlic aside.

Boil some water. Add the chilies to the boiling water and turn off the heat. Close the pan's lid and make sure that the chilies are covered with water. Let them sit for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, take your spices (coriander, cumin, paprika, and anything else you want to add) and toast them in the frying pan over medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes. Once the spice's smell fills the galley, put them in a bowl and use a pestle to crush any seeds. Then mix the spices with the tomato paste, sugar, and charred garlic.

Drain the chilies. Put the water in a jar. You can use it to spice up sauces and curry. Roughly chop the peppers toss them into the blender with the spices-tomato paste-sugar-garlic mix. Pulse a few times to mix everything together.

Add lime juice, rose water, vinegar, olive oil, and salt to your mix. Blend it until you like the paste's viscosity. Add salt, rosewater, and anything else to your tasting. Store the paste in a jar and pour some olive oil on top to conserve it. It last's for months in the fridge - unless you have eaten it before.

Don't forget to thoroughly wash your hands - it burns…

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