If you have ever been to a Thai restaurant, you will most definitely be familiar with the omnipresent bright red bottle. Inside the bottle is Thailand’s most famous sauce. Sriracha is a spicy chili sauce named after the coastal town of Si Racha in eastern Thailand where it was first produced and served in local fish restaurants. Sriracha (Thai pronunciation: See-rah-chuh) typically consists of chili peppers, vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt.
Certainly, the taste of both the traditional and the internationally popular Sriracha sauce is mainly dominated by its main ingredient, the chili pepper. Along with this, the other ingredients are contributing to the hot, sweet and spicy taste. In contrast to the famous version produced by Huy Fong Foods, the traditional Thai sauce tends to be tangier in taste, and runnier in texture.
In Thailand, the original sauce most commonly goes by the name of sot Siracha, or less frequently nam phrik Siracha. The industrialized version by Huy Fong Foods earned the nicknames “rooster sauce” or “cock sauce” in the United States because of the rooster logo on the bottle.
What Do Thai People Use The Sauce For?
What Do Thai People Use The Sauce For?In Thailand, people most commonly use Sriracha as a dip, particularly for seafood. But the chili sauce now appears in various other cuisines, predominantly in South East Asia.
In Vietnam, it spices up Phở and fried noodles or works as a topping for spring rolls. In western countries, it increasingly refines sandwiches, kebab and burgers. Even jams, lollipops and chips exist today based on the typical flavor of Sriracha.
Who Invented Sriracha?
Although there is no official confirmation, the Thai brand Sriraja Panich claims that the original Sriracha evolved in the 1930s in Si Racha. Allegedly, a housewife with the name Thanom Chakkapak had come up with the very first recipe.
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If you do not want to fall back on the commercial sauce, simply create your own Sriracha! Here is a traditional recipe for you:
Sriracha
Ingredients
- 1 lb red jalapeño peppers
- 1/2 lb red serrano peppers
- 4 cloves garlic
- 3 tbsp light brown sugar
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
Instructions
- Chop the jalapeño and serrano peppers and throw them (including seeds) into a blender with garlic, brown sugar, salt, and water. Blend until smooth, pulsing several times to start.
- Now pour the puree into a large glass jar and cover it with a lid or plastic wrap
- Place the sauce into a cool and dark location for 3 to 5. The mixture will now start to ferment.
- Stir the sauce ones a day and cover it again. Continue this procedure until the mixture is bubbly.
- Now pour the fermented mix back into the blender with vinegar and blend until smooth.
- Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a saucepan. Try to push as much of the pulp as possible through the strainer into the sauce. Throw away the remaining seeds.
- Heat up the saucepan while stirring until the sauce boils and reduces to your desired thickness (5-10 minutes)
- Let the sauce cool down to room temperature and finally transfer it to smaller individual jars or bottles to refrigerate.
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Images:
Sriracha Sauce lined up at ShopHouse Restaurant 3 by Ted Eytan, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Sriracha Hot Sauce Bottles Freshii Restaurant Family by Steven Depolo, licensed under CC BY 2.0
Pringles Sriracha by Mike Mozart, licensed under CC BY 2.0
