Chopped Sauce
Tomato Onion Red Pepper Scotch Bonnet
A classic tomato sauce that is good as an alternative to the smooth texture of a blended soup/sauce. The coarse texture of the seeds of the tomato and peppers are part of the attraction in this sauce
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Ingredients
Equipment
2 small onion bulbs
Wok or Frying Pan Chopping Board
1 kg tomatoes
Knife*
1/3 kg of bell peppers 2 scotch bonnet peppers (rodo) 5 tbsp of cooking oil of choice 1/2 bulb of garlic An inch of ginger Salt
Optional
Optional
1 orange
Sieve
2 tsp of soy sauce 2 tbsp of fish sauce 1 tsp of sesame sauce
*Serrated knife works best for cutting
2 kg of prawns (shelled)
tomatoes
Instructions 1. Slice the onions and chop the tomatoes and peppers into separate bowls 2. Heat the cooking oil for a minute in the wok/frying pan 3. Add the sliced onions into wok and slowly sautéed until onions are really fragrant. Onions are ready when they appear translucent in the pan. Be careful not to burn the onions. 4. Add garlic and ginger to the onions. I prefer to grind out the garlic and ginger in a mortar and pestle with a bit of salt but chopping or grating the garlic and ginger are suitable alternatives 5. After stirring the garlic and ginger into onions, add the red peppers and the scotch bonnet into the onion mix. Cook for a couple of minutes.
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6. Add the tomatoes* into the pan and mix. Taste the mix and season according to taste with salt. At this point, the sauce should be cooked on low heat with a slow simmer. 7. If you want a classic sauce, just cook at a slow simmer until the sauce begins to fry slightly around the panʼs edges. For a twist continue below.
For the sauce with a twist: 1. Mix the juice of one freshly squeezed orange, the fish sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil in a small bowl 2. Add the orange mixture into the sauce at step #6 3. Allow the sauce to simmer for a few minutes before tasting and seasoning 4. Cook the sauce at a slow simmer until it is at its driest and starts to fry slightly around the edges 5. If cooking with shrimp, add at the is point and move it around in the sauce until the shrimp turns pink, indicating that it is fully cooked *Some people do not like their tomatoes with the water because it adds liquid to the sauce. To avoid the high water content of tomatoes, de-seed it before chopping or sieve after chopping and allow it drip. Personally, I believe the juice of tomato adds flavor to the sauce. But, sometimes I need a drier sauce so I will choose to sieve the tomatoes.
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