Piri-Piri Hot Sauce

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp cilantro, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tbsp hot sauce
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Method

Melt the butter over medium-high heat until it foams and the milk solids turn golden-brown — this is hot-oil-finishing in its simplest form, and the caramelised solids will carry savoury depth into the sauce. Add the minced garlic and cilantro together. The garlic will soften in about thirty seconds; watch for the edges to turn pale gold and the raw bite to soften. Don't let it blacken — burnt garlic tastes acrid and will dominate a sauce this small.

Once the garlic has lost its rawness, add the hot sauce and lemon juice. The acid from the lemon will cut through the richness of the butter-sauce and prevent it from feeling heavy, whilst the capsaicin in the hot sauce will meld with the fat and carry through to the finish. A brief simmer — one to two minutes at most — allows the flavours to marry without cooking off the cilantro's volatile aromatics. You're looking for gentle bubbles at the surface, not a vigorous roll.

The sauce will taste sharper immediately after you add the acid and will mellow slightly as it sits. Taste at ninety seconds and decide if you need the full two minutes. If the lemon is particularly acidic, you might find balance earlier. If it tastes flat, a pinch more salt — half a teaspoon — will sharpen the cilantro and hot sauce without thinning the condiment.

Serve warm within five minutes of finishing. This is a finishing-sauce designed to be used at once — the butter will separate and the cilantro will begin to lose colour if it sits. Spoon it over chicken, grilled fish, or beans. The emulsion will break slightly as it cools, which is normal; the flavour doesn't suffer, but the richness does, so serve it hot.