Roasted Chili Paste

Roland and I love chili sauces and pastes, especially ones that have flavour as well as heat. I've been wanting to make my own Thai style chili paste with roasted chilis and shallots (my dad grew a lot of shallots this year!) and I've researched many recipes to come up with my version.

This seems like a lot of work, but it's totally worth it, especially if you don't live close to southeast Asian markets. To make this paste vegetarian, you can omit the fish sauce and add an additional 1/2 tsp. salt. As this sauce is pretty fiery, you can turn down the heat by using fewer chilis.