Adapted from Susan Feniger’s Street Food. She says: I think this is the sauce that you’ll always want to have in your fridge. A mildly spicy, almost fruity, herbal fresh condiment, it is fantastic on a piece of grilled fish, on roasted chicken, and on sautéed mushrooms. It’s also great as a garnish for a rich soup, on top of mashed avocados with feta cheese, or as a dip for crudités. This Sriracha sauce is different from the typical red sauce you see in squeeze bottles in every Asian restaurant.
She likes to use 3 poblanos and 2 serrano, which give the sauce a rich, gentle heat, but we prefer to use Hatch, New Mexico Green Chiles.
YIELD
4 cups
INGREDIENTS
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
3 Hatch, New Mexico green chiles chiles, roasted, peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, sliced
1 piece young ginger, peeled and roughly chopped (3 inches)
1 piece fresh turmeric, peeled and thinly sliced (1/2 inch)
1 bunch fresh cilantro, leaves and stems roughly chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 leaf from 1 bunch fresh Thai basil (about 2 cups) or 1 leaf regular basil (about 2 cups)
1 leaf from 1 bunch of fresh mint (about 1 cup)
1 bunch fresh chives, roughly chopped (about 1-1/2 cups)
4 fresh kaffir lime leaves, roughly chopped
1⁄2 teaspoon finely minced inner stalks lemongrass
1 cup canola oil
3 to 4 limes, juice of (about 1/2 cup)
2 1⁄2 teaspoons kosher salt
DIRECTIONS
Put roughly a third of the coconut, chiles, garlic, ginger, turmeric, cilantro, Thai basil, mint, chives, lime leaves, and lemongrass in a blender. Add all of the oil, 1/2 cup of cold water, the lime juice, and the salt. Puree until smooth. (You may need to pulse the blender at first so the ingredients don’t catch in the blender blades.).
Depending on the size of your blender, you may be able to continue adding ingredients to the pureed sauce until all of the ingredients are used. If you need more space, pour half of the pureed sauce into a bowl and continue blending the remaining ingredients in batches, always using a little bit of the original sauce to start with.
When all of the ingredients are blended smoothly, pour the sauce into a medium bowl and stir well. The sauce can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.