African Red Dip

Linorama's Note:

This is a spicy, exciting change to traditional shrimp cocktail sauce. It's fun to watch people try it for the first time. :-) Cook time includes cooling time.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 10 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Yield: 1 cup

Red Pepper Paste

• 1/4 cup dry red wine
• 1 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/8 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/8 medium onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup paprika

Sauce

• 1 cup bottled chili sauce

Directions:

1. Red Pepper Paste: Process all paste ingredients except paprika in blender until smooht, scraping sides frequently.
2. Heat paprika in 1-qt saucepan for 1 minute.
3. Add spice mixture gradually, stirring until smooth.
4. Heat, stirring occasionally until hot, about 3 minutes.
5. Cool.
6. To make dipping sauce: Mix chili sauce with 2 Tbsp red pepper paste.
7. Serve with cooked, chilled shrimp.
8. Leftover paste keeps well in refrigerator for the next batch.

Reviews

[BeachGirl]

I've always wondered what was in bottled commercial Chili sauce! I know the intent was to add this to Chili sauce, but I didn't have any, so improvised with catsup. I made this paste, then added 1 teaspoon of this paste to 1/4 cup catsup to use as a cocktail sauce for a shrimp cocktail. Bingo....the closest thing I've ever found to substitute for Chili Sauce, although with a little more bite which we prefer. For the second try, I made sauce of 1/4 tsp of African Red paste, 1/4 cup catsup, 1/2 tsp Louisiana Hot Sauce, and 1-2 tsp prepared horseracish. The horseradish made a wonderful seafood sauce with a kick! The only problem I had with recipe was "needing to add twice the amount of red wine to moisten the spices into a paste". Linorama, thanks for helping me create a copy-cat Chili sauce. This is much cheaper, a little hotter, and delicious.