Posted August 23, 2007 by Lars in Reviews

Review: The Chilli Factory – Hot Sweet Chilli Sauce

The Chilli Factory
Hot-Sweet Chilli Sauce

First impression: Ahhh! I really do enjoy a sweet chilli sauce! Especially since I like to do stir fry and have a penchant for really good spicy Asian food. lol I was doubly excited when I saw that my box of products to review contained this little gem that came all the way from Australia! They are certainly close to Indonesia, so I’d bet that this might be some really great sweet chilli sauce! The Chilli Factory wants you to know what the heat level of this product might be to the waiting tongue. So a little 8/10 for heat is tucked into the front corner of the label. There is also no M.S.G. added and it’s gluten free. Food products can be deceptively labeled. The ‘no added M.S.G.’ label could still lead to MSG being in the product. They could use an ingredient that contains a small amount of MSG, but the manufacturer doesn’t add any ‘additional MSG’ to the product. Let’s take a look at the ingredients then.

Ingredients: water, sugar, chilli (20%), vinegar, garlic, herbs & spices, salt, xanthan gum (415).

The list of ingredients is relatively clean, with the exception of processed sugar and xanthan gum (415). The reason for the (415) reference is that this product was made in Australia. The European Union gives E numbers to food additives and xanthan gum is used for more than just making sauces. It’s used in cosmetics, ice creams and also used in the procurement of petroleum, raw crude. In fact Wikipedia has this info on xanthan gum ““ ‘In the oil industry, xanthan gum is used in large quantities, usually to thicken drilling fluids. These fluids serve to carry the solids cut by the drilling bit back to the surface. The widespread use of horizontal drilling and the demand for good control of drilled solids has led to the expanded use of xanthan gum. Xanthan gum has also been added to concrete poured underwater, in order to increase its viscosity and prevent washout.

In cosmetics xanthan gum is used to prepare water gels usually in conjunction with bentonite clays. It is also used in oil in water emulsions to help stabilize the oil droplets against coalescence. It has some skin hydrating properties. Some people are allergic to xanthan gum, with symptoms of intestinal gripes and diarrhea. Workers exposed to xanthan gum dust exhibit nose and throat irritation as well as work-related illness, with symptoms becoming more prevalent with increasing exposure.’

Appearance/Smell/Taste: After give this chilli sauce the once over, I notice that it has a much nicer look than what I’m used to seeing on the food store shelf, as to what we get here in the states. Most of the sweet chili sauces we see are very, very mild and are mostly corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup. At least The Chilli Factory people just used sugar! It has a deeper red color than what I’m used to seeing, and the chunks and bits of stuff in there are more prevalent to the average sweet chili sauce. I remove the cap and smell. The first smell is vinegar and garlic. I like a lot of garlic! So the smell is very pleasing, with the tanginess of vinegar, this sauce just might hold up! I’m going to do a double whammy here with this chili sauce. I’m preparing some jalapeÃ±o poppers and some homemade eggrolls. For the poppers and the egg rolls I’m using some leftover ingredients from the Zane & Zack’s review I just did. Here is what you will need for the poppers.

Prepared meal: Jalapeno Poppers

5-6 large jalapenos (cut in half, seeds removed)

1 cup Panko bread flakes

Â¾ cup Zane & Zack’s chicken veggie stir fry

6 oz. shredded manchego cheese

2 eggs

Prepare the egg wash like you would for breading chicken or fish. Mix the manchego cheese and the chicken veggie stir fry well in a large bowl. Manchego cheese is soft, so they should mush together pretty nicely. Take a butter knife and stuff the jalapeno halves with the mixture. After stuffing with the filling, dip in egg wash then cover in bread flakes. I then baked the poppers in a toaster oven at 400 degrees for roughly 8 minutes. They don’t come out as crunchy if you deep fried them, but using this mixture in a deep fryer, the cheese is very likely to just run out into the oil. Unless you freeze the poppers first, then deep fry them.

Turkey Sausage Egg Rolls

6 oz. cooked turkey sausage (finely chopped)

Small bunch of scallions (diced)

5-6 cloves garlic (minced)

2 dozen fresh green beans (minced)

Â¾ cup leftover red rice from Zane & Zack’s stir fry

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1tsp extra virgin olive oil

Â½ tsp sesame oil

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp habanero powder

Â½ tsp brown sugar

Combine all ingredients into a large bowl and mix throroughly. Using eggroll wrappers, put a small portion on the wrap diagonally. Fold the corners over, then use water on the remaining edges, roll tight. Using a deep fryer, set to 320 degrees and fry for roughly 4 minutes until golden brown.

Complement to meal: On top of the jalapeno poppers, the sauce worked quite well. It had that initial sweet tang, and then a nice garlic flavor. Which I heartily enjoyed! I tend to like my foods with ‘too much garlic’. But then again, the amount of garlic in any food is subjective to who’s actually doing the eating! This is where I feel this sauce shines! Huge garlic flavor and much spicier than what I’m used to as far as sweet chilli sauces go. The Chilli Factory Sweet Chilli Sauce heat level is a big thumbs up! Most of them are sweeter than they are hot! The 8/10 heat rating is pretty close, although since I’m a chile-head it’s more of a 5/10 for heat on my palate.

Using the sauce on the turkey sausage egg rolls worked quite fantastically too! I grilled the turkey sausage so it would have that nice smoky grilled flavor! You can also bake the sausage in a glass pyrex dish, but there isn’t anything like that charcoal barbecue flavor! Mixed in with the oils, the ginger and the hanabero powder, made for an explosion of heat and flavor. The sweet tangyness of the Chilli Factory Sweet Chilli Sauce compimented to the yummy deliciousnouss of the turkey sausage egg rolls. I sure do wish that they sold The Chilli Factory Sweet Hot Chilli Sauce in the food stores on our shores!

Initial impression: 8/10

Ingredient quality/content: 7/10

Flavor/textue/smell: 9/10

Heat: 5/10

Overall: 7.25/10