Hot Chilli Sauce - The Black, Mysterious One

This sauce began life at the Birmingham Curry Centre when it was situated in the city centre. Arthur C Throovest was involved with one of the cabaret clubs and on slack nights he would help out in the kitchen. It was apparent that the best and most expensive dishes used sauce accompaniments that had taken weeks to mature. This was the thinking behind this deep and tasty dish.

Take a very big cooking pot. Half fill it with chopped onions and about half as much again of finely chopped garlic. Then add half a pint of olive oil and half a pound of butter. Cook this vigorously until the contents are beginning to brown. Then add 2 pots of runny yoghurt.

Now add a bottle of the fullest, deepest red wine you can afford. Stir and stir and stir. Add about a cup and a half of coarse ground dried chilli, 3 tablespoons of ground coriander and 2 tablespoons of ground cumin. Stir and simmer. Add 2 teaspoons of salt.

Next, add half a pint of tomato purée and the juice from a lemon. Fill to within 2 inches of the top with water. Now simmer for at least 2 weeks. The principal here is the same as French onion soup. The onions eventually break down and turn deep brown. In fact this hot chilli sauce goes nearly black after time.

To be safe, remove from the stove each night and wrap the pot in old blankets or towels. If you use enough insulation, it won't take long to bring back to heat the following day.

Surprisingly, the heat mellows from a fierce, peppery assault to a deep, dark and rich flavour. It works brilliantly at BBQs, as a garnish to fish or steak and is fabulous just served with fried rice and peas.

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Arthur C Throovest ran an outside catering company, Big Triangle, which serviced Birmingham City Council for their premier, prestigious events. The Birmingham International Film Festival was the most demanding event for this co-operative, catering for 500 people for lunch and serving them all within 45 minutes; all with different tastes,too. Special cultural diets all had to be catered for and the whole operation took place out of doors in Birmingham City Centre.