We’ve had a despicably cold summer in the Bay Area, the coldest since 1958! Dreary overcast skies greet us every morning. If we’re lucky, we get a few hours of sun and then it’s cool again.
Yesterday, my husband reminded me of the sweltering heat wave last August. My friend, novelist Monique Truong, just wrote to me about Brooklyn’s humidity.
I ought to be relieved to not experience global warming, huh? But as crazy as it sounds, the physical discomfort of sweating during the dog days of summer seems dreamy right now.
I figured that since the sun can’t burn through the clouds that I could at least enjoy flavors that evoke hot weather. That’s the genesis of this Thai sweet chile sauce.
Ever since I opened a bottle of the commercially-made stuff, I’ve wanted to make my own. The bottled version is terribly gloppy and cloying, without much personality. It didn’t seem like rocket science to prepare so I tinkered around in my kitchen to come up with this sweet chile sauce recipe.









