How celebrity chef Sarah Todd wants you to taste flavours from around the world through sauces

Sarah Todd recommends using the sauces to cook, and as toppings on pizza, especially ghost chilli and bird’s eye for a fiery zing. Pic/Aishwarya Deodhar

About two and a half years ago in Melbourne, Masterchef Australia judge and chef George Calombaris had to cook an Indian curry for an event at his restaurant. He called up good friend and former finalist Sarah Todd, asking her where he could source Indian Kashmiri chilli tomato paste from. Todd jumped in to make the sauce from scratch. She sent him a batch using ingredients from her pantry. A thank you message on social media by Calombaris soon inundated Todd's inbox.

Vada pav with sriracha sauce; (right) samosa with Kashmiri chilli tomato sauce

The idea to create a line of sauces began fermenting in her head. She pictured a line of sauces that was great to stock at home and easy to add to daily cooking, too. Two years in the making, Todd has named her line of sauces Hot Toddy, which first launched in Australia three months ago. "It took a couple of years to develop and test the recipes. I wanted a batch that consumers could cook with and use as a side dip, too. We worked with Italian glass bottle-makers so that they would look good enough to earn pride of place at the table. While the chillies are sourced from India, the rest of the ingredients are locally sourced from places around Australia, where the sauces are produced and bottled," Todd tells us, in between her promotions in the city for the new sauces. The sauces are gluten-free and vegan with no artificial colours or preservatives with a year-long shelf life. "We will roll them out online, and hope to place them even at restaurants. The sauces are designed to let you taste the world, one chilli at a time."

Sabudana vada with sweet chilli sauce

On Todd's behest, we try the sriracha with vada pav. For a Mumbaikar, what extra addition do we need to our state staple, we wondered? The Japanese sauce has a seven-spice shichimi mix, with pickled chilli and cayenne pepper. It gives the vada pav a bold chilli hit, which doesn't make us miss the dry lasun chutney. The sweet chilli we try with a plate of sabudana vadas. We dunk the farali snack, which already has a bland clean flavour profile, into the Thai sauce. A jammy consistency perks our palate, and the sweet of sugar and sour of vinegar gets our vote. We like the tropical punch that livens up the humble snack. We introduce the robust samosa to try the Kashmiri tomato sauce, which apes the ketchup. Javed Jaffrey's words from the iconic Maggi sauce ad resonates: "It's different." We love it for the depth of smokiness and fermented chilli flavour. The texture is smooth and the sweetness of tomatoes lingers for a while.

The last two sauces are tobacco drop sauces, which means, they are fiery and just a few drops are enough to cast their chilli spell on the palate. We have a mid-level heat threshold, and so we try it on plain bread with caution. The ghost chilli sauce, which has bhut jolokia chillies (6 per cent) and bird's eye chilli (12 per cent), is not to be feared, we find out. It has the tangy presence of pineapple as we first taste a tepache (fermented pineapple drink made from rinds); the hit of the chillies is a backdoor entry, without much hullabaloo. The bird's eye chilli sauce is our favourite; it has the sweetness of mango puree and the kick of vinegar. The chillies are moderately fiery; which is ensured by controlling the amount of chillies added to the sauce per batch. This, Todd says, is an Aussie sauce that goes in salads and even in cooking.

Todd suggests that the Kashmiri tomato sauce can be used to make spaghetti; the Asian sauces can be paired with spring rolls or added to soup, while the hotter sauces can be spread on pizza. We are happy to sign up for that mission.

Log on to Hot Toddy is available on leading online stores, including amazon.in, flipkart.in, Big Basket and Reliance Fresh
Cost Rs 749 to Rs 849