As the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.  Well, what happens when relatives give you bulbs of garlic and chilis?  You make home-made tasty chili, garlic, black bean sauce.  My Zucchini Chicken recipe uses a store-bought garlic black bean sauce, but if you're like my family that likes spicy, try this for variety.  You can also use this for Steamed Pork Spareribs that you'll find at Dim Sum restaurants.

This chilli garlic black bean sauce can be used to give a kick to any dish requiring the usual black bean sauce with the added health benefits of chili. (Speeding up metabolism and reducing inflamation resonated with me!)

Tips:

Types of chili:  You can use whatever red chilis you have in abundance.  You can control the spiciness of the chili since this is a home made sauce. Different chilis have different levels of spiciness.  Try de-seeding your chilis first to reduce the "heat" if you prefer a less spicy sauce.   If you enjoy and can tolerate a lot of heat, add more chillis with the seeds.  Just make sure that you add the amount of chili that is appropriate for your taste buds.  If by chance you make this sauce and it's way too spicy, don't throw it away.  Use less when cooking and supplement it with the regular black bean sauce.

Type of oil:  Since you'll be using this sauce for a multitude of dishes that will include stir fying, I suggest adding an oil with a higher smoke point which means that the oil can be heated to a higher temperature before smoking. So, eventhough you're tempted to use olive oil since it's healthier, it does not do well when stir frying.  Enjoy and let me know what you think in the comment section!