Help in identifying a Thai condiment

I generally associate the phrase "chili jam" (also known as chili paste) with store-bought sauces, like this one.

It wouldn't surprise me if they were using a very similar ready-made sauce - perhaps they get it from a distributor or perhaps they even make it themselves in large quantities and store it, but I doubt that they make it from scratch for every meal - few Asian restaurants do.

If the dish you were served doesn't contain ground beef or any of the things you'd traditionally associate with American chili (other than the thick consistency) then this might be as simple as whipping up a stir-fry using a store-bought chili paste. If it's too thick, add a little soy sauce. If you want more tanginess, add some lime juice. If you want more sweetness, add brown sugar. And if it still seems to be missing that certain je ne sais quoi, you might need Thai fish sauce, which you find in almost every Thai dish.

I hope that helps. If it doesn't get you where you want then feel free to report back and explain how it turned out differently from what you expected - one of us can surely take it from there.

Jared, I hope you bought it. If made right, it is really really tasty. If not, I can tell you how it is made, but be warned, it costs lots of time (you cook it until most of the water has boiled away, while constantly stirring, as it is prone to get burned on the bottom). Most people spend half a day making a big portion on open fire (because nobody has a stovetop on which a pan that wide fits) and then preserve it in jars. On the other hand, homemade tastes best, and then you can control the hotness (ljutenica can go from purely sweet to tabasco hot, depending on the type of peppers used) and the additions (pure liutenica is peppers and tomatoes only, but it also contains any veggies currently ripe in the garden which might spoil if not preserved quickly).

As for use, it is just a bread spread - or rather, it is the bread spread. A thick slice of semiwhite bread with with ljutenica is an iconic symbol of childhood for anybody who grew up between the 1950s and 1970s in Bulgaria, as that's what kids grabbed for a quick snack before running back outside to play. Traditionally, nobody includes it in any dishes. And nobody considers it a condiment. It is sometimes served as meze, which is a kind of appetizer eaten when drinking strong alcohol, in order not to get too drunk. I guess that whenever you serve antipasti, you could also offer a dish with liutenica, it can be scooped from there and eaten pure or with black olives and/or cubes of feta cheese. If you want to add spices to it, fresh parsley is the traditional one.

On the other hand, although Bulgarian cuisine is somewhat on the simple side, with lots of tradition and not much experimentation, there are no hard rules (in the sense of the Italian rules to never use certain sauces with certain shapes of pasta). So you can use it in any capacity you like. I sometimes use it (without cooking it to a proper thick consistency) as a pasta sauce (no matter what shape of pasta, but psst, don't tell the Italians). Once I pureed feta cheese in it and filled a quiche with the result, it got quite tasty.

Of course, if you happen to cook a Bulgarian style dish, you can use it as a condiment served on the side. Or use it anywhere you'd use ketchup. As many Bulgarian dishes include cooked or pureed tomatoes, you can also try using some liutenica as a substitute, either adding water if you want to keep a runny consistency, or take advantage of the fact that it is thick and make a dish thicker or cook it for less time.