Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Chili Paste First Attempt






I tried the above recipe on a day off from work, and after looking at the two packages of dried chilies on our counter for several weeks. Below are some pictures and descriptions of my first attempt at making homemade chili paste. 

First off, since this was my first attempt, and I wanted to make a less hot chili paste, I tried hard to remove all the seeds and ribs from the dried chilies. I used two packages of dried New Mexico chili pods from Fred Meyer’s.  I think I was mostly successful. I did boil and then simmer just the seeds and ribs in water for about an hour, but dumped it out because I couldn’t think of a use for chili water. 

I used the longer cooking method, simmering the paste for just over 90 minutes. The color did change (darken), as you may be able to see from the pictures below. I had just blended all the ingredients, when I saw the onion sitting on the counter. I tasted the paste without the onion, and then cut up and added the onion. I kind of liked the taste of the paste without the onion, but I wanted the first attempt to be as true to the recipe as possible. I may leave out the onion next time. 

I used a whole bulb of raw garlic. I like to roast garlic, and my wife likes to eat roasted garlic, but there was not roasted garlic in the fridge. I am curious to know how roasted garlic would change the final flavor of the chili paste. 

I used 5 roasted salted macadamia nuts, a couple pinches of brown sugar (no white sugar in the house), and some pink sea salt. 

As the chili paste simmered, the liquid did cook off, but not as much as I thought it would. The color darkened, and the flavor became more intense. In my mouth I could taste the dueling flavors of the garlic, onion, and chilies.  

I think the first attempt was a success. I know I didn’t use the exact amounts of ingredients, because that’s not how I cook. We’ll see how it tastes in vegetable stir fry.
Thank you for posting this recipe Azlin.

Chili paste just after boiling, now on simmer


The chili seeds


Chili paste after 90 minutes of simmering





2 Comments:

At February 22, 2018 at 2:01 AM , Blogger Azlin Bloor said...

Hey March, it sure looks good. And the beauty of chilli pastes like this one is that you can play around with the ratio of ingredients. Hit me with a comment again when you use it in a recipe.
Thank you for trying the recipe, and for letting me know.
Shared it on Pinterest. I'd be happy to share it on other platforms if you add sharing buttons. x

 
At February 22, 2018 at 2:02 AM , Blogger Azlin Bloor said...

Sorry, Matt! Blame it on the lack of caffeine.

 

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