Subject: [CH] Using long green Indian chiles

Shaun Rimmer (shaun@newtronic.co.uk)
Fri, 20 Sep 2002 08:52:30 +0100 

"Date: Sat, 14 Sep 2002 15:43:56 -0700
From: peter g <peter.g@telus.net>
Subject: [CH] Using long green Indian chiles

Hi folks ,
    there is, here in Vancouver area, an abundant availability of
green chiles at the local East Indian produce store.
Mostly about 2-3" long by ~3/8 wide at the stem; not much flavour,
but quite hot. They're selling at 75¢ per pound !
    any suggestions as to best uses ?? sauces? dried?
other than heat ... they have very little character (compared to a hab)"
thanks
peter g

(Shaun de-lurking - I haven't had the time to even be reading CH much
lately - saw this while trying to catch up a bit ',;~}  )

Hi Peter,
               Alas these are our staple here (lots of Indian/Pakistani food
stores and not much else in the way of chile resources)), and they are
indeed cheap to buy, but lacking some in flavour.

Depending on how long they were on the plant before harvest, some or many
will further ripen to become orange or vivid red if left in a paper towel
lined bowl on the window sill for a while. The flavour is much better when
they are orange or red than when green.

When green and sliced into thin rings, they make a good addition to pizza
before it's cooked, especially if they brown during cooking (they have a
great nutty flavour if toasted 'just so').

I have had some fairly good success making them into sauce by blending them
raw with fresh garlic, black pepper, white wine vinegar and pickled onions.
An even better sauce can be made by adding paprika powder, but the colour is
not very appetising at all, being a 'muddy' (being polite here) brown
colour.

I made some last night;

I picked out all the orange and red ones, and had about a pound of them.

Into the blender they went, along with 3 very fat cloves of garlic,

2 large pickled onions,
1 small raw onion,
2 tbsp paprika,
3/4 tsp salt,
1/4 pint pickled onion vinegar,
1/4-1/2 pint red wine vinegar,

added to this were the following pan roasted and ground *spices;

2-3 tsp black pepper corns,
2 whole cloves,
small piece of cinnamon bark (about 1 1/2 cm square),
3 'ears' of star anise,
1/4 tsp coriander seeds.

When blended to as fine a pulp as I was gonna get (and when I'd stopped
choking, heheheheh...), I put the contents into a pressure cooker. I put it
on the stove and got the pressure up until it sealed, then turned the heat
way down - virtually no steam should escape.

Left it there for about an hour and a half, then put it outside to cool.

When cold, I poured (well 'scooped' would be more accurate, it's quite
thick) it into a large bowl and covered it.

Tonight, I'll push it through a sieve to remove seeds and coarse pulp/skin
slivers, re-heat it then jar it.

*The spices (especially) and the paprika are used only to give a general
flavour boost to the not very flavourful chiles, and their flavour is not
individually discernable afterwards - that's why the amounts are so small.

It works because it tasted mighty fine when I sampled it (ate me a half tsp
of the pulp - woooo-hooooo!!!!) , and I cried myself many tears of CH joy
(and sweated some too, heheheh).....hhmmmmm ',;~}

Hope this is of some help! They really can be a useful chile.

Shaun aRe - back into Lurkdom for a while.