Curry Recipes Online
Beginners Guide => Hints, Tips, Methods and so on.. => Spices => Topic started by: littlechilie on April 01, 2015, 02:00 PM
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(http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/2e9c5a67f6c94871127c393eae798281.jpg) (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#2e9c5a67f6c94871127c393eae798281.jpg)}
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Easy Microwave Chilli Powder,
Extreme Cation Recommended When Making.
Take 10 habanero Chillies and slice thinly, then place on a plate and microwave on full power for 8 minutes In a 900w microwave.
Checking every 2 minutes to move chillies around the dish so not to burn, after 8 minuets leave to stand and cool, taking great caution when opening up microwave. It's like a lung full of CS gas so stand back.
Place the plate of Chillies back in microwave on defrost for 5 minuets carful not to burn, when finished leave to cool they should be dry and crisp.
If it needs longer adjust times until your happy.
Add to grinder 1 tsp of salt, dried Habaneros, dried Garlic or Garlic powder, about a ground tsp and red Kashmir chilies or powder, blitz to a fine powder.
Same process can be used to make any Chilli powder of choice, times may vary.
Enjoy in curry or great as a dry rubs for meat ac barbecue.
LC
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My chilli powder grinding days are finished (see a previous post), that looks lethal. But just a tip.
If after grinding you add a couple of drops of oil to the powder, then mix, it'll give it a much deeper red colour. This info was given to me by my mother-in-law and is used in Turkey, and I imagine elsewhere.
Looks better if you're selling it or giving it as gifts.
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Very interesting technique, LC. I generally air-dry any surplus from my own home-grown chillies, but I'll be sure to buy some at the supermarket and give this method a go.
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Great tip Fried I will be sure to try this.
Naga, I used to do the same but this is so quick and easy, there is no difference in the flavour as I have used both methods. As u suggest I also just buy from my local market a bag of peppers is less than a pound ;)
If MA pops along my local market is also selling the Dorset Naga at the moment, the guy seemed to think they might be a little to hot for me.
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Great stuff LC
Is this your own creation ? ( just intrigued )
cheers MT
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Great post LC, and good to see something that's a little bit different.
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Great stuff LC
Is this your own creation ? ( just intrigued )
cheers MT
Hi MT, the microwave method for dehydrating food products has been around for years, but just applied it for use of dehydrating Chilies ;) I put the powder mix together and it works for me, I use the tsp of salt to stop it clumping due to moisture.
Cheers LC.
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LC... like the idea of home made chilli powder. Have you tried it using Scotch Bonnet chillies instead of Habaneros? I know they are similar. I can buy scotch bonnets quite cheap locally.
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LC... like the idea of home made chilli powder. Have you tried it using Scotch Bonnet chillies instead of Habaneros? I know they are similar. I can buy scotch bonnets quite cheap locally.
Yep it works really well anything really, just got to keep an eye on them, a little burning is ok but as long as they don't char you will be fine.
I grew scotch bonnets last year and had a great crop of fruit, ended up giving a lot of my powder away as 10 plants was to many.
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Personally I wouldn't dry fresh chillies in the microwave, great as a quick fix but not recommended.
For the flavour to develop properly the chillies need to dry slow and long, any burning at all will only result in a bitter tasting powder.
Either put in the oven on lowest setting and leave for 10 hours, depending on how thick the chilli walls are, or dry in a dehydrator.
I wouldn't add salt either TBH
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Hi Andy, sorry but I must strongly disagree, I have made in the oven and dehydrator, I also hung chillies all around the house on strings much to my wife's disgust ;D
I can confirm there is no difference in the taste you will achieve using the different methods , unless your going to smoke them and hang then I would do this naturally.
I have also taken them quite far charing them and it won't make the powder bitter, the salt I find is a good help in stopping the powder clumping.
Give it a go and compare them or rather than add the last 5 mins defrost finish off on the oven for a couple of hours on minimal heat.
But if I was oven baking from start I would still sprinkle with salt to bring out the moisture.
Cheers.
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No worries LC , we all have our own preferred method, one that works best for each of us.
I'll give this a try when I get chance, cheers for sharing :)
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LC
{microwave on full power for 8 minutes In a 900w microwave.} ???
I don
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LC
{microwave on full power for 8 minutes In a 900w microwave.} ???
I don
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I have some habs growing this year - will try to give this a go mate
best, Rich
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But when you slow dehydrate chillies in an oven you are cooking tha natural sugars in the fruit,it's the same proces.
When drying methi in a microwave to get fresh leaf dry it's the same proces as laying it out in the sun, it's just speeded up.
No it's really not. In the microwave you are cooking it as chewy says. In an oven you'd only be drying it out at maybe 40 degrees celcius tops - any more and you're cooking it. The processes are entirely different.
But that's not to say your method is "wrong" it's just different. It produces a chilli powder, just under a different process. Compare it to a true sun dried or air dried chilli powder though and you would notice the difference. I'd like to try it with finger chillis to see what the outcome is.
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Hi, SS you make a good point and Chewy and yourself are half correct, but there is a very fine line between drying and cooking in a microwave and it all comes down to the thickness of the fruit!
Say you put a tomato in a microwave then it will cook! But if you very finely sliced the tomato after removing the soft centre it would dry.
This is how come you can dehydrate leafs or herbs in a microwave, but it's a very small margin and things must be sliced fine and watched very carefully.
Cheers
LC.
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Hi, SS you make a good point and Chewy and yourself are half correct, but there is a very fine line between drying and cooking in a microwave and it all comes down to the thickness of the fruit!
Well, no. It comes down to the microwave setting (in this particular example).
Your method requires a 900W microwave blast for 8 minutes. That's cooking not drying. We could discuss it at a quantum mechanical level to no great benefit because your "cooking" method is just that; it cooks and as a corollary dries at the same time. But cooked drying isn't normal sun, air or low temp oven drying. It's clear your product is fine, but your method is different (by virtue of being cooked while drying) is all. :)
Cooking, which is what your method is doing, involves, of necessity, denaturing proteins and other complex molecular changes. Air, sun and oven drying, on the other hand, involves relatively little structural damage. It merely imparts a very gradual loss of water from the product. The resulting product is tangibly different as a consequence.
Ultimately, if it tastes good, who gives a monkey's? ;D
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Cheers LC , chilli powder arrived today. Smells very nice, lovely colour, a bit too garlicky for my liking, but will hold judgement on that till I have cooked with it. Any recommendations for testing ?
Thanks again for sending :)
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Hi Andy, glad to hear it arrived, 'm never sure how many stamps to put on the envelope! I recommend Madras or Vindaloo for the powder.
Thanks LC.