Topic: Easy Microwave Chilli Powder,

[littlechilie]

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.

[Madrasandy]

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 

[chewytikka]

LC
{microwave on full power for 8 minutes In a 900w microwave.}

I don

[littlechilie]

LC
{microwave on full power for 8 minutes In a 900w microwave.}

I don

[loveitspicy]

I have some habs growing this year - will try to give this a go mate

best, Rich

[Secret Santa]

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.

[littlechilie]

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.

[Secret Santa]

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

[Madrasandy]

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 

[littlechilie]

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.