So, I’d got a lot of Chillies left over from my recent purchase of super hots, no matter how much I wanted to use them all in Chillies and Curries, it wasn’t ever going to happen. A few of them are already starting to go, well, squishy.
Time to think of something else to do with them.
As any true Chilli head knows, any meal you can think of can be vastly improved by a few Chilli sprinkles, one of the ways to do this is via a grinder, you can get these from most super markets and even corner shops these days. Some of the better ones I’d bought though have been from Food Fairs and the like, my favourite so far being The Chilli Jam Mans Bhut Grinder.
I’d noticed I was running low on my favourite grinders, and, after looking at the ingredients of them all they seemed simple enough to make, so, off I went.
I’d dried chillies out before to make Chilli Oil (a favourite of my wife’s).
First of all, I had to slice and deseed a batch of Chillies to use, so once again I donned my trusty plastic gloves and sliced me up a tray of Chillies.
Of course, I kept all the seeds as well – No point in wasting those 😉
So, I popped those into the oven, you need the heat to be as low as it can, there is a risk of burning  the Chillies when you’re doing this and once it’s in your mix, you aren’t going to be able to get rid of it.
The oven I’ve got is just a normal one, it’s not fan assisted – To dry these out I set it at around 100° celsius and set the tray on the bottom shelf.
Also, probably worth pointing out that the tray I use to do this is one of those with holes in it – Helps circulate the air around a bit more.
It takes a good few hours to dry them out properly, and, some will drop quicker than others, you’re going to have to keep an eye on them. I normally give them a good hour or so before my first check and then guage how it’s going from there. How quick they dry is determined by how thick the skin is on them, the thicker ones like the Pimenta Trepadeira do Werner will take a good few hours,  the Pink Tiger chilli has a thin wall and so they’d be the first to dry out.
You’ll know they are done when they snap and crumble, they might feel dry but if they bend, they’re not.
Probably worth a mention that, when they are dry and brittle, they also get sharp, When I was making these a little slice of Chilli logged itself in my skin like a splinter. And, yes, it hurt…
After approximately 5 hours, I through in some rock salt, some black peppercorns, mustard seeds and finally some cumin seeds – Then I used a pestle to mush them all up a bit in a tupperware box and I had this to show for my troubles…
Not a lot to show for the trouble, right? – You’ll be surprised how much the Chillies shrink as the moisture from them gets removed, it’s also a shame that the colours tend to fade so much as well – The Yellow Morugas would have looked good popping out amongst the reds of the others.
And, so all that was left to do was to use a previously used Chilli Grinder (Top Tip: Save everything!) and Robert is your Mothers Brother.
This obviously isn’t a grinder for the faint of heart, I used some serious Chillies in this mix but, as always, you use your own discretion when making these things.
These grinders are a great way to pep up meals, I also use them as part of the meat rub when I’m cooking things like porks as well, gives them a good kick.
Also, Pizza. Using one of these things on Pizza is amazing.
Hell, even a chip butty is elevated to a whole new level when using one of these things!
Great post 🙂