What Should I Cook with These (Bhutanese Chili edition)

March 12, 2024 7:12 AM

My sister-in-law gifted me this bag of dried chili peppers. What should I do with them? FYI - I'm not in the least worried about spiciness.
posted by plinth to Food & Drink (4 answers total)

Are the 'sundried' (like tomatoes) or fully dried? If the latter, I'd be inclined to make a jar of chili crisp.
posted by pipeski at 7:25 AM on March 12

The most obvious thing would be to throw them into the next Asian or Mexican dish you make. For what you have, I'd also be tempted to let them dry out just a little more, then use a food processor to chop them into chili powder. You could also make your own hot sauce out of them. Whatever you do with them, though, be careful that they don't burn your hands or eyes.
posted by Rykey at 3:43 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]

Extract the seeds so you can raise your own crop which you can use to make delicious hot honey by immersion, which is my preferred method. Just be sure to use a bamboo skewer or something to keep the chile submerged. Did this with both Cabanero and Trinidadian Scorpion. One chili per 350 ml of honey works a treat and does not disturb the moisture balance of the honey.

Conversely, you could take the dried chilis and do the usual recipe of heating the chili and honey with some vinegar. But be warned that it limits the shelf life.
posted by jadepearl at 8:18 AM on March 13

Response by poster: I ended up making Chili Crisp from some of them. It's very aromatic and has quite a punch.
posted by plinth at 7:14 AM on March 25