In the Black Chili Paste

"When you're not in port, or out of credits, and you've got a hankering to add The Heat and flavor to whatever is on the galley table, this basic paste is a good option for you. Because after all, dried chiles take up hardly any room or weight and you can always keep 'em around and make your own paste according to how gorram hot *you* like it, dong ma? (Recipe inspired by Joss Whedon's television show "Firefly" and movie "Serenity." Description is in character...) :)"
 
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Ready In:
35mins
Ingredients:
3
Yields:
1 1/2 cup chili paste
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ingredients

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directions

  • Your chili paste will use whatever kinds and heat-scale of chiles that you like. The paste I make, my own self, uses mostly ancho chiles, a large, juicy, dark purple pod that came from in New Mexico on Earth That Was. I like the mild heat and smoky flavor. The guajillo peppers are good for that, too. Sometimes I add some chipotle or cascabel , or for extra heat. Other folks who like Earth That Was Chinese often use tien tsin peppers, or for Indian use sanaam or dundicuts. Of course, the fun part is coming up with your own combination that's perfect for you.
  • Okay, first off, remember that you're going to be handling chile peppers. They're hot. It's up to you whether or not you get some gloves from the medic to do the job of keeping your hands covered, but I can tell you from experience that without them… forgetting about having made chili paste and rubbing your eyes or other sensitive nether parts later on can be painful. My own self, I wear the gloves.
  • Let's do this thing! Go ahead and weigh out 6 ounces of your choice of dried chiles. Remove the stems and all the seeds and discard them.
  • Put the cleaned chiles into a galley bowl and pour boiling water over them until they're covered. Let 'em soak for 30 minutes.
  • Drain the water from the chiles (you can keep the water and use it with your noodles, iffen you like).
  • Find the food processor or food mill in the galley and put the soaked chiles in there, then purée them thoroughly. If you use a processor, press the resulting puree through a sieve to get a totally smooth paste. If you use a mill, it'll come out as a smooth paste from that. You'll have about 1 1/2 cups of chili paste.
  • Get yourself a clean jar with a tight lid that's large enough and put the paste into it, then pour some vegetable oil over so that there's a couple of centimeters oil on top of the paste. The oil helps preserve the paste and it'll keep several months in the fridge this way. Without the oil, it'll keep for about 14 days.
  • There, now you've got yourself your own Heat. Experiment with different kinds of dried chiles you find in port, and enjoy!
  • Note: this recipe is included in the cookbook "Big Damn Chefs: The International Browncoat Charity Cookbook" and is my own recipe. "Big Damn Chefs" is available at BigDamnChefs.com and is a collaborative charity project. It is collection of recipes submitted by fans (also known as Browncoats) of Joss Whedon's "Firefly" television show.

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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p>It's simply this: I love to cook! :) <br /><br />I've been hanging out on the internet since the early days and have collected loads of recipes. I've tried to keep the best of them (and often the more unusual) and look forward to sharing them with you, here. <br /><br />I am proud to say that I have several family members who are also on RecipeZaar! <br /><br />My husband, here as <a href=http://www.recipezaar.com/member/39857>Steingrim</a>, is an excellent cook. He rarely uses recipes, though, so often after he's made dinner I sit down at the computer and talk him through how he made the dishes so that I can get it down on paper. Some of these recipes are in his account, some of them in mine - he rarely uses his account, though, so we'll probably usually post them to mine in the future. <br /><br />My sister <a href=http://www.recipezaar.com/member/65957>Cathy is here as cxstitcher</a> and <a href=http://www.recipezaar.com/member/62727>my mom is Juliesmom</a> - say hi to them, eh? <br /><br />Our <a href=http://www.recipezaar.com/member/379862>friend Darrell is here as Uncle Dobo</a>, too! I've been typing in his recipes for him and entering them on R'Zaar. We're hoping that his sisters will soon show up with their own accounts, as well. :) <br /><br />I collect cookbooks (to slow myself down I've limited myself to purchasing them at thrift stores, although I occasionally buy an especially good one at full price), and - yes, I admit it - I love FoodTV. My favorite chefs on the Food Network are Alton Brown, Rachel Ray, Mario Batali, and Giada De Laurentiis. I'm not fond over fakey, over-enthusiastic performance chefs... Emeril drives me up the wall. I appreciate honesty. Of non-celebrity chefs, I've gotta say that that the greatest influences on my cooking have been my mother, Julia Child, and my cooking instructor Chef Gabriel Claycamp at Seattle's Culinary Communion. <br /><br />In the last couple of years I've been typing up all the recipes my grandparents and my mother collected over the years, and am posting them here. Some of them are quite nostalgic and are higher in fat and processed ingredients than recipes I normally collect, but it's really neat to see the different kinds of foods they were interested in... to see them either typewritten oh-so-carefully by my grandfather, in my grandmother's spidery handwriting, or - in some cases - written by my mother years ago in fountain pen ink. It's like time travel. <br /><br />Cooking peeve: food/cooking snobbery. <br /><br />Regarding my black and white icon (which may or may not be the one I'm currently using): it the sea-dragon tattoo that is on the inside of my right ankle. It's also my personal logo.</p>
 
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