Chillis - fresh or dried

[Ger-annie-um]

I have several great receipes involving whole chillies but right now I don't have any ready to use. What I do have though are whole chillies dried from last years crop.
My question is can I use them instead of waiting for mine to start cropping or buying fresh, and will I need to adjust how many I use.........I seem to remember they get hotter with drying.

Cheers everyone

[Two_Sheds]

of course you can use them: add a little at a time, to taste

[Ger-annie-um]

of course you can use them: add a little at a time, to taste

Right, well that's my problem, I can't eat chilli........so tasting is out of the question, I only make the relishes and sauces because the family love them - (perfect wife and mum me!) so I need to know if one fresh chilli e.g cayenne would equal 1 dried cayenne chilli

[Jay-ell]

Can't help you with number of chillies to use (depends on the type of chilli the recipe calls for and the type you have dried) but I can give you a cautionary tale.

Several years ago I shared a house with a couple of friends and, as we all like Indian food we decided to have a curry night and have friends round.

One of my flat mates was making a curry which called for 3 large green chillies. As the only chillies he could find were my dried chillies he doubled them because they were dried - and then doubled them because they were small - so that's 12 birdseye chillies.

He then added 3 heaped spoonfuls of paprika - quite an achievement considering we were out of paprika and I was out stocking up on spices at the time.

Had I been there I would have been able to point out that it had a bright red top, three skull and crossbones and a label saying "Jasons extra hot chilli powder" on it.

Needless to say that curry was a bit hotter than expected.


Probably best if you have a chilli eater on hand to taste.

[SusieG]

Dried v fresh!

Hi ger-anni-um. Don't buy more chillis, use your dried ones until your fresh ones have grown. I'm not 100% sure, but I think dried are hotter than fresh. When I use dried I usually use a level teaspoon for 1 chilli ... Not had any complaints from my spicy-food lovin' family!!!

[Elfeda]

just soak the dry chillies in little water and use them in your dishes as would with fresh. taste the food while you adjust the qty of chillies suffice the dish

[Filbert]

I suppose it depends what kind of chillies you grew last year but I always find my dried ones a bit hotter than they were fresh. Also when they are small the temptation is to add extra but not advisable in my view.

[vixylix]

Smaller will always be spicier - and dried slightly more. I'd advise you use the same amount as you would fresh. If your family are chilli lovers it won't matter anyway!

Just don't do a Jay-ell