Back home, you can buy ready made chilly paste or chilly boh as it is famously known, in supermarkets. grocery shops and wet markets. It is cheap and also ready to be use in a jiff.
However, since moving to the middle east, I always made my own. I try to make them in bulk and packaged in small bottles (used jam jars/pickles etc that I try to save every now and then). I keep one in the fridge and the rest in a freezer, taking it out when one bottle is done.
When you have a pre-prepared chilly paste at hand, you can always use it for any thing from sambal, to frying spicy noodles or fried rice.
The level of heat that you get all depends on the type of dried chilly used. Some can be really really spicy and some has no effect at all.
The use of candlenut is optional. Candlenut is widely used in Malaysian Malay and Indonesian cuisine. It gives a creamy sort of flavour to the dish. Macadamia nut can be used as substitute to candlenut, however macadamia nut can be costly.
Ingredients for Basic Chilly Paste
100gm dried chilly
1 big size onion - quartered
8-10 cloves of garlic
thumb sized ginger
5-6 candlenut (optional)
1-2tbs of vegetable oil - I normally use olive oil
Method
1. Cut dried chilly into small pieces.
2. Soak dried chilly in boiling water for at least 1/2 hour.
3. Put all ingredients in food processor or blender and blend till fine paste.
4. And the paste is ready to be used.
Happy Cooking
Sathiarani
No comments:
Post a Comment