Jumat, 29 Januari 2010

Green Chili Paste ~ Back to Basics of Indian Cooking!

Life is so much easy when it comes bottled! You don't agree? Well let me show you how exactly it does. Many a times I face a dish that requires just 1 teaspoon of this or that. And to make that I really got to sweat myself out and think of ways to get that ground to proper consistency in my mixer jar. Believe me, my smallest jar can mix quantity that fits for an army! I guess when I bought the mixer, that tiny fact slipped my mind. I checked all other features so well no doubt. But since we were in more of joint family types then, the small jar never got much importance.

Now it matters a lot. Every time I use it to grind something in small quantity, I ask myself why I didn't have this hindsight before. Well you can't help that anyways. and one needs to have positive approach to everything. How should one tackle this and improvise on the situation? Solution was only grinding it in bulk and storing it.

And that's exactly what we do. Grind a huge batch and store it and use as and when required. Refrigerator is a gift to the mankind, rather to the chef. And chefs at home are known to testing the shelf life of you name it, is already done!

That reminds me of that apple, that lived for ever in the cold compartments of our fridge for God knows how many months! Of course I know the date, it was on the diwali day that it came to our house and unhappily lived ever after until few weeks ago, when we took pity and gave it life. We, the ever sacrificing selves, wanted the others to enjoy the fruits of that and in the end none did. Anyway that was a story!

Coming back to the grinding and storing in bulks, Green chilis are something that ground in bulk and stored. There is really no recipe, just basic understanding of how it works.


Wash and pat dry the green chilies. Take the amount that fits your jar, you really need to get a paste. Or depending on your requirement, it can be coarse too.

Grind without adding water, if you find it is not getting ground finely, then add a teaspoon of water and proceed.

Once you get the consistency of the paste, transfer to a bottle and store.

This easily stays fresh for a week or 10 days.

If add too much of water, towards the end of its shelf life you will start getting a fermented smell out of the bottle.

Take the required amount with a dry spoon and put back the bottle.

I normally use green chili paste in Cauliflower Manchurian

Or dry sides dishes like Cabbage Fry

Or any dish that calls for green chilis and you want it to be more spicy.

Check out the other Back to Basic in the Indian Basic Series!

Have a great weekend!




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