A trio of heat - Red Hot Delights!!

Remember those Red Chillies I blogged about some time ago? Finally, after procrastinating for more than a month, I'm finally posting three hot, hot, hot dishes that the chillies found themselves in...

I have blogged about my favorite food shows on TV earlier and Kylie Kwong being one of them. So the first dish is inspired by her easy Chinese cooking methods and is a Spicy Cottage Cheese & Vegetable Stir Fry.

Ingredients:

Paneer - 250 gms

Spring Onions - 2 to 3

Capsicum - 1 small

Red Chillies - 2

Garlic - 3 cloves

Ginger - 1/2 inch

Peanut Oil - 1 tbsp

Salt

Pepper

Soy Sauce - 1/2 tsp

Balsamic Vinegar - 1/2 tsp

Roasted Peanuts - 5

Julienne the ginger thinly and finely chop the garlic. Heat oil in a wok or kadhai and fry the ginger and garlic. Now add cubes of the paneer/cottage cheese, 2 spring onions, sliced capsicum and 1 red chilli sliced diagonally into small pieces. Reserve one spring onion and one chilli for garnishing.

Add the salt, pepper, vinegar and soy sauce and toss the vegetables. Add the roasted peanuts right at the end and give it a stir.

Cottage Cheese & Vegetable stir fry

Cut one spring onion lengthwise and finely slice it into strips, chop a red chilli into thin pieces an garnish the stir fry with these. Serve hot with rice or noodles.

Paneer


Chinese Pickled Red Chillies

I absolutely love Chinese pickles. I have often pickled carrots, onions and cucumbers and stored them in glass jars in the refrigerator. And these chillies seemed just right for dunking into some Chinese sauces and spices and preserved for everyday use. It is a very simple recipe and the chillies are still going strong :) which means they will keep for about a month in the fridge.

Ingredients:

Fresh Red Chillies - 7 to 8 chopped diagonally into thin 1 inch pieces
Ginger - 2 inch piece - sliced into small thin pieces
Light Soy - 10 tbsp
Dark Soy - 5 tbsp
Vinegar - 12 tbsp
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Schezwan peppercorns - 1/2 tsp - roasted and ground
Sesame seeds - 1 tsp

Spicy Red Chilli Pickle

Mix all the ingredients together in an air-tight glass jar. Close the lid, give it a good shake and refrigerate for 2-3 days before using.

You can adjust the quantities of the sauces as per your taste. The sweet, sour and spicy pickled chillies go amazingly well with sandwiches, rotis, rice, rolls, and just about anything!


Chilli-Garlic Rub

The third recipe I concocted with the red chillies is a very versatile rub that can be used in a variety of dishes as a sauce, curry paste or just a marinade. I used it as a rub to grill some chicken pieces and it added a lovely, unique kick to them.

Chilli Garlic Rub

Ingredients:

Fresh Red Chillies - 8
Garlic cloves - 10
Olive oil - 1 tbsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Cloves - 2
Cinnamon - 1/2 inch stick
Peppercorns - 4
Star anise - 1
A dash of red rum

Grind all the above ingredients together to make a paste and use as desired. The rum adds a sweet note and if you are using the rub to roast or grill some chicken, it will give a nice glaze to the dish.

Whew! So that's how spicy my last month was! :) I also got some lovely suggestions from friends. So here are some more recipe ideas:

Ritu - Red chilli, tomato and honey paste to grill fish/chicken
Thara - 125 gms red chillies, 20 garlic cloves, 1tbsp cumin seed, (olive) oil 3 tbsp, salt to taste.
Grind all but oil with little water to fine paste. Heat oil, on medium heat, saute chutney gently for 5-7 mins. Remove from heat, cool, store. Lasts several days
Arundati - Really Hot Red Chilli Pickle