A Use for my Peppers

I just made myself some chile paste. I'm spelling it "chile" because that seems most proper, although it goes both ways.

I took 6 full-grown, red cayenne peppers and cut the tops off. I left the seeds in them, because I like the seeds. I Cuisinarted them until they were torn to tiny pieces, and I added a quarter-cup of olive oil. That turned out to be about twice as much as I needed, so I got rid of half of it. I added a little salt and sugar. When they were mixed up, it didn't look too good. I figured my hopes of making paste from fresh chiles were dashed, but before throwing it out, I nuked it. That clarified the oil and separated the oils and solids. Suddenly it looked like chile paste.

I added a clove of pressed garlic, the juice from one section of a lime, and a one-inch square of zest peeled off a tangelo. I added a few drops of habanero hot sauce (El Yucateco) to spice it up. Then I nuked it some more, and when it came out, it was fantastic. I really like this stuff. I just don't know what to do with it. It's a billion times as good as Chinese restaurant paste. It's almost like chewy sriracha.

I think it would be better with even less oil. You could spoon it onto food like Bearnaise sauce.

Before doing this, I suspected that traditional cooks used dried peppers because the texture was better. Now I think it's just convenience. This stuff is superior to all the other paste I've had. One thing: take the orange zest out when it's done. You don't want to bite into that stuff.

I think the texture would be messed up if the seeds were taken out. It would just be red glop. I'm tempted to make it with coconut oil and maybe some fresh basil leaves.

This would be good on Szechuan food or Vietnamese or Thai food. Try it.

More

Holy crap. I have to try this on my deep-fried honey-garlic chicken!