Dried chili powders

Cooking Discussions Cooking, Cookbooks, Ingredients
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Ok friends asking for help again. I’m still brainstorming a holiday gift for hubs. Looks like the wok may not be that fun on an electric stove.

He is also fascinated with interesting and not run of the mill chilis. I’m thinking maybe a pretty gift set of 6-8 little jars of dried and powdered chili so he can play with cooking or sprinkling on things. Would Burlap or penzeys have enough variety? I don’t think I want blends. Single origin is best for exploring different flavors. Also I am limited in my knowledge. I only know urfa, rpf, paprika…what else is tasty? Not to too hot or it will mask all the flavor.

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Sichuan hot peppers, Thai bird peppers, any of the ridic crazy new breeds like bhut jolokia or the reaper. Oh, wait. Those might be too hot.

A spicy curry blend? I know you said you didn’t want blends, but might add some complexity.

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Looks like burlap has some nice variety as does spice jungle.com

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Do any of those come in powders? I know I can buy dried in a bag but it’s a gift. I want them to be pretty and user friendly. Glass jars are pretty.

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I don’t know. Maybe check the companies you’ve narrowed down to.

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Penzey’s has Ancho Chili powder. Not hot at all and a great base for a seasoning blend, if he’s into making his own. It’s just straight chili without any added seasonings, unlike most “chili powder” sold in supermarkets. I’ve used it many times as the base for my own chili seasoning mix and have been very happy with it.

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I use Whole Spice in Napa. This link is to C, which includes chiles. They also have blends.

Maybe you could consider adding a spice griinder.

ETA Consider Aji Amarillo, which might be called Mirasol when dried.

ETA and don’t forget espelette sp?!

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Got one. Thanks for the site. Lots of nice options. I searched under chili.

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Great one and I’d add sichuan peppercorns to the mix too. (You’d want to go whole there; they lose potency quickly when ground.)

Adding another couple to the list: Calabrian chiles, Korean gochugaru

Super cool gift idea, @Sasha! I’d love to receive this one :slight_smile:

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Oh, yea. I have a whole jar with them that I toast and grind up in my mortal & pestle for HO-made Sichuan food :slight_smile:

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Fiesta brand, found in Texas in pretty much all grocery stores, offers a good selection of dried chilis, those used in Mexican cooking, and a lot of different spices and seasonings. You could put together a nice selection and augment it with something like a molcajete.

https://www.fiestaspices.com/shop-products-a-z/

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Since you mentioned wok and chili . . .

I highly recommend checking out Mala Market. Lots of options and while I haven’t ordered a lot from them, I’ve been very happy with what I have ordered.

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Thanks! It can be hard to think of things for folks that aren’t collectors of stuff. We have lots of gojugaru bc he is regularly making kimchi. I’ll check out your other ideas.

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Bought a mocajete last year! Nice stone one pretty big.

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Pendery’s - Fort Worth - Dallas - mail-order

Claims to have invented chili powder half a decade before Gebhardt. Seems to be lots of variety on the website. You’ll come across the brand often in recipes of big chili cookoff winners, which is where I probably first heard of them (mostly using blends, not the individual offerings).

I have never ordered from them as I got tired of chili experimentation not long after hearing of them.

My advice: buy dried pods, grind at home.

Better yet - grow at home. Best paprika I ever had was home-grown and home dried.

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The dried chiles used in Mexican/New Mexican cooking: Hatch, Arbol, New Mexico; pasilla de Oaxaca; cascabel; guajillo, chipotle, mulato, pasilla negro.

Spain: ñora. Spain/France Basque: Espelette

Others not yet mentioned: Maras and Aleppo in addition to Urfra.

I buy chiles whole because I prefer to toast and grind myself for maximum freshness, but I have seen them sold ground in jars by the companies others have mentioned here and also a spice store in Cambridge, MA, Curio Spice, that has a 15% off sale site wide going on now.

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One thing I like about Fiesta is the pods come in cellophane packs, not plastic bags or shakers! Well, the pods anyway.

P.S. @Vecchiouomo - still loving the Steak Seasoning you recommended just after you started HOing and also the Uncle Chris seafood seasoning. Down here in SETX we tend to over rely on Cajun seasoning.

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Oaktown Spice has some interesting chiles.

Stores in Oakland, Albany, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, CA. I don’t see a gift set of chiles, but call them and see if they can put something together.

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