Eros Pista _ Hungarian Chili Paste Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat a grill to medium heat.
• To make the sauce, pour the balsamic vinegar into a small saucepan and reduce very slowly on low heat. Stir occasionally until it reduced to the consistency of syrup, approximately 10 minutes.
• Onto a skewer, layer 1 cherry tomato, 1 piece of fresh mozzarella and 1 large folded basil leaf. Repeat this pattern until 2 inches are left on the end of the skewer. Push the ingredients down towards the bottom tip for easy handling of the tops. Repeat with the remaining skewers and ingredients. When the skewers are ready to grill, put them onto a large piece of foil, brush them with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer the sheet of foil with the skewers onto the grill and shut the lid until the cheese begins to melt, about 3 minutes. When finished, pull the skewers from the heat by gripping the sides of the foil. Drizzle each skewer evenly with the balsamic reduction and sprinkle each with 1 teaspoon of Eros Pista. Transfer to a serving platter and enjoy.

Steps:

• In a wok or a small, heavy skillet, dry fry the chilies over med-low heat until the darken and become fragrant and brittle, 3-5 minutes. Remove and transfer to a plate to cool.
• Increase the heat to medium and dry fry the shallots and garlic, turning them occasionally, until they are softened, wilted, and blistered.
• Stem the chilies and discard most of the seeds. Crumble the chilies into small pieces. Trim the shallots and garlic, discarding the peel and root ends, and chop coarsely. Combine the chilies, shallots, and garlic in a mini-processor or blender and pulse to a coarse paste. Add 1/4 cup of the oil and grind to a fairly smooth paste. Transfer to a small bowl and set aside.
• Pour the remaining 1/4 cup oil into the wok or a skillet. Place over medium heat until a bit of the paste added to the pan sizzles at once, about 1 minute. Add the ground chili paste and cook, stirring occasionally, until the paste gradually darkens and releases a rich fragrance, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool to room temperature.
• Combine the sugar, tamarind, soy sauce, and salt in a small bowl and stir well. Add this mixture to the cooked chili paste and stir to combine. The paste will be quite oily, and must be well stirred before each use. Transfer to a jar, cap tightly, and refrigerate for up to one month. Use at room temp in recipes or as a condiment.

Steps:

• Your chili paste will use whatever kinds and heat-scale of chiles that you like. The paste I make, my own self, uses mostly ancho chiles, a large, juicy, dark purple pod that came from in New Mexico on Earth That Was. I like the mild heat and smoky flavor. The guajillo peppers are good for that, too. Sometimes I add some chipotle or cascabel , or for extra heat. Other folks who like Earth That Was Chinese often use tien tsin peppers, or for Indian use sanaam or dundicuts. Of course, the fun part is coming up with your own combination that's perfect for you.
• Okay, first off, remember that you're going to be handling chile peppers. They're hot. It's up to you whether or not you get some gloves from the medic to do the job of keeping your hands covered, but I can tell you from experience that without them... forgetting about having made chili paste and rubbing your eyes or other sensitive nether parts later on can be painful. My own self, I wear the gloves.
• Let's do this thing! Go ahead and weigh out 6 ounces of your choice of dried chiles. Remove the stems and all the seeds and discard them.
• Put the cleaned chiles into a galley bowl and pour boiling water over them until they're covered. Let 'em soak for 30 minutes.
• Drain the water from the chiles (you can keep the water and use it with your noodles, iffen you like).
• Find the food processor or food mill in the galley and put the soaked chiles in there, then purée them thoroughly. If you use a processor, press the resulting puree through a sieve to get a totally smooth paste. If you use a mill, it'll come out as a smooth paste from that. You'll have about 1 1/2 cups of chili paste.
• Get yourself a clean jar with a tight lid that's large enough and put the paste into it, then pour some vegetable oil over so that there's a couple of centimeters oil on top of the paste. The oil helps preserve the paste and it'll keep several months in the fridge this way. Without the oil, it'll keep for about 14 days.
• There, now you've got yourself your own Heat. Experiment with different kinds of dried chiles you find in port, and enjoy!
• Note: this recipe is included in the cookbook "Big Damn Chefs: The International Browncoat Charity Cookbook" and is my own recipe. "Big Damn Chefs" is available at BigDamnChefs.com and is a collaborative charity project. It is collection of recipes submitted by fans (also known as Browncoats) of Joss Whedon's "Firefly" television show.