My sweetie makes drop dead good chile powder.

We ran out recently so it was time to  get the grinder going and rustle up another batch of tasty heat in a can. We gather dried chilies as we find them- grow some ourselves and load up at Central Market  (the center of all things good) whenever we go to visit my sister and her family in Texas or they come here.

(Sorry about these photos my Point and shoot is temperamental.)

Rick uses a mixture of dried chilies, garlic, toasted cumin, salt and one other secret ingredient he won’t let me name. -It’ll be good without it but it’s great with it. Sorry

This time I talked him into adding a small length of dried vanilla bean to the mix so we’ll see how that turns out. I predict a winner. 😉

He starts by gathering dried Ancho, Pasilla, Guajillo, Negro, Mulato, California, Japones, and Chipotle chilies. He removes the seeds by cutting or tearing them open. (You might want to use gloves here just in case-unless you have asbestos hands.) You don’t want to add the seeds for a nice full bodied chile powder- it would be too hot.  He toasts cumin seeds in a dried skillet, cools them and then adds all of the ingredients in small handfuls to a coffee grinder we have dedicated to spice grinding.

Oh I love a man in an apron! Um-mm-mm!

I’m not really giving you a recipe here but this is easy to make on your own and so much more flavourful than most chile powders- you can make your own custom blend.  It has scads of uses. We use it in eggs, quesadillas, Chili and Carnitas to name a few. Sometimes we share it with friends and family and they always come back for more. Have some fun, experiment and make your own!

Rick suggested that I add a tip we learned from a Vietnamese friend: If you forget and rub your eyes with a hot pepper hand- have someone with long hair (hopefully someone you know well and love 😉 ) let you rub their hair in your eyes- I swear it works! The capsasin in the peppers that is causing the burn must bind to the protein in the hair I guess! All I know is you’re burning to death one minute and the next there is relief. Luckily I can use my own hair and don’t have to ask someone else.

xoxo