This is an African seasoning paste. It’s sort of a cousin to Thai curry paste or pesto, in that it’s really flavorful and not really meant to be eaten by itself. I use it in shakshuka, it’s good with vegetables of any kind and it’s supposed to be great with grilled chicken.
I used a mixture of guajillo peppers and thai red chilis in mine. Guajillo peppers aren’t spicy at all, they’re mild and fruity, and they’re the foundation of it. You can add in other chilis for heat if you want or just leave them off entirely. Chili de arbol is also very popular for adding heat to it. Or you can just use crushed red pepper.
The recipe I followed added roasted red peppers to it, I like it that way, but you can consider them optional. You may need to add more oil if you decide to skip them.
Ingredients
6-8 dried guajillo chilis
6 dried hot chilis (birds eye, chili de arbol, etc)
1 six ounce jar roasted red peppers, drained
6 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons oil (olive oil preferred but you can get away with vegetable oil)
2 teaspoons coriander seed, ground
2 teaspoons cumin, ground
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon caraway seed, ground
1 teaspoon black pepper, ground
salt to taste
Directions
First, rehydrate your chili peppers. Put them in a good sized bowl and pour hot water over them. Let them sit for 20-30 minutes (or longer, it won’t hurt anything) to rehydrate. Remove them from the water; they should be soft enough to pull them apart with your hands, so go ahead and do that, and discard the stems and seeds. Tear them up into small pieces and put them in the bowl of a food processor or blender.
Throw everything else into the food processor too, and puree into a paste. Add more oil a teaspoon at a time if you need to loosen it up. Once you have everything sufficiently blenderized, taste it for salt. I think I added a teaspoon of table salt to mine, maybe a little more. But let your heart be your guide.
That’s it! Use it as you like. Like it said, it’s great in shakshuka.
eatbensmeat 