Quote:
Originally Posted by rdw1
Kaplods- I tried to make this without my chili powder before and it just didn't turn out right, although I get most of my spices from Penzeys, and they do have other things in them, I think the main ingredient is ancho chili powder and I just can't seem to do without it!
I would bet it's the ancho powder. I do very well with my own blends, but I never use only cayenne pepper, and almost always use ancho peppers. About three years ago, I bought a HUGE bag of dehydrated ancho chillies (the whole dried peppers, with stems and seeds, each about palm sized). I don't remember the ounce weight, but they barely fit in a heavy gallon sized Ziploc freezer bag. Dried, they're a bit leathery, so they can be soaked in hot water first, if you'd like. I just snip them with kitchen shears (the seeds tend to fall out when you do this, so I just do it over two bowls one for the seeds to fall into and the other to put the strips in). Or sometimes I'll throw a few into a food processor and make my own ancho powder.
In chili, I just throw the peppers in whole (and either remove the chillies after cooking or I will put the peppers in MY bowl, and when I'm done with my chili, I'll eat the pepper, but leave the seeds behind).
Instead of, or in addition to anchos, I'll also use one or more other pepper varieties that I like - canned chipotles in adobo sauce, dried jalapeno powder, thai peppers, these weird little round peppers I got in a pretty pink tin from a little hot sauce boutique in a mall (I don't remember thevariety, but they were shaped like tiny little smooth strawberries).
We just moved into our new apartment today, and I learned that my husband probably threw out my bag of ancho chillies (Aaaagh). Even using them fairly often for the past three years, I hadn't used but about half the bag.