Hani Chile-Garlic Paste: "Beyond the Great Wall"

The first thing I made when I got back to Newfoundland were my staples.

Guizhou Chile Paste and Hani Chile-Garlic Paste

Needless to say I was coughing up a lung for the rest of the afternoon. I used a 250mL container of dried Birds Eye chiles. That's enough to cause anyone who even walked into the room to be stricken by the inability to breathe properly. These things are pungent.

Ingredients:
1 head of garlic
2 shallots
1/4 tsp salt
4 dried bird chiles (I assume this means birds eye chiles. The recipe also says you can use serrano)

The nice thing about this recipe is that you don't need to peel the garlic or shallots, just separate the cloves and place them with the un-skinned shallots on an oiled baking sheet in a 400 degree Fahrenheit oven for 20 minutes. It's just a different way of roasting them. You could also do the more standard method of chopping off the top quarter of the head of garlic and wrapping it in aluminum foil, but since you're only gong to half-roast it, you'll have to separate the cloves later anyway to get the insides out. Also, why waste aluminum? The cloves of garlic and the shallots are actually supposed to be stuck directly in the coals of a fire or gas flame, but, alas...these things don't exist in my kitchen. No smokey flavour for me.

After 20 minutes and another 10 let them cool, just peel off the skins of the garlic and shallots. Chop the shallots a little before tossing them in a mortar and pestle or a food processor (or blender) with the salt. I accidentally diced the shallots in advance, so I actually put them in aluminum foil to roast, instead of leaving them in their skin on the baking sheet. It worked fine...I think. I had nothing to compare it to. Next time I will read properly before dicing. It's at the point where I just assume shallots are meant to be diced. I need to learn to be more lazy.

I also didn't have fresh chiles, which the recipe called for, but I was soaking a bunch of dried birds eye chiles for the Guizhou chile paste, so I sneaked four of the soaked ones, chopped them roughly, and threw them into the food processor too. It really would be better to do this with a mortar and pestle, both to get a less-processed consistency and for authenticity, but life is short and my eyes were already stinging. Breathing is also important, I hear.

Compared to the Guizhou chile paste, this is a very mild condiment. The garlic flavour is sweetened and tempered by the roasting, and the amount of chiles was just right. I added this paste to mashed potatoes (in place of normal roasted garlic) that I had made to accompany spice-rubbed trout, but I forgot that I'd put it in until I had a sip of a Merlot and my mouth got set on fire. How was the wine so spicy???? It took me a good few minutes to remember the chiles in the potato. I couldn't taste them at all until they were set off by the wine. Amazing...