Betsy’s No Garlic Sambal Oelek Chili Paste

By Betsy Vail 03/20/2016

Choose your chilies, or mix of chilies, based on your flavor preferences and tolerance to heat. There are many good Scoville chili pepper heat scales online that can assist in this decision (e.g. http://ushotstuff.com/Heat.Scale.htm). For this recipe, I used pasilla-ancho and Japones chilies.

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. dried pasilla-ancho peppers
• 5 dried Japones peppers
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 5 tsp rice vinegar
• 1½ tsp salt
• 2 tsp crushed chili flakes

Directions:

1. Add the dried peppers to a mixing bowl and cover them with boiling water. Allow the peppers to rehydrate for about 30 minutes. 
2. Drain the water and roughly chop the chilies, discarding the stems. 
3. Add the peppers, oil, vinegar, and salt to a blender and blend the peppers into a paste. (I used my Ninja blender and it worked well.)
4. Add the paste into a small frying pan and heat on medium heat, stirring frequently, to remove any excess liquid.
5. Stir in the crushed red pepper flakes.
6. Allow the paste to cool, then use in your favorite recipes.
7. Store the paste in portions in the freezer and thaw before use. 

Yum