Fresh or dried: does it matter? I'm making a quinoa dish and it calls for '2 red chillies, de-seeded and chopped'. They'll be sautéed.

Jennifer
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5 Comments

Panfusine April 4, 2014
Red chilies invariably refer to the dried variety (95 % of fresh chiles used in recipe invariably are green). It not going to kill the recipe if you substitute one for the other, its just a subtle change in flavor, The difference between the dried & fresh chiles will be that the dry ones will tend to burn or get slightly charred. (the flakes being flat will get a generous exposure to the surface of the hot pan). a slight smoky tinge of flavor.
 
Eliz. April 4, 2014
You need to crumble dried chilies; they can be chopped only if you soak them in hot water to soften, a method usually reserved for larger varieties such as Ancho. Ergo, use fresh if you follow recipes strictly, though I agree that dried chilies would suit your purposes just fine.
 

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CatalunaLilith April 4, 2014
From dried it will be hard to de-seed them, which would lower the heat, or to properly chop them

Since you're sauteeing them, I would recommend putting them in warm water for about 30 minutes to rehydrate them; they won't have the same texture as fresh, but they're be much easier to finely chop and add to the sautee
 
pierino April 4, 2014
Actually seeding dried peppers is pretty easy. I do it all the time. Slice off the stem end and give the pepper a light squeeze and most of the seeds will come spilling out. You can't do this with really tiny peppers like bird peppers but the method works with anything about the width of a pencil.
 
pierino April 3, 2014
Without seeing the recipe I will say that I doubt that it does matter. The reason for removing the seeds is to cut down on the heat. The seeds and the veins depending on the chile can be mighty hot. "Red chile" is pretty vague.
 
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