Spice heads unite!


 
Brett, just what are you looking for?

In one of my cookbooks, I have 4 recipes that call for bird's eye (Thai) chili peppers, but I don't know if you would like them. #1) Corn Pudding with Sweet and Hot Chilies #2)Five-Alarm Gazpacho #3)Fiery East African Vegetable and Lentil Stew #4)Baked polenta With Chili Peppers and Smoked Cheese.
 
Brett, just what are you looking for?

In one of my cookbooks, I have 4 recipes that call for bird's eye (Thai) chili peppers, but I don't know if you would like them. #1) Corn Pudding with Sweet and Hot Chilies #2)Five-Alarm Gazpacho #3)Fiery East African Vegetable and Lentil Stew #4)Baked polenta With Chili Peppers and Smoked Cheese.
Open to everything. Any proteins?
 
What’s a good recipe(s) that uses Thai chili peppers, aka birdseye peppers?

Curious what y’all like. Open to exploring new recipes.

And yea, these are HOT A F!!!

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Wife tosses a couple of whole dried Thai Chilis in her stir fry. Gives it a nice flavor but leaving them whole reduces the heat they impart. If I had a bunch of them, I'd dehydrate and pulse in the food processor for red chili flakes.
 
I grow and eat a lot of chili's ;)
I recently cold smoked some dried habanero and bird's eye (seperate) and ground them.
Came out well, but not very smoky.
The ground chili has a tendency to clump a bit after a couple of days.
I've used it on pizza, french fries etc

Thai red curry paste is another good one that uses dried chili's

And sambal. There are a lot of different types, using fresh or dried chili's. I'll try post a couple of links later today.
Both sites I am thinking of have loads of recipes with chili's. Obviously I will not have made all of them, but I did make lots of them :)
 
Rawits are bird's eye chili's ;)
 
Fair warning. DO NOT cut chilis and touch the cut parts. If you then touch any body part after touching a cut chili, you are risking serious physical pain.
My father referred to the feeling as “chemical circumscision”! We had a house guest who did not heed the warning and excused himself, came back into the room looking very very flushed, sat back down, looked at my father and said, “I see just what you meant!”
 
I'd like to ask for an assessment from y'all who know. I've looked up Scoville ratings for Birds Eye (Thai) chilis as well as Cayenne and Chile de Arbol. The Scoville units stated are all over the place not providing any consistency. Most say Birds Eye are hotter (up to twice) but some say they are even less than either of the others.

In addition, how do flavors compare? I've used cayenne and chile de arbol but not birds eye. Most sources say any of the three can be substituted. What do you think?

I definitely meet a spice head criteria. Love jalapenos, but they hardly qualify for hot. Use them and serranos to heighten spiciness of my chili rellenos, but go to habaneros and ghost pepper for augmenting my chili, jambalaya and Caribbean dishes. I mostly now use super hot chilii sauces for more control and use the actual chilis for flavor. But Thai peppers just haven't been that much in my radar. Not sure what it is that I've found in my hotter Chinese dishes. I used to eat those as part of the meal. Thai and other foods from that area of the world are not part of my cooking for no reason other than I'm less familiar with them.
 
These p-nuts are addictive (but you must get raw-I use red skin) p-nuts, not ones that are "ready to eat" as the cooking is part of the process

 
I'd like to ask for an assessment from y'all who know. I've looked up Scoville ratings for Birds Eye (Thai) chilis as well as Cayenne and Chile de Arbol. The Scoville units stated are all over the place not providing any consistency. Most say Birds Eye are hotter (up to twice) but some say they are even less than either of the others.

In addition, how do flavors compare? I've used cayenne and chile de arbol but not birds eye. Most sources say any of the three can be substituted. What do you think?

I definitely meet a spice head criteria. Love jalapenos, but they hardly qualify for hot. Use them and serranos to heighten spiciness of my chili rellenos, but go to habaneros and ghost pepper for augmenting my chili, jambalaya and Caribbean dishes. I mostly now use super hot chilii sauces for more control and use the actual chilis for flavor. But Thai peppers just haven't been that much in my radar. Not sure what it is that I've found in my hotter Chinese dishes. I used to eat those as part of the meal. Thai and other foods from that area of the world are not part of my cooking for no reason other than I'm less familiar with them.
I cooked this with only 5 of these Thai peppers and the woking of the veggies with the peppers made everyone evacuate the kitchen , even with the hood on max at 900 cfm.


The flavor on these is fruity yet noticeable. They have a nice crunch and immediately your head opens up and your nasal cavity grows 1000% in size.

It’s a very hot, warm heat that travels across your skull and it feels like my ears open up.

Habanero, to me, just stays in your mouth type of hot. The Thai chilis are a full head ENT experience. Much more depth and intensity.

Jalapeños do nothin these days for us. They’ve been bred to be more like fresh paaillas. It’s rare I get a jalapeño that makes me sweat. Now a grilled jalapeño has substantially more flavor. I like them fire roasted, sliced and in my tacos.

Hope this helps. I’d recco you visit a local Thai restaurant and get some Pad Thai and ask for birds eyes in fish sauce in the side so thus can sample them. They’re quite an experience.
 
Found this in my mailbox today
Thought it was a good plan to post it here ;)

As for piri piri chicken: they are made with a very small chili, but it will still taste good if you use bird's eye.
I got some piri piri chili in my garden.

As far as I know, there is a variety of chili's that look alike and go by the name of "bird's eye" in Thailand or "rawit" in Indonesia.

Little titbit of growing info: if you give a lot of water, your chili's will not become as hot as the ones that are held drier.
I have actually started planting some milder varieties (lombok or Spanish pepper) as I am trying to sell some pastes and most people around here struggle with what I made so far...
 

 

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