What to do with Curd Chilis

Rothrock

I found a bag of curd chilis on my pantry shelf. Small chilis that have been stuffed with yogurt and then dried. A friend told me about them, but I've forgotten what I should do with them.

Any ideas?

I was thinking of using them in a baghar/tadka for daal. Does that seem sensible? If so, what else would go in the masala and be tasty with that?

Rothrock

Turns out I had another bag of them in the cupboard as well. This one was labeled as vathals. A bit of searching on that lead me to some more pages. And I've found out more.

Evidently they aren't stuffed with curd, but they are marinated in salt and curd then sun dried. I've found some references to using them in tadka so that seems like a sensible thing to do, but I'm still wondering if anybody has any good masala combinations to go with them?

I was leaning toward:

curry leaves
mustard seed
hing
curd chilies

or

shallots/onion
garlic
cumin
curd chilies

I've also read that you can just fry them up and eat them crispy and fried by themselves -- which obviously I'm going to have to try!

tnog

I think they're marinated in salt and buttermilk? The first time I had them was at a small artist residency/retreat in Kangra.

They were served fried, and we had them with glasses of Old Monk, whiskey and cold beer. Good bar food material...though wickedly hot. The heat actually plays off well with the liquor. Especially as this dull, aching burning sensation starts to mingle with the buzz from the drinks...

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Rothrock

Good to know. Thanks. I've got everything set up in the kitchen and will give it a shot in a little bit. I'll report back later.

Rothrock

Wow! So I fried a bunch in oil until they were quite brown. Fished out a few and set them aside to cool and drain a bit. The rest went with some other spices over the daal.

The ones I tried where quite good. Really salty, had a bit of sweetness, then a wicked heat comes along after a bit. I could really grow to like them!

I couldn't make up my mind so I made two pots of daal and tried both baghars. I haven't had the daal yet – it is for lunch tomorrow. So I'll let you know how that came out.

Hyderabadi

Left overs recipe:

Mix leftover daal and rice with roasted sesame seed powder and mango pickle. Mix well.

Tadka the mixture with,mustard seeds, cumin, curd chillies and a pinch of turmeric. Curry leaves optional. Ghee instead of oil tastes better.

Salt if needed.

Works well with tomato daal.

Papad on the side.

Tastes even better next day!

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Rothrock

Okay that is next on my list.