Chilli Pepper Wraps and Spicy Chaat

With my ongoing cold, I had been craving something hot and spicy to blast those sinuses clear. I stumbled upon a food blog event featuring hot chilli peppers. And our local grocery store had a sale this week on every kind of chilli pepper! Coincidence? It was as if the stars had lined up to predict my destiny this weekend -- a recipe involving hot peppers.

I intended to get only a handful of peppers from the store but somehow ended up with an armload instead. So here is a picture of the peppers parade -- poblano, yellow banana peppers, Anaheim, jalapenos and Thai dried red chilli peppers.




My first dish was a quick saute of poblano, yellow banana peppers and Thai red chillis. A word of caution here. This one is not for the faint of gut. The poblanos and Thai red chillis pack a spicy punch so if you want something milder, use more yellow banana peppers. I used a combination of a mild Muenster and a sharper tasting cheddar to mellow out the heat of the peppers. Any other cheese like Mozzarella, or even ricotta should work in this recipe, I think. So if you are concerned about the fat/cholesterol, then I would suggest part-skim Mozzarella and paneer (Indian homemade non-fermented cheese somewhat similar to cottage cheese).



My second dish was something I wanted to share with my Beau as well, so it uses peppers more as a condiment than as the central theme of the recipe. This was a personalized rendition of a classic Indian street food -- the Chaat, which literally means "to lick" (one's plate clean?) This was put together with some boiled potato and boiled chickpeas left over from a different dish with the addition of some corn tostadas, jalapenos, red onions, mint chutney and Vietnamese Sriracha brand chilli-garlic sauce (you wont taste any garlic in it, actually).



Hot Pepper Wraps
Ingredients:
1 fresh Poblano pepper (can substitute with jalapenos of other hot pepper)
2 fresh yellow banana peppers
1 Thai dried red chilli peppers (can substitute with the Indian dried red chilli)
2 inch X 2 inch block of Muenster
2 inch X 2 inch block of cheddar
oil or cooking spray
2 flour tortillas

Method:
1. Remove seeds and pith from all peppers and chop. CAUTION: Wash hands thoroughly after.
2. Coat frying pan with cooking spray or oil and fry peppers on medium for about 5 minutes. (Fry longer to further reduce the heat factor, if so desired).
3. Turn heat down to low and add crumbled up cheese. When cheese looks somewhat melted and starts to bubble/sizzle a little, turn off heat and let sit in pan to continue melting. Do not stir much or the cheese will get stringy in the pan.
4. Warm tortillas to soften so they are easier to roll. Put pepper-cheese melt in the middle, tuck in both sides and roll up like a burrito. Slice each tortilla wrap in half.
5. Serve with lime, sour cream or guacamole dip, if desired.

Spicy Chaat
Ingredients:
1 medium potato, boiled
1 cup boiled or canned chickpea, drained
2 corn tostadas
1 or 2 jalapeno peppers
1 small red onion
2 tsp Sriracha brand Vietnamese chilli-garlic sauce
1 Tbsp Mint chutney
paprika powder
dry roasted cumin seed powder

Method
1. Chop the boiled potato, onion, jalapenos and break up the tostadas into bite-size pieces. Arrange on 2 plates.
2. Dot with chilli-garlic sauce and Mint chutney and sprinkle with paprika and cumin powder.