Dried Chillies

Dried chillies, sukhi lal mirch in Hindi and vara milagai in Tamil, are ripe red chillies dried in the sun until they turn leathery and deep red. They are used in two ways: whole, fried in hot oil for a tempering or soaked and ground into paste, and crushed into flakes for pickles, sambols and a scatter of heat over finished dishes.

The whole dried chillies cover mild Kashmiri for colour, long and round South Indian varieties, stemless chillies that are ready to use, and mor milagai, chillies soaked in salted buttermilk and sun dried. Crushed chillies, also called chilli flakes or chilli pieces, are essential for Sri Lankan pol sambol and devilled dishes, Gujarati pickles and homemade chilli oil.

Choosing comes down to heat and colour. Kashmiri and other long, wrinkled chillies are gentle and give a red colour, while small, smooth, thin-skinned chillies are usually the hottest. Removing the seeds and stalks before soaking takes some of the fire out. Dried chillies keep for six months to a year in an airtight jar away from light, and once they fade from red to brown they have lost much of their flavour.

For ready ground heat, see chilli powder, and for everything else on the spice rack, the spices and masalas department.