Apparently salted chilies are an indespensible Sri Lankan kitchen staple. They're especially useful for adding a flavour boost to vegetarian dishes, but can be broken up and stirred into other curries as well.

Salted Chilies

Slightly adapted from Sri Lankan Flavours by Channa Dassanayaka

Ingredients

• 10-15 dried red Thai, arbol, or cayenne chilies
• 500mL boiling water¹
• 1/4 c. coarse sea salt

Directions

1. Dissolve the salt in the water.
2. Add the chilies and allow them to soak for at least an hour before using.

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¹ The original recipe did not specify that the water be boiling, but I found that the salt did not dissolve well in cold (or even tepid) water. In the future I'd dissolve the salt in boiling water to make the brine and go from there. ^Back