The wind that we were expecting late Sunday, to scour out the smoky inversion, never arrived. And now, the forecasters are saying we could be in this "unhealthy" to "very unhealthy" air for most of this week. A now-sore throat combined with apprehension about what the smoke could do to my car's engine mean that I won't be going any where, any time soon. I had planned on doing a grocery shop this past Saturday, at which time I'd pick up the chili powder that I need for making more salsa.
In a moment of make-do attitude, I looked up recipes for homemade chili powder. Sure enough, there was a recipe that called for ingredients that I had on hand, primarily the dried chili pods (I use them for enchilada sauce, so I usually have a bag of them in the pantry).
This is what I used: dried red chili peppers, ground cumin, dried oregano leaf, garlic powder, and my handy, ancient (1980s) coffee/spice grinder.
Following the recipe's instructions, I cleaned out the peppers then roasted them in a low oven before grinding them down. The chili powder tastes delicious, like mild versions of chili powder. The entire process, including rinsing the dried chilis, de-stemming and deseeding, roasting, then grinding took about 20 minutes, tops, and about half of that time I was simply waiting for the pods to roast or cool.
The bonus to making your own spice blends, such as chili powder, is if someone in your household has sensitivities to additives or is on a low-sodium diet, you can often leave those ingredients out. In checking the label on my empty chili powder container, the commercial kind had the following ingredient list: "spices (including red pepper, chili pepper), salt, garlic, silicon dioxide (anti-caking agent)."
If necessity is the mother of invention, then quarantines and other isolations are the mother of DIY via googled instructions.
If you're wondering this is the recipe that I mostly followed for the chili powder.
