Technique: Rehydrating Dried Chilies

Reconstitute chilies by soaking them in room temperature water. This rehydrates them without extracting too much flavor and color. Hot water leaches these elements out. Regardless of whether or not they’re seeded, thirty minutes seems to be the ideal time to adequately soften chilies. After soaking them, drain the chilies in a sieve and then squeeze out excess moisture. Removing the moisture is especially important when making spice pastes for later use, since excess water encourages more microbial growth.