What is chile paste?

[texasgirl]

I found a chinese recipe that I want to make and I have no idea what chile paste is. Is it something you make?

 

[jennyema]

No, you buy it at an asian market or in the asian section of som elarge supermarkets. It usually comes in small glass jars.

If your recipe is Chinese, make sure you buy Chinese chile paste, as Thai and Indonesian varieties taste a lot different.

 

[texasgirl]

oh great! We don't have anything like that here. I looked in the grocery store and they didn't have that. I was lucky to find the sesame oil.
I don't know if I would find it at the Walmart in Greenville or not. I'll look though. I've been waiting to cook dh orange chicken. He loves the stuff.

 

[jennyema]

You can probably just leave it out if it's orange chicken.

 

[texasgirl]

Here's the recipe, jennyemma. Tell me what you think.

http://www.chinesefooddiy.com/orange_chicken.htm

 

[jennyema]

I think that looks like a nice recipe in which you could leave out the chile paste and never notice it.

It's there to add a subtle kick of heat.

If you haven't already bought the sesame oil, you could buy hot sesame oil to make up for it.

Or add a finely minced jalepeno to the sauce.

 

[texasgirl]

I'm not worried about heat. Thank you so much! I was worried about it not coming out right.

 

[Piccolina]

I know whatcha mean about not having a bounty of exotic ingredients in your neck of the woods, Texasgirl...I've been suprised though at how many recipes for some (keyword some!) ingredients you can find online. Here is one for chilli paste that uses relatively every day ingredients:
http://www.chillifarm.com/chilli_recipes/Fiery_Chilli_Paste.asp

 

[jennyema]

That's an interesting recipe, but it won't taste anything like chinese chile paste -- or any asian chile paste, for that matter. You probably don't want oregano, cumin and olive oil in your orange chicken.

It would probably be very nice in a southwestern or mexican recipe, though.

 

[Piccolina]

That's an interesting recipe, but it won't taste anything like chinese chile paste -- or any asian chile paste, for that matter. You probably don't want oregano, cumin and olive oil in your orange chicken.

It would probably be very nice in a southwestern or mexican recipe, though.

I was sort of thinking that too Jennyema, but the other recipes I read all had ingredients that I doubt Texasgirl would be able to find (like tamarind and nam pla)...Perhaps if you swaped the oregano with coriander, got rid of the cumin, uped the ginger a bit and added a little soy sauce it might end up vaguely Asian

 

[texasgirl]

okay, I'm going to look at Walmart while I'm there getting a Wok. I decided to get one with my b-day money that my Mammaw still insist on giving us. )

 

[Michael in FtW]

Here is a very simple explanation of asian chile pastes and some substitutions, just scroll down to the section on chile paste. And, here is another explanation. In reality, the ingredients in Chinese chile pastes vary by region and brand (and that doesn't get into the other variations from other Asian countries) - just like jars of "authentic Italian style" spaghetti sauce.

There are several recipes for fundamental homemade "Asian style" chile pastes out there on the web - but it takes some time to ferret them out, and my searching only scratched the surface. Here is one - here is another. There are others that contain ingredients which might be just as hard to find as a jar of chile paste, and are more regional/national to areas south of China that I didn't bother to list.

 

[texasgirl]

Thank you, Michael