When making Super-bowl chili, I got a lot of advice from people that I should be grinding my own chili powder. In fact the recipe that I used specifies that. But I didn’t want to put chili peppers into my coffee grinder, since it is hard to clean. And I didn’t have the right kind of chilis regardless.
I have also run into other situations recently – for example making the Thomas Keller mushroom soup from Ad Hoc, I needed to puree a head or so of garlic. I had nothing that was up to that task, I tried using an immersion blender but the result was a joke. I didn’t even have a good garlic press.
At any rate this Cuisinart Grinder, which I picked up from Amazon for about $35, is the answer to my prayers. Today I broke it in, and it turned a dozen toasted cascabel peppers into fine powder in about ten seconds. The Ancho peppers did not work as well, but only until I realized that 2 inch by 2 inch pieces were just too large. I cut the pieces a little smaller, and vvvVVVVVVvvv, chili powder.
The directions that came with it show that you can instantly grind up whole nutmegs, cinnamon sticks, star anise, etc etc. The stainless steel cup is removeable and can be thrown into the dishpan for clean-up. And it seems to hold nearly a cup, so the capacity is much greater than the average coffee grinder.
Anyway, highly recommended. I haven’t finished today’s batch of chili so I can’t compare but I expect the difference will be noticeable.