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La Pincée

Gift Box

World Box — Mexico, the Dried Chiles

Five dried chiles to retire the generic chili powder for good.

$78

Five dried chiles to retire the generic chili powder for good. Five chiles that do justice to a cuisine too often flattened into a single "chili powder." Ancho — the dried poblano — is the sweet, raisiny backbone: toast it, soak it, blend it, and you've got the base of a mole or an…

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The gift box in detail

Five chiles that do justice to a cuisine too often flattened into a single "chili powder." Ancho — the dried poblano — is the sweet, raisiny backbone: toast it, soak it, blend it, and you've got the base of a mole or an adobo. Guajillo brings the bright, tangy mid-heat that builds a red salsa or a birria broth. Chipotle morita, smoked and dried jalapeño, carries the smoke in an adobo or a pot of beans. Yucatán habanero is the heat — used a sliver at a time in a salsa or in pickled red onions. Long pepper, the historic spice of Aztec hot chocolate, finds its place again in a mole poblano or a cup of spiced cacao. The box ships with three recipes: a quick salsa roja, a simplified mole, and an adobo paste you can freeze in portions. The catch: don't skip the toast. A dried chile dropped raw into the blender tastes flat and papery — thirty seconds in a dry skillet until it puffs and smells nutty is the step that separates real Mexican cooking from the jar of pre-ground powder.

“The real Mexican base — five dried chiles, each toasted and bloomed, past the generic chili powder.”

Who & when to give it

Recipients

  • asian cook
  • home cook
  • traveler
  • curious cook

Occasions

  • christmas
  • birthday
  • housewarming

Budget

$55 – $95

Level: intermediate

La Pincée doesn’t sell these boxes directly — you buy each product from the merchant of your choice and assemble the gift yourself. A question about the curation? Write to us.