Dirty, dirty goldfish. Just filthy.

Look at you with all of your ground cumin, garlic and toasted, crushed chiles.

Get it together, man. You’re a hot mess.

Whoa. Inappropriate. You really are a dirty birdie, aren’t you? Did I just see you give me the finger?

That’s it – you’re in a time out. I need to change the subject before you offend my delicate sensibilities.

I’ll come back to you after you’ve had a chance to think about your choices, mister.

It’s chile season here in the southwest, and today we’re talking dried chiles.

These are habaneros, New Mexican reds or chiles colorados, fiery chiles de árbol, and chipotles (moving clockwise from the bottom left).

Dried chiles are my seasoning of choice for breads, soups, and, of course, foul-mouthed fish crackers.

Working with dried chiles is not difficult, you just need to be sure to select the appropriate chile for your dish, and then toast the pods before grinding them.

I dry-toasted my chiles for several minutes on each side and then seeded and ground them together into a fine powder.

The chile powder shown above is the product of one chipotle pod, one chile colorado pod, and one chile de árbol.

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