Why do Chinese recipes call for adding dried peppers directly to hot oil in the wok?
When you add dried Japones or Thai Peppers directly to hot oil in wok they end up being like dried out shoe leather and have to be picked out of the stir fry! Many Hunan or Schezuan recipes call for this.
I ask because in Mexican cooking dried peppers are reconstituted in boiling water first and then usually put in blender to make sauce.
What am I missing?????