Chiu Chow Chili Oil

Profile#

Many Asian recipes can be refined with this sauce, because it gives the dish another shot of Umami. It consists only of chili and garlic and yet is not overridingly spicy. As often the chili loses much of its heat through frying. Another peculiarity of the Chiu Chow oil is that it consists of a mixture of fresh and dried chilies.

Ingredients#

• 4-6 medium sized red chilies even if I use the green ones from my garden here
• about one cup of dried red chilies, preferably Szechuan chili
• 1 garlic head
• 1 cup neutral oil, e.g. sunflower oil
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp salt

Let’s go#

It doesn’t need that much ingredients:

If the dried chilies are like mine here a bit too long, chop them into smaller pieces. Then roast them in a wok over mild heat. They should not burn, but only lightly toasted like sesame seeds.

Chop them finely in a food processor.

Wash the fresh chilies and coarsely chop them with a knife. Then process them with 1 tsp salt in the food processor again to get some sort of chili paste.

Repeat this with the garlic, but this time we don’t need salt.

Together with the oil we have all the ingredients for the next steps ready.

Now it gets a little complicated. A third of the oil is heated in the wok, but not too hot. We want to start by lightly sweating the garlic for 20-30 minutes. However, it should not be browned during the process, otherwise it will become bitter. The temperature for this is about 100-110°C. If you don’t have a thermometer, you can heat the oil slightly first, then add the garlic and regulate the heat so that the oil is just bubbling.

Stir from time to time and be careful not to overheat the oil.

First the garlic becomes glassy and after about 20-30 minutes it will start changing color to yellow.

Now add the fresh chili. Mix everything well and let bubble again for 10 minutes.

Add the remaining oil and then the dried chilies. The temperature must be slightly increased again so that it bubbles again.

Once the temperature is reached, add 2 tablespoons each of soy sauce and sesame oil. Stir again and turn off the heat.

After the oil has cooled a little it can be poured into jars.

Well sealed it keeps fresh for 1-2 months in the refrigerator. Try it with spring rolls. Although it is primarily chili, it is not too spicy and can be used to enhance many Asian dishes, such as Chinese spinach.