I love Szechuan roasted chilli oil. I mean I REALLY LOVE Szechuan roasted chilli oil! I will eat this on absolutely anything. Although this is not a condiment native to Thailand, it is still used in a wide variety of Thai and Thai/Chinese dishes.
Many of these dishes I will be posting recipes for in the coming weeks. My favourite of these being Khao Soi (Curried noodle soup from Northern Thailand) which is always served with a fiery homemade chilli oil. I thought I’d get you ready with this fabulous sauce which lasts for months in the fridge!
Cantonese style barbecue duck or Bped Yang is another dish in Thailand with which you will find this chilli oil in all its glory.It’s great with noodle soups and egg dishes. In fact, it’s good on everything!
There are a lot of variants on Chinese style chilli sauce from the Cantonese style with onion and dried shrimp, to simpler ones with just chilli and oil. Some have garlic, some don’t.I’ve decided to go with a Szechuan chilli oil which has quite a few spices infused into the oil. I love the numbing heat and flavour from Szechuan peppercorns but I know some people aren’t keen so feel free to play around with the spices to see what works for you.
I promise you will never buy chilli oil in the shops again, it’s that good!
This makes a great present for any fellow chilli head. Just do a big batch and put it in nice labelled jars. It’s definitely more exciting than a jar of fruit chutney!
Try and Buy Asian chilli flakes for this.
- 300 ml Vegetable or sunflower oil or any flavourless oil but not olive oil
- 150 grams roasted chilli flakes or half red pepper flakes if you don't want it too hot
- 3 star anise
- 2 tbsp Szechuan peppercorns
- 4 whole white or green cardamom optional
- 1 whole bulb galic cloves slightly squashed
- 1 tsp salt or to taste
- half tsp sugar or to taste
- Put the oil into a saucepan along with all the spices and the garlic. Bring up to a simmer on a low heat. this should take around 5 minutes.
- At this point, the garlic should be fizzing slightly. You want to keep a gentle simmer going so as not to burn the spices and garlic. Cook at this heat for 5 minutes then turn off the heat.
- Let the oil cool in the pan for around 10 minutes. The residual heat will continue to gently cook the garlic and spices. Have a jar ready with the chilli, salt and sugar in. If you are making lots of this, it is easier to do this in a heatproof bowl.
- Now this is the bit where you have to be very careful. Wear some gloves if you're as accident prone as me! Pour the mixture through a metal sieve into the jar or bowl, discarding the garlic and spices. The mixture will still be bubbling a bit in the jar so it is important not to put a lid on until the oil has fully cooled.
- Once the oil has cooled it will keep in the fridge indefinitely but will start to lose it's flavour after a couple of months.
