How To: Homemade Chilli Oil - Marion's Kitchen

This chilli oil is totally addictive. Dumplings, noodles, stir-fry dishes, there's so many applications. Making a jar of it means that you've always got it handy in the pantry. I'm going to start off by heating up a little bit of oil. You just want a neutral tasting oil. We're going to add so much flavour with the spices that we're adding. We just want the oil to be a carrier for all those aromas and flavours. I'm using a peanut oil, which actually has a neutral flavour, even though it's a peanut oil. If you wanted to use olive oil and you're happy to have that olive flavour, totally. Go ahead and do that. Up to you. While that oil is heating up, let's talk about chilli. I'm using an Asian chilli powder. The Asian chilli powder is what you want for this kind of chilli oil. Because, as you can see, we have a nice blend here of chilli seeds and the chilli powder itself. I tend to find that a lot of chilli flakes in supermarkets just has a lot of seeds, which is not really great for this purpose. Head to your Asian grocer and find an Asian chilli powder that has a nice mix of seeds and powder. If not, in your regular supermarket, just grab some of those chilli flakes. Grab a fine chilli powder and blend them together. I'm going to put this into a heat-proof jar and set that aside for later. Now for our other flavourings, I have some Szechuan peppercorns, some cardamom pods, star anise, a cinnamon stick, and some dry bay leaves. I just want to get all of those into a warm pan and heat them up so that we release all their oils and flavours. Keep that pan moving so you don't burn any of your spices. Once I can see those little tendrils of smoke and those spices really smell fragrant, I'm just going to take that off the heat and put that into my oil that's warming up there on the heat. I just want this oil to continue heating and really infuse itself with all those beautiful aromatics. I just want that oil to be slowly bubbling away around those spices. You really need to watch the heat here because I don't want those spices to burn. I just want them to infuse the oil. Keep the temperature down fairly low. You can just hear a slight sizzle. Just take that off the heat and let it cool down for about 5 minutes. Before you add the oil to your chilli powder, just add in a little bit of salt. Because of course, this sauce is going to be like a seasoning sauce as well as a spicy sauce. It's going to add some extra flavour to whatever it is that you put it on. Strain that oil carefully into your jar or a heatproof bowl. I like to add in some of those larger whole spices just so while it's sitting in your pantry, it's also gaining more flavour. I'm going to put in a bay leaf, that cinnamon stick. Just 2 pieces of star anise and a little bit of a stir. That smell is so beautiful. I can smell the Szechuan peppercorns and all those lovely aromatics. Yum! Now that will keep almost indefinitely in your pantry. It is oil. Let it cool down a little bit before you put the lid on. You'll find heaps of recipes for this chilli oil coming up on my YouTube channel. Subscribe so you don't miss out.