Sichuan Chili Oil: the Complete Guide — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00So French cuisine it has its mother sauces, and  Sichuan cuisine it has… chili oils. They’re in
2. 0:07the dipping sauces, they’re the base of a most  of their cold salads, they’re used as a finishing
3. 0:13oil, as instant stir fry base, and can really be  seen everywhere from noodles to soups to noodle
4. 0:20in soup. But something you might not know is  that there’s not just one Sichuan chili oil,
5. 0:27there’s more than one, and today what we  wanted to do was teach you all of them.
6. 0:34But I guess before we do that, I should be  upfront that a lot like Escoffier’s mother sauces,
7. 0:42some of these are definitely more of a restaurant  thing. Like… just like how of these six you
8. 0:49probably only make a bechamel, a Sichuan home cook  would likely only make one of these, maybe two,
9. 0:57or I mean equally just buy some from  their local market. So some of these,
10. 1:04they can get a little intense and maybe they  might not make sense in the end for your kitchen,
11. 1:10but the reason to at least try is that really,  if you use one of these very good homemade chili
12. 1:17oils, especially combined with some very good  homemade Chinese stock... you will make the best
13. 1:24Sichuan food you’ve ever cooked in your life. Like… together with this, we penned a bunch of
14. 1:30written recipes for how you can use them of all  up, and testing those I was frankly blown away
15. 1:38again and again by the sheer quality of food  that was coming out of my wok. And because
16. 1:43most of these also keep really quite well, if you  love Sichuan food, I think it’s worth exploring.
17. 1:51So, in this video, we’ll cover – first,
18. 1:54the basic materials and how to source proper  ingredients for this internationally… because,
19. 2:01a wild stab in the dark, I’m gunna guess that  you probably don’t exactly live in Chengdu. Then,
20. 2:06we’ll show you seven oils: six seen in a  restaurant setting, and one little jog to show
21. 2:13you how a homecook might make theirs. For each  one, we’ll teach you the basics of how its used,
22. 2:19and then finally finish it all with how they can  be seasoned and combined to form dips and sauces.
23. 2:25Now… the core of any chili oil is, chilis and oil.  Like historical recipes for chili oil in Sichuan,
24. 2:36a lot of them are basically chili flakes, oil,  and… that’s pretty much it. Nowadays you see a
25. 2:43lot of aromatics in the mix, spices in the  mix… but if your chilis aren’t delicious,
26. 2:49if your oil isn’t delicious, it’s  not going to be a good chili oil.
27. 2:54Now for the peppers, a lot of Sichuan  chefs lean on a blend. Generally speaking,
28. 2:59this is gunna be Zidantou bullet chili for  fragrance, Erjingtiao two vixen chili for color,
29. 3:05and Xiaomila millet chili for heat. These three  are local cultivars that’re really quite difficult
30. 3:11to find outside of China, but that’s okay.  You don’t need this specific chili pepper,
31. 3:17you need to understand the logic of why it was  selected – so let’s start with ‘fragrance’.
32. 3:23Now ‘fragrant’ I think can be kind of abstract  in English, and in American English is often
33. 3:29associated with subtle flavors, the sort that you  find in wine, fine dining, that kind of thing.
34. 3:35So like, pop quiz - is this chili pepper a  ‘fragrant’ one? What about this one? If you’re
35. 3:43not sure, if ‘chili fragrance’ is something a  little confusing to you.. smell is obviously
36. 3:49connected to taste, so think in terms of taste. At the base of your chili oil, you want the best
37. 3:57tasting, best quality dried red chili that  you have available to you – this will be your
38. 4:03workhorse chili pepper. Ideally, your dried chili  should be fresh enough that it’s still somewhat
39. 4:09pliable. For me, personally, I really like using  the aforementioned Erjingtiao Two Vixen chili – I
40. 4:22think that it’s a great chili, and when we lived  in Thailand, we’d actually ship batches down to
41. 4:25Bangkok. Now, that’s obviously not exactly not  feasible when I’m in the USA, but that’s also
42. 4:33okay because America has access to some fantastic  chilis in the form of Mexican peppers. You don’t
43. 4:43need to import from the other side of the world,  Guajillo is an excellent chili and I think it
44. 4:50works perfectly great for Sichuan food. And while  I’ve never been to Europe, the same logic applies
45. 4:58– maybe it’s from Hungary, or Turkey, or Korea,  or Calabria… start with quality. Some of these
46. 5:06chilis might be milder than Sichuan chilis, but  that’s also completely fine, you can compensate.
47. 5:13Because… making a chili oil spicier,  it really isn’t rocket science.
48. 5:19You cut your blend with enough of a spicy chili  to get the oil up to your personal tolerance
49. 5:25level – the oil should be spicy enough to be  uncomfortable if you ate it directly with a spoon.
50. 5:35Sichuan chefs use Xiaomila millet chili  for this function, and that’s what we’ll
51. 5:40use today as well. In Thailand, I would  use Dried Thai Bird’s eye, in the US,
52. 5:46I might reach for something like this… but like,  I dunno… worst comes to worst, they do sell dried
53. 5:55Carolina Reapers online, you can make this work.  Your quality demands will be much, much lower here
54. 6:03than with your workhorse chili – just don’t  be gross and add something like an extract.
55. 6:09And then… for color? It’s also not rocket science.  There are certain cultivars of chili out there
56. 6:15that are extremely extremely red, some of them  practically neon. Often, these ones tend to be
57. 6:22pretty mild… you maybe can think of something like  a Korean gochugaru. In Sichuan they’re spoiled,
58. 6:29they actually use Erjingtiao for this function…  for ease of internation replication… today we’re
59. 6:39using a Kashmiri chili from Xinjiang. In  Thailand, what I’d do is use something that
60. 6:45they call big chili, it’s the stuff that makes  their Nam Prik Pao chili jam... and in the US, I
61. 6:51like gochugaru. For this function, you might even  get away with using a good quality sweet paprika,
62. 6:59just don’t be gross and use food coloring. Which then brings us to the oil. Now in
63. 7:06Sichuan for a good chili oil there is no  choice but… caiziyou – an unprocessed,
64. 7:15expeller pressed rapeseed oil made from a  Chinese cultivar called semi-winter rape.
65. 7:21The oil has a number of advantages – first, it’s  not a processed neutral oil, the stuff actually
66. 7:28tastes really good; second, it’s still liquid  at room temperature, but third, at the same
67. 7:36time it’s also quite viscous. The thickness of it  is perfect for cold dishes and other applications
68. 7:42where you really want the oil to cling to  both the ingredient and, also, your mouth.
69. 7:47Unfortunately however, Caiziyou is infamously  brutally difficult to find outside of China,
70. 7:54even if you’re in Vancouver. So internationally,  the very best substitute would be an Indian
71. 8:00Mustard Seed oil. When buying, in the US, that  oil is sold with the label ‘for external use
72. 8:08only’… it’s a long story, the FDA slapped it on  because of “health concerns” from back in the 50s,
73. 8:14so… don’t narc on your Indian grocer, if anyone  asks it’s all for your traditional Bengali
74. 8:21massage. Besides that, at Chinese grocers  in the west you can often find something
75. 8:26like this – this an unprocessed peanut oil, it's  common in Cantonese cooking, smells like peanuts,
76. 8:33tastes great, the flavor really works  with chili but it unfortunately doesn’t
77. 8:39have that same caiziyou thickness. So… because of that, for this video something
78. 8:45that we also tried testing, and surprisingly  really worked, was the thick unprocessed oil that
79. 8:49is traditional to the west: we tried this bottle  of olive. my nose and brain was really confused
80. 8:58when making it, but interestingly it does actually  work in the end. I should emphasize though that
81. 9:08olive would not be appropriate as a general  Sichuan cooking oil – this only works
82. 9:13because we’re getting it up past smoke point,  infusing it with these really strong flavors,
83. 9:18and importantly – importantly - letting that sit  for at least overnight, which we’ll get to later.
84. 9:25So scout out your specialty grocers,
85. 9:27see what’s online, and make your selections.  And then now, let’s make some chili oil.
86. 9:36Hongyou
87. 9:36First up, the mainstay, the classic – hongyou,  red Sichuan chili oil. Our mix today was 60
88. 9:43grams erjingtiao chili as our workhorse, 10 grams  xiaomila millet chili for heat, and 30 grams of
89. 9:50Xinjiang Kashmiri chili. Our Xinjiang today is in  powder form, it’s not ideal but it will be okay,
90. 9:57and it gives us a chance to show you how to handle  powders a bit later on. But… the erjingtiao and
91. 10:03the spicy chili we’ll first snip into sections,  and of course toss the stems. Then, in a wok, over
92. 10:10a medium-low flame add in about a tablespoon of  oil and begin to fry your dried chilis. How long
93. 10:16this will take will depend on how fresh your dried  chilis are – what you’re looking for is for the
94. 10:22chilis to’ve deepened in color, and feel obviously  hard and solid if you poured them against
95. 10:27something like a spider. To get to that point, for  me today, this was about four minutes of frying.
96. 10:33Then just jiggle out some of the excess  seeds, let the chilis cool down a touch and
97. 10:37then transfer over to a mortar. We’ll then pound  this into a fine flake – you can use a blender
98. 10:44or food processor for this if you want, but I  personally prefer the mortar. Because sometimes
99. 10:50with processors, the rapidity of the movement of  the blades can risk continuing to cook the chili
100. 10:58past done, so be careful not to overdo  it if going that route. But either way,
101. 11:04once you’re looking at a flake that’s roughly the  same size as a sesame seed, remove and reserve.
102. 11:11Then, aromatics. Now we should say again that not  all cooks reach for these, and historically less
103. 11:17so, but today we’ll be infusing practically  all of our chili oils with a half an onion,
104. 11:22finely sliced; 2-3 inches of ginger, good and  smashed, and 5 scallions, roughly sliced. For
105. 11:29the spices then, again, also optional so really  any of these that you can’t find just skip them.
106. 11:37Ours was two star anise, one tablespoon Sichuan  peppercorn, three dried bay leaves, one peeled
107. 11:43Chinese black cardamom, 3 slices sand ginger, a  third a cinnamon stick, and a half teaspoon fennel
108. 11:49seed. Wet it with a little baijiu liquor or vodka  to avoid scorching, and now we can make our oil.
109. 11:57So. To a wok or pot toss in two cups of caiziyou  or whatever your delicious oil of choice was.
110. 12:04Then, add in the aromatics and swap your flame  to medium/medium high. Let the aromatics fry and
111. 12:10infuse into the oil, and after about ten minutes  of that, add in your spice mix. Once your onion
112. 12:16is beginning to get nice and golden brown, about  five to eight minutes more… strain, and of course
113. 12:22press that all really well to get every last drop.  Then, add a tablespoon half of sesame seeds in
114. 12:28with your chili flake, and heat your strained  flavored oil up until it’s beginning to smoke,
115. 12:34or about 190 celcius. Then just shut off the heat,  and the scoop about a third of a cup of oil from
116. 12:40the wok into the flake, and mix that well. At  this point, we can add our colorful powder in,
117. 12:47reason being that with very hot oils  fine powders sometimes kinda like to
118. 12:51scorch on you. Then wait until the oil  hits about 150-ish, and half of it in,
119. 12:57stirring well. And then finally, wait until it  cools down to about 80C, mix that in, and cover.
120. 13:05This three stage process is sometimes referred to  as ‘yi xiang, er hong, san la’, and in my opinion
121. 13:12the primary benefit of it is that the very hot 190  degree oil really can bring out the fragrance of
122. 13:19the chili… but you do have to be super careful  with the quantity and stir immediately, so that
123. 13:25things don’t scorch. Then as to why then 150, then  80, uh… frankly I don’t have a fantastic mental
124. 13:35model for you… but this all has been a little bit  of work already, and the move seems to work, and
125. 13:40I’m personally a believer that if the tradition’s  not broke there’s no need to overthink it.
126. 13:46But either way then this oil will need to sit,  covered for at least 24 hours and up to 48 before
127. 13:51you use it. Because at first if you taste it  it might taste a touch scorched, don’t panic,
128. 13:59check back on it the next day. For whatever reason  time seems to really paper over and mellow out any
129. 14:05bitter notes these oils have. And so after that  time you can jar it up, and then this jar should
130. 14:12last you about three months – just be really  careful not to get any drops of water inside,
131. 14:18and storing in the fridge can also help. Now as to how to use the stuff, the question
132. 14:25might be a little more how you can’t use it  – I mean, you see it in liangban cold dishes,
133. 14:31noodle dishes, wontons, soaked dishes like  boboji, again, even as a finishing oil for
134. 14:36a stir fry. So I think this one is pretty  self explanatory, just find some Sichuan
135. 14:42recipes online that you want to make and then  use the thing. If you do happen to be stuck, we
136. 14:48will also have a little Sichuan cold dish formula  for you down though in the linked Substack post.
137. 14:54But when you’re using it, you will have  two options – just chili oil or chili
138. 15:00oil with sediment. The way I learned this  was that if you were just using the oil it
139. 15:07was called ‘hongyou’ or ‘red oil’ and that  if you included the chili sediment it was
140. 15:13called ‘youlazi’ or ‘cooked oil chili’.  I’ve since learned that I was wrong,
141. 15:20linguistically in Sichuan dialect it’s not that  clear, people use both words to refer to both,
142. 15:27and youlazi’s maybe just a little more  colloquial. But the framework I think can
143. 15:33still be helpful. I personally associate the  sediment a lot with things like street food,
144. 15:39homecooking… and if you use just the oil,  it’s going to be a little more smooth,
145. 15:45a little less spicy, a little more elegant. Now if you’ll notice, our previous chili oil
146. 15:53didn’t really include Sichuan peppercorns.  Like, it did a little bit in the spice mix,
147. 15:58but it was just to infuse a little floralness…  definitely would not be enough to constitute one
148. 16:04of the most famous flavors around the world  for Sichuan cuisine: Mala, or numbing spicy.
149. 16:12So… to incorporate Sichuan peppercorn in  a chili oil you have a couple options. One
150. 16:17route is just to deep fry a whole  bunch of peppercorns in the oil,
151. 16:21and then keep them in said the chili  oil to continue to infuse over time.
152. 16:26And that’s probably what I personally prefer,  but downside of that approach is that if you’re
153. 16:31using the sediment of the oil it is going to  have a bunch of whole Sichuan peppercorns in
154. 16:36it… and given that ‘surprise Sichuan peppercorn’  is probably one of the most common food related
155. 16:42complaints among expats and travelers  to China, today we decided on powder.
156. 16:49And so to make some, we’ll first toast a  mix of red and green Sichuan peppercorn,
157. 16:5412 grams red for flavor, 8 grams green for  numbing… and just use all red if you can’t
158. 16:59get green. Then just toast those in a dry wok  over a medium-low flame for about three minutes,
159. 17:05or until the peppercorns can leave little  oil splotches on the side of the wok. Then,
160. 17:10we’ll pound those in our mortar… again, you  can totally use a spice grinder for this,
161. 17:15I just personally like to keep  mine a little on the coarse side.
162. 17:19Then for the chilis, we’ll also adjust our mix.  We’ll cut the Xinjiang chili, and instead use
163. 17:2670 grams of our workhorse erjingtiao and 30 grams  of our spicy xiaomila. Fry them just like before,
164. 17:33pound or grind them just like before, and then  infuse two cups oil with aromatics and spices
165. 17:39just like before. But then, after you strain,  add about a half shot of baijiu liquor or vodka
166. 17:46in with the Sichuan pepper powder to wet it well  – this helps prevent the powder from scorching.
167. 17:52Then just do the same move – 1/3 of a cup of  smoking hot oil, mixed very well… and then
168. 17:58after that you can transfer the Sichuan pepper.  Then again, do half the oil at 150, the remaining
169. 18:04at 80… and then cover and wait at least 24 hours. The end result after that time should be an oil
170. 18:11that’s very spicy and very numbing. Now for me,  personally, I usually wouldn’t make something
171. 18:17like this at home because personally I prefer  controlling the chili oil and the numbingness
172. 18:23separately. For me, I would rather have a  batch of red oil that can be used across
173. 18:29a number of different flavors and then toast  and grind Sichuan peppercorn for when I want
174. 18:34something Mala. But this oil can undeniably  be extremely useful in a restaurant context,
175. 18:41as if you have a lot of Mala dishes, it’s  much easier to reach for a Mala chili oil.
176. 18:48One of the most obvious examples might be  something like Malatang, which is a concept
177. 18:53you see across China these days. What you do is  you grab whatever ingredients you want, they’ll
178. 19:01cook it in a thin soup, season, and top with  this kind of Mala chili oil. In Sichuan proper,
179. 19:09at the liangban cold dish stands they’ll  often have two oils that they reach for,
180. 19:14blending a red chili oil with a mala chili oil to  arrive at the spicy level that the customer wants.
181. 19:22So… this brings us to what would  actually be different if this you were
182. 19:27looking at something produced by a Sichuan  family instead of a Sichuan restaurant.
183. 19:31Now first, a family probably isn’t going to be  frying and grinding their own chilis – instead,
184. 19:39getting flakes from the market is often the  move. But before you throw that previous
185. 19:43recipe in the dustbin, you do need to understand  that chili flakes at a Sichuan market are going
186. 19:49to be much fresher, much higher quality than  that random bag that’s been sitting on your
187. 19:54supermarket shelf for months. At some markets  in Southwest China they even have these really
188. 19:59cool steampunk-looking contraptions and the  chilis are literally pounded right there in
189. 20:05front of you. And further, most shops also tend  to have different chili flakes with different
190. 20:11profiles from different cultivars, and then  people mix and match to their own tastes.
191. 20:17So if you have something similar where  you live, starting with flakes is a no
192. 20:25brainer. But in my personal experience…  and this isn’t shade on western food,
193. 20:30there’s some great ingredients in North  America too… but supermarket available
194. 20:34chili flakes for me at least, don’t get me  where I want to go. So I would personally
195. 20:41still recommend frying and grinding  that workhorse pepper at the very least.
196. 20:46Then second, while different families are  different, usually you see a much more
197. 20:51limited selection of aromatics and spices than  you do in profession kitchens - reason being that
198. 20:58home kitchens are usually affording much better  caiziyou than they use outside. Restaurant oil
199. 21:03in China tends to be a lower grade than what’s  at the supermarket, and some restaurants also
200. 21:09cut their caiziyou with a cheap neutral or  even just use a cheap neutral straight up.
201. 21:15And the less flavorful your oil is, the heavier  with aromatics and spices you’ll want to go.
202. 21:21So especially if you can source  Caiziyou or Indian Mustard Seed oil,
203. 21:25I think you can feel to totally free cut back.  In this batch my infusion was with one dacong,
204. 21:32English name Welsh Onion, and three inches  of ginger… together with solely a tablespoon
205. 21:38of red Sichuan peppercorn spice wise. But if you  were working off of a peanut oil, or an olive oil,
206. 21:42or a neutral oil… I would personally still  recommend the full spate to help compensate.
207. 21:48But either way, sizzle over a bit at 190,
208. 21:51half at 150, and the remainder at a  cool 80, cover, and then… jar it up.
209. 21:57Laoyou
210. 21:58So. Now we’ve got the four chili oils that  really are more of a restaurant thing,
211. 22:03but the most common among them  is probably laoyou, or old oil.
212. 22:09The name’s likely derived  from laoyou huoguo, that is,
213. 22:12Chongqing hotpot, and they do share a number of  similarities. Laoyou can be a little simpler,
214. 22:19but the primary difference with a hotpot base  is that this one is unseasoned and it uses
215. 22:25caiziyou instead of beef tallow. The stuff  is sometimes called ‘hot dish’ chili oil,
216. 22:31because it can be used as an instant  base to start off various stir-fries.
217. 22:36And like hotpot base, instead of chili powder  it does start with a product called ciba or
218. 22:42pounded chili. This stuff is made by soaking  60 grams of your workhorse chili in with hot,
219. 22:47boiled water for 45 minutes… and cut that with  a spicy chili if you wanted something spicier.
220. 22:54Then after that time, you’ll  strain well, add it to a mortar,
221. 22:57and I personally like to unconventionally also  add a ¼ tsp of salt and a clove of garlic to
222. 23:03help the chilis break down and emulsify.  Not standard practice, full disclosure,
223. 23:08and you can also use a food processor here… but  either way, you’re looking for something pasty.
224. 23:16Then, in addition to using pounded chili paste,  the other big similarity is that this is also
225. 23:21using two tablespoons of douchi, Chinese fermented  black soybeans, minced, soaked with a little
226. 23:27liquor… and a quarter cup of Pixian doubanjiang,  Sichuan chili bean paste, also minced.
227. 23:34The aromatics we did opt for a bit of a fuller  mix for this one, including a large stalk of
228. 23:40Chinese celery and two cilantros as well. We  just enjoy those with this specific flavor,
229. 23:45but they’re both optional and can also be added  to the other oils if you wanted. Then spices in
230. 23:52same at before, another ten minutes, and because  those leafy herbs do like to drink a little oil,
231. 23:57I’ll supplement this with two extra tablespoons of  caiziyou. Then, add the ciba chili paste into the
232. 24:04oil, and begin to slowly fry that over a medium  low flame. We’re looking for the chili to expel
233. 24:10its moisture, stain the oil, and morph into a  lighter almost orange hue. This will take a bit,
234. 24:17about fifteen minutes… but once it’s at that  point, strain and reserve. Then add in the
235. 24:23minced Pixian doubanjiang, and over a low  flame begin to fry that until that’s dry.
236. 24:28After three minutes or so, go in with the minced  douchi, and once the liquor there has evaporated,
237. 24:34roughly two minutes more, shut off the heat.  Return the fried chili back to the wok, mix well,
238. 24:41and then let that all come back down to room  temperature. Transfer, and then let it sit.
239. 24:47Now, because this stuff is already saltier, in a  restaurant context, it can function as sort of an
240. 24:55‘instant’ stir fry or soup base. For the size of a  normal dish you could start the thing with about a
241. 25:01tablespoon, tablespoon half of the oil together  with all the chunky bits… and optionally finish
242. 25:07with a touch of the oil sans sediment. Dishes that  would be appropriate for this kind of treatment
243. 25:14might be stuff like Jiachang Tofu, Twice Cooked  Pork, and maybe even some varieties of Mapo Tofu.
244. 25:20Then the last three, same category – that  is tasty ways you can streamline stuff
245. 25:27in a commercial setting. These three  are a little less common than laoyou,
246. 25:31but they can be useful and they  unquestionably are also quite delicious.
247. 25:36Hu Lajiao
248. 25:38So this one, hulajiaoyou, it can be a chili oil  but also as common can be just chili sans oil,
249. 25:47in which case they’ll be called ‘hulake’.  The named literally means ‘burn chili’,
250. 25:52and what they are are chilis deep fried to  a very deep borderline scorched state. You
251. 25:59might not guess it but they are really quite  aromatic and they can then be sprinkled into
252. 26:04dishes like Kung Pao chicken which is  probably its most famous application.
253. 26:09You can also, however, see it in an oil form…  which can help give things a little depth. To
254. 26:13make it, we’ll first infuse things with aromatics  and spices like always, though with this one it’s
255. 26:18especially optional, and then after straining  get the oil up to 130C. Then add in 60 grams of
256. 26:25your workhorse chili cut into half inch sections,  and then deep fry that for about seven minutes,
257. 26:30or until the chili get to a deep chestnut color  like so. Then strain, set aside, and add 10 grams
258. 26:37of red Sichuan peppercorns soaked in a bit  of liquor. Once all the moisture’s expelled,
259. 26:42about two minutes, ladle those back over  the chilis… and then let those soak.
260. 26:49This will be used in the Hula flavor profile  in Sichuan cooking – Kung Pao, to reiterate,
261. 26:55the most famous but you can also see it  in things like Huajiao Pork and various
262. 27:00qiang dishes. To execute this flavor, at  home we should be clear that most people
263. 27:07just start their stir fry by shallow frying  those chilis, removing, then you can add them
264. 27:13back later on. In restaurants, pre-prepared  Hulake I think would generally be the move,
265. 27:22but using come of this oil in my opinion can help  add back a bit of the missing flavor. So if you’ve
266. 27:28got this stuff, you can start your Kung Pao  with aromatics in a little less oil than usual,
267. 27:33and then add your scorched chilis together with  a couple of the Sichuan peppers and about a
268. 27:38tablespoon of that oil… and optionally  use some more of said oil to finish.
269. 27:44Paojiaoyou
270. 27:45Next, pickled chili oil. Now we’ll also have  to be upfront here that for this recipe,
271. 27:52straight out of the tin, um… the sourcing  might be borderline impossible. Because
272. 27:58this will rely on Chinese fermented chilis, but  not a can like this one… they’re both fermented
273. 28:06but these Sichuan sort are very very sour. We’ll  be using two types – one a not spicy large sort,
274. 28:15and one a very spicy small pickled Heaven facing.  You might be able to find the latter at a Chinese
275. 28:21supermarket, but the former – I don’t think is  available internationally. You might be able
276. 28:28to play around with vinegar pickled chilis,  or maybe Korean ones… it’s a tough source.
277. 28:35But we’ll take 280 grams large pickled chilis,  slice them open… they will have a lot of moisture
278. 28:42so we’ll quickly give them a strain. We’re  looking for about 140 grams after straining.
279. 28:48Slice off the stem of the spicy pickled chili,  80 grams worth, and then also chop up 60 grams
280. 28:54of pickled ginger. At this point, we’ll finely  mince this all together until it’s super pasty,
281. 29:00which will take a hot second so do be patient,  and again food processor’s fine if you’ve got one.
282. 29:06But either way, once you’re looking at  something a bit like this, set it aside.
283. 29:12We’ll then infuse our oil with onion, scallion,  and ginger, same as before… but with this oil
284. 29:17we’ll lower the quantity to a cup and a half  and for the spices we wanted also to keep
285. 29:23things a little on the light and fresh side…  simplifying to this mix. Then strain that all,
286. 29:29and add in the pickled chili paste. Swap the flame  to medium high and slowly fry until the pickled
287. 29:35chili turns an orange-ish hue, and it looks  closer to ‘cooked’ chili than ‘fresh’ chili,
288. 29:41or about 8 to 10 minutes. Then just  shut off the heat, and reserve.
289. 29:46Now in a restaurant context, you could think  of this as almost like a style of laoyou – some
290. 29:52recipes even include a little chili bean  paste, which is also an option for you.
291. 29:58It’ll be an instant start to dishes that make  heavy use of pickled chilis like Paojiao kidney
292. 30:04and various fish fragrant dishes – you start off  with the oil, aromatics, maybe a little extra
293. 30:10pickled chili to hit a couple different levels.  The oil is excellent with tomato, you can also use
294. 30:16it in noodles, and pickled chili rice noodle pot  is also a thing. For that dish specifically, you
295. 30:22can see the usefulness… this oil takes what would  usually need a good five minutes at the start or
296. 30:30the recipe, to something practically instant –  and full recipe, again, down in the Substack.
297. 30:38Now, all of the previous chili oils used dried  chili, or I guess otherwise preserved chilis,
298. 30:45which is the most common way that you see the  chili pepper employed in Sichuan cuisine. This
299. 30:51chili oil uses fresh: a comparative rarity,  specific to the ‘salt gang’ cuisine of Zigong
300. 30:58and its environs – most famously Xianjiao rabbit  or beef, and to a lesser extent beef noodles.
301. 31:05Now this will be based off of 140 grams of a  fresh spicy chili – this was Chinese heaven
302. 31:11facing chili, you could also use Thai bird’s  eye… minced together with 60 grams worth of
303. 31:15ginger. You don’t need to get this as fine as the  pickled chili, something like this is perfect.
304. 31:22Then, we’ll separately mince 80 grams of  young ginger – which I know is hard to find
305. 31:27abroad – two possible alternative routes  below… and then set both of those aside.
306. 31:32And then we’ll infuse the oil just like the  pickled chili oil, also the same spice mix
307. 31:38too as said oil. Then strain, and add in the  young ginger and swap the flame to medium-high.
308. 31:44Once that young ginger has released the  bulk of its aggressive-sounding moisture,
309. 31:48about 90 seconds, add in the chili-ginger-ginger  mixture. You’ll be looking, again, for the chili
310. 31:54to have released a good bit of its moisture  and turn a light red ‘cooked chili’ hue,
311. 32:00which’ll likely take about eight to ten  minutes. Then, set that aside, jar it up.
312. 32:06That said, important bit that unlike our other  chili oils, this one can not keep. It has fresh
313. 32:14ingredients, and even though we fried it all,  fresh aromatics in an anaerobic environment is
314. 32:22still beginning to play a little with fire. Keep  this one in the fridge next to the pickled chili
315. 32:28oil – I personally wouldn’t go past two weeks  with it. We’ll link a recipe to the super famous
316. 32:34xianjiao rabbit, but if you’re looking for a quick  way to use it all it… we’ve personally enjoyed
317. 32:41it as a topping for mixed rice noodles. To whip  something like that up, grab about a tablespoon
318. 32:46half of the fresh chili oil, mix it with half  tablespoon soy sauce, ¼ tsp salt, ¼ tsp sugar,
319. 32:541/8 tsp MSG, and a teaspoon of oyster sauce. Chop  up some scallion and cilantro, and mix it all with
320. 33:02cooked rice noodles – or even noodle noodles. So then… That’s it. Seven base chili oils. Now
321. 33:11we did promise you all the Sichuan chilis  oils, so… I think it would be natural to
322. 33:17ask about products like this. You can find this  brand almost everywhere in China, and I think
323. 33:27internationally too, it’s made in Sichuan, and  there’s even similar international products like
324. 33:33Fly By Jing. Now, while we don’t have a time  machine, we would hazard that these sorts of
325. 33:40bottles are somewhat newer entrances to the market  – I would guess that they might’ve been inspired
326. 33:46by the breakout popularity of Lao Gan Ma from  neighboring Guizhou. These are seasoned chili
327. 33:52oils, no further adjustment mandatory, which of  course can very convenient for modern homecooks.
328. 33:59We consider something like this to be a  derivate product of our base chili oils. To
329. 34:05make something like it using one is really  not too difficult – take your chili oil,
330. 34:11and add some salt, MSG, little bit of sugar  and that is more than good enough to top over
331. 34:17your fried egg. If you want that food industry  flavor, could also add a little garlic powder,
332. 34:23maybe a little chicken powder for its I+G. This specific product also has some crunchy
333. 34:31fried peanuts and soybeans in it, which’s  often a common move in this kind of bottle…
334. 34:37so feel free to add in anything crunchy  that you like… get weird, get local,
335. 34:43add some corn nuts and chicharrón, maybe  some of the previous fried onions? Why not.
336. 34:50Or, alternatively, you might also  find some products a little like this,
337. 34:55lineage of which is a little clearer. This  seems obviously derived from Sichuan’s famed
338. 35:02douhua dipping sauces, many of which in turn  can also be derived from these base chili oils.
339. 35:09Now I am starting to run out  of breath today, apologies,
340. 35:13so if you’re interested in how to make a dip  like this, do check out our Chili Tofu Rice
341. 35:20Lunchtime Integration Initiative video for three  dips that can also make use of our chili oils.
342. 35:27So again, even more recipes are down in  the Substack post for how to use them,
343. 35:33they’re free as always, so do check them out…  a huge, huge thank you to everybody that’s
344. 35:40supporting us on Patreon… and of course,  subscribe for more Chinese cooking videos.