Re: [CH] Hot Oil
Alex Silbajoris (asilbajo@hotmail.com)
Tue, 31 Jul 2001 12:50:53
>From: "Paul Karpowicz" <hondamedic@mediaone.net>
> Makes great marinated mushrooms,
> Paul (The NorthEast ChileMan)
>
My favorite technique is to make something closer to the hot chile oil one
finds in Asian restaurants. These days I'm working my way through one of
these with no English on the label, which I bought at a local Asian grocery
- it has the perfect toast on the peppers, and some small peanuts that also
toasted, giving it sort of a kung pao flavor. I eat it by the spoonful
straight from the jar. I'm hooked.
Anyway, for a toasted-chile infused oil, I do this: Choose whatever
high-temperature cooking oil you prefer, and for each cup of the oil, have
ready half a cup of crushed or shredded dry red chiles, with or without
seeds as you prefer. In a small or narrow heavy pot or saucepan, heat the
oil to a fairly high frying temperature - just how high will determine how
much toasted flavor you impart to the chiles. (It's as if the fresh heat of
the chiles converts to a toasted nutty flavor; if you take it really far,
you get a really dark product without a lot of hot flavor. Or, you could do
this whole procedure without heating, and just infuse the oil by letting it
sit with the peppers for a long time.)
Toss in one small fragment or seed of chile and observe how it fries; it
should sizzle and bubble, but not more than you would expect to see in a
deep fryer. Don't let the oil smoke. When you have the oil as hot as you
want, remove it from the heat. (evacuate the home and) Pour in the dry
chiles and let them sizzle and simmer and suffer and fume - just let the
whole thing slowly cool down to a temperature you can handle, maybe stirring
it a little. Then pour it off into jars for short-term storage. I always
make this in small batches, so I have never tried to store it for a long
time. You'll get a red oil with flakes of pepper, which you can strain out
to use as a rough paste.
The next time I do this, I'll try adding small peanuts.
- A
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