Chili Crisp

On one of the local repeaters, the topic of Chili Crisp has frequently come up. If you are unfamiliar with this very versatile condiment, let me just say that it complements most everything. It is a basically a neutral oil (like peanut or canola oil) infused with a variety of spices and crunchy bits, some hot and some not. Google is certainly your friend, so you can learn a lot about chili crisp on the Internet, or you can just go to your local grocery store and buy a small jar.

If you like, for example, ramen noodles, I suggest that the next time you are making ramen noodles, throw that little flavor packet of mostly sodium away. Use chili crisp instead. Frying up some eggs? Add some chili crisp to the fry pan. Heck, it even goes with ice cream.

By the way, although you can buy it at most grocery stores (it will be in the oriental section, near the soy sauce), it is a lot of fun to make at home (and a whole lot less expensive, too). There are lots of recipes on the Internet you can try. Here is one variation I pieced together from several I have found.

Ingredients

• 100 g Dried red chilis (from your local oriental food market)
• 75 g Peanuts, crushed
• 1 tbsp Sichuan pepper corns, crushed (also from your local oriental food market)
• 5 pods Star anise (most grocery stores have this, but they likely are cheaper at the oriental foot market)
• 2 sticks Cinnamon sticks
• 1 tbsp Coriander seeds, crushed
• 1 tbsp Sea salt
• 1/2 tsp MSG (or not, but MSG has gotten an undeserved bad reputation)
• 1 tbsp Soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar (black vinegar might be better)
• 1 tsp Fish sauce
• 3½ cup Neutral cooking oil
• 200 g Shallots, minced
• 40 g Habanero, finely chopped (wear gloves when chopping them, or else)
• 30 g Ginger, minced
• 70 g Garlic, finely chopped
• ¼ cup Honey

Steps

1. Chop/grind the dried red chilis to make flakes. (I use a blender held at an angle to get an even consistency.) Remove some or most of the seeds as you see fit. (I leave them all in.)
2. Combine the flakes with the next ten ingredients (peanuts through fish sauce) in a heat-resistant bowl.
3. Add oil, shallots, and habanero bits in a large saucepan.
4. Heat on medium. Chile and shallot bits will sizzle as the temperature rises. Let temperature rise slowly, not to exceed 300° F.
5. When the sizzling noticeably declines and the shallot bits brown up, using a fine mesh strainer to capture the solid bits, pour the hot oil into a second saucepan.
6. Transfer the solid bits to a paper towel.
7. Now heat the oil up to 325° F, and then add the garlic and ginger. In 90 to 120 seconds, the garlic should just barely begin to tan.
8. Immediately pour the hot oil through a strainer (to capture the garlic and ginger) onto the ingredients prepared in Step 2. It is best if you pour some oil, then stir, then pour, then stir, until all the oil is transferred.
9. Add the garlic and ginger from the strainer to the shallot and habanero bits.
10. Occasionally stir the oil and red chili flakes mixture as it cools.
11. After a least 10 minutes of cooling, add the garlic, ginger, shallot, and habanero bits. Add the honey. Stir some more.
12. When cool, transfer to mason jars and refrigerate. Let it mellow for a couple of days, then enjoy. It will last at least a month in the refrigerator; you can also freeze some of it for much later.