Shaanxi Hot Chili Oil

In the area of Xian in the province Shaanxi in China there is hot oil in many dishes.
A while ago a bought a little jar in an Asian supermarket, but the taste was not pleasant and there was a lot of red food colouring in it. I have thrown it out.

I am watching many YT videos from Strictly Dumpling now and I found a recipe video about the hot oil. The basic ingredients are in stock and I had just to get some whole dried chilis to crush myself. The chili powder here is often very fine and you either find no seeds or just very fine pieces of seeds in them. But for the oil you will need the whole seeds. I just put the whole chilis into a freezer bag and crushed them with a meat tenderizer.

You can store the hot oil in a jar and it will last a long time as long as you only get into it with a clean spoon.

recipe:
1/2 cup crushed chilis
1/2 tsp salt
4 cloves of chopped garlic

1 1/4 cup of rapeseed oil
2 tbsp Szechuan peppercorns
3 bay leaves
3 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 cardamom pod

1 1/2 tsp roasted sesame seeds
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp Chinese black vinegar


Chop the garlic and place it with chili and salt in a wide porcellan bowl - No Plastic!

Use a casserole and heat up the oil with the ingredients on medium heat. It will take a couple of minutes until everything changes to dark brown. Do not let it burn!

With a strainer get all the ingredients out of the oil. The oil now should have a temperature of about 80 C.
Pour 1/3 over the chili mix and stir well.
When it does not sizzle, heat up the oil a  bit more, add one 1/3 more and stir.
Add the rest and mix well.
Finish with the roasted sesame seeds, the sesame oil and the black vinegar.
Cool it down and let it rest one day before tasting, so that the flavours can combine well.

I  tasted it with some Noodles two days later, one teaspoon is the right amount of heat for me.