Hi Mike and Patty,
Ralph here from South Africa.
I LOVE your site. These recipes are amazing!
I have a variation of this chili oil which I've evolved from a recipe on another site, which I'd like to share. This is not a 5 minute version, though 🙂
Unfortunately, down here we don't get shallots, so I used red onions, and some spring onion (I think in the US you'd call them green onions... which are apparently NOT exactly the same as scallions, but I'm sure scallions would work fine).
It's also really hard to find a decent variety of chilis other than bird's eye, Jalapeno, Habs and a few others, so I've tweaked the recipe according to what I have managed to get my hands on. In future I will rather get seeds and start growing my own. But for now this is what I used.
Below are the ingredients and their quantities used in my last batch (I weighed and recorded everything as I went along. Please note I'm in South Africa so we use the metric system (liters and grams) so please convert to pounds, ounces, gallons...etc:
2L sunflower cooking oil
76g Serenade chili
39g red Bird's Eye chili
252g green Jalapeno chili
150g dried chili flakes
75g white salad onions (short spring onions, white and green parts - green onions in the US)
Cloves from 4 heads of garlic (+- 300g)
3 red onions (530g)
3 Knorr Chicken stock cubes
1 Knorr beef stock cube
120g brown sugar (not the sticky kind. Same consistency as white sugar, but a light brown, almost caramel colour. That's the sugar we use at home. I'm sure ordinary white sugar would be just fine).
100g sesame seeds (optional for extra crunch and flavour - leave these until very last).
This is the 2nd time I've made this recipe, and this time around I used your recipe and video instructions to roast the chilis beforehand. This is of course optional. I was just intrigued by the idea of different flavours coming out during the roasting.
Chop up the chilis, garlic and onions to a course mixture and set aside.
In a large pot heat the oil on a medium heat. My stove settings go up to 12. I had it up to 5, so it's just below halfway on the dial. (I used a pot because a pan is not deep enough for 2 liters of oil - I'm sure a wok would work, but then cooking time may be reduced... a pot takes a bit longer, I'd think)
When the oil is hot enough, put the dried chili flakes, sugar and broken up stock cubes into the oil and fry for about 5 minutes.
Then add the onion, chili and garlic and fry, stirring often so it doesn't stick.
Fry this for another 25 minutes, so the total cooking time since you added the flakes etc is about 30 minutes.
Then I turned up the heat to 8/12 (2 third heat on the dial) for another 20 minutes (total cooking time so far is around 50 minutes). During this part you need to stir almost constantly as it is possible to burn the mixture. The reason I cranked up the heat on the stove is that it almost crisps the chili mix, which I really love. If you don't care, don't mind, or don't have a full hour, you can take it off the stove at this point. But seriously... leave it on 🙂
And then for the last 10 minutes, add the sesame seeds. The reason I added the sesame seeds so late is because I'm scared of burning them and don't want to ruin the entire batch by putting them in too early and risk burning them. If anyone knows f they can survive longer in hot oil without spoiling or burning, let me know.
But I put in for the last 10 minutes.
That's it. Remove from the stove and let it cool.
I first used a ladle to get the chunky mixture into the jars, filling each one about halfway. Then I shared out the oil to fill each jar.
Seal and put in the fridge.
The only thing that worries me is some of the comments in this post about using within a month or it'll go off. I hope that by keeping it in the fridge, it'll last a bit longer. From the last batch I made, I gave so many away, my remaining jars got used up before a month was up.
Anyway, check it out, play around and have fun.
Thanks for reading this, and thank you for this amazing page!!
REPLY: Ralph, thank you for sharing this. Sounds great! -- Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.
