During the darkest parts of pandemic lockdown there was not a lot to do or look forward to so I put a lot of time and energy into making elaborate meals entirely from scratch. (It’s on my neverending to-do list for this website to make some sort of photo gallery of all those meals for posterity, but for now here we are.) Now that I have settled into a new(ish) normal(ish), where thankfully there are other things with which to occupy my time than food prep, I have become a bit more of a utilitarian eater, in that I am less concerned with ✨ thoughtful complex flavorful meals that are time-consuming to prepare ✨ and instead more concerned with 🤜 getting sustenance into my gastrointestinal system 🤛.
I do still want flavor, though (I get so much joy out of good food, and not to be morbid1, but having seen a lot of people at the end of life, I think for me if I can’t enjoy food then it will be time for me to leave this world). I started making my own chili oil in 2020. It’s a great way to spend an hour on a Sunday afternoon, because then on busy weekdays I can grab whatever food is around and dump some chili oil on it and it’s automatically better. It’s great on rice with an egg, great with veggies, great in soups, great with a piece of bread, great on pizza, great with noodles, great at sports, great with your grandkids, great in a crisis…
Anyway, I generally use a variation of a recipe from the Woks of Life with sliced garlic, coriander instead of cardamom, and gochugaru in addition to Sichuan peppercorns, and usually I use an extra light olive oil even though it’s not neutral because we always have olive oil around. On a scale of 1 to 10, I like a spice level around 7-8 (I want to feel it, but I don’t want to die).
It really goes with everything
The funnest part is pouring the hot infused oil over the peppercorns. It’s very dramatic.
Alternatively to just drizzling it on things, I can also make a quick dipping sauce for dumplings or noodles or anything else that’s dippable/dunkable by taking a couple spoonfuls of the stuff and mixing it with soy sauce, white or black vinegar, black pepper, etc. Sometimes I go really wild and even add sesame oil for a double-oil situation.
I love going to restaurants and seeing that they have a house made chili oil on the table. It would be fun (albeit logistically challenging) to do a blind taste test of chili oils from different spots!
Well, I think that’s about all I have to say about chili oil right now.
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…she says right before saying something kinda morbid ↩︎