4/6/10

How to make chili oil at home

A few days ago I was working out at my apartment's little gym and watching Bobby Flay. I know some people think that he's arrogant (some would use stronger words than that), but I really like him and his show. As part of the show, he made chili oil, which I thought was a brilliant idea!

Here is my chili oil using dried de Arbol peppers from a sample of dried peppers I received from Marx Food in Seattle.
Ingredients
6 dried de Arbol peppers
1 cup vegetable oil


Directions
1. In a hot cast iron skillet toast the peppers until they become aromatic.
2. Let the peppers cool a bit, then cut off the tops and remove all the seeds.
3. In a blender puree the peppers with the oil.


4. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve, discarding the remaining bits of the dried peppers.


5. Pour the rest of the "clean" oil into a jar or a bottle. Keep in the refrigerator.



I haven't used this oil yet, but it looks and smells divine! I think it would be good drizzled on salads or added to stirfrys or as part of a marinade for beef or chicken.
How would you use this chili oil?

14 comments:

  1. this is awesome i work for The Great American Spice Co. and am writing a blog post on chillis could I feature your recipe and link to you?
    rebeccasubbiah at yahoo dot com

    Rebecca

    ReplyDelete
  2. I bet it does smell divine! Great post - and while Bobby seems to come off as arrogant to some people I tend to think he's NOT. I love him!

    ReplyDelete
  3. It tastes very good, I've done it, but in a much easier way: you just have to put the peppers into a bottle with olive oil and in a few days or so you have aromatic olive oil and indeed it's great in salads :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. It looks so great for cooking...

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love chili oil, and im so glad to see this recipe! love the step by step pictures. thanks for posting!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Awesome homemade chili oil, sounds nice and spicy!

    ReplyDelete
  7. this looks absolutely delicious!
    when you try it out, let us know how spicy it is!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yum, looks good! I like chili oil on top of Asian noodle-based dishes (hot or cold), or mixed in as part of a dipping sauce. Hope you get good use out of the oil!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I was just watching a food program that used lot of chili oil...I don’t know the spicy-power of this one ;)

    Cheers,

    Gera

    ReplyDelete
  10. what a great idea! what would i use this on? EVERYTHING! within reason, of course. :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I would try adding it to fried rice. I bet sesame chili oil would be great for that.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your pictures are so gorgeous. I can't believe how clear and perfect the final product is. I'm kind of a wimp, so I'm trying to think of other kinds of oil I could make. The chili oil looks really pretty, but it might be too spicy for me. A small splash here and there would probably liven up just about anything though!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I usually associate Chinese (Szechuan) cuisine with this oil. Use it with Szechuan peppercorn and go *numb* ;p

    ReplyDelete
  14. that's a pretty neat idea. i never think of making oils...

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by Mango & Tomato. I love reading your comments and will try my best to respond to any specific questions you might have. Come back soon!