Hi, we’re Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough, the authors of over thirty-five cookbooks. In this series on our YouTube channel, Cooking with Bruce and Mark, we dig into strange, wonky, fun recipes to give you the know-how to DIY it.
In this episode, Bruce takes on his version of Sichuan chili oil, a deep, flavorful condiment for stir-fries, braises, noodles, or dumplings. Listen, you won’t believe what a tablespoon of this stuff will do for a good ol’ beef stew. And the next time you’re invited to a friend’s for dinner, take a bottle of this oil as a house gift. Even if you eventually dance around with a lampshade on your head, you’ll get invited back. Often.
Here are the ingredients (with some annotations–you can find most of these in Chinese supermarkets and all of them from suppliers on the web):
1 small bunch of scallions/50 grams, trimmed and roughly chopped
1 large knob of fresh ginger/75 grams, thinly sliced
6 large garlic cloves/50 grams, peeled and smashed
2 whole nutmegs, cracked or smashed (use the bottom of a heavy pot or skillet on a big cutting board, pressing down but not thwacking them)
1 tablespoon/10 grams whole cloves
2 tablespoons/10 grams fennel seeds
1/4 cup/25 grams cumin seeds
2 tablespoons/10 grams allspice berries
About 20/2 grams dried bay leaves
Three 4-inch/10-cm cinnamon sticks (or an equivalent amount of broken cinnamon sticks–do not use ground cinnamon as a substitute as it’s too potent)
2 tablespoons/30 grams granulated white sugar
1/4 cup/20 grams broken dried orange peel
12 dried gardenia fruit/about 20 grams (sometimes called “cape jasmine”)
10 star anise pods (about 10 grams)
2 tablespoons/10 grams dried dong quai (or “angelica sinensis,” also called “female ginger”–don’t use the fresh stuff, even if you can find it at a Chinese supermarket)
3 small pieces/about 10 grams dried lesser galangal (again, not the fresh stuff, if you run into it–the excess moisture can turn the oil rancid more quickly)
7 black cardamom pods, lightly cracked (about 10 grams)
2 tablespoons/10 grams dried amomum (that is, camphor seeds)
6 pieces/10 grams dried sand ginger
6 tablespoons/25 grams red Sichuan peppercorns
2 tablespoons/10 grams green Sichuan peppercorns
4 cups/115 grams dried er jing tiao chiles (sometimes spelled as “er jin tao” or “her jin tio”), chopped or even crushed with your hands (seeds and all–but wash those hands or work with kitchen gloves!)
1 cup/35 grams dried lantern chiles, chopped or crushed (you can add more of these for much more heat–if so, decrease the amount of er jing tiao chiles by that additional amount)
3 liters of a neutral-flavored oil, such as vegetable, canola, or safflower oil
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