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Saturday, May 21, 2011

Not buying it: Chili oil for Asian cooking

Repurposed bourbon bottle now houses Chili Oil.
I'm not a bourbon drinker, but I'm told
Jefferson's Reserve is a fine sippin' whisky,
if you're into that sorta thing.
Love this Chili Oil recipe I found in Fuchsia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province, a library book I will definitely be checking out again. Wish I had a copy of my own, but I am really trying to become more of a minimalist. Y'know, save a tree and all!
Not buying commercial chili oil = less packaging waste.

Chili Oil (la jiao oil)
1 cup of Dried Chili Flakes with seeds
2 and 1/4 cups of Peanut Oil
Place dried chilies in a glass preserving/canning jar. Heat the oil in a pan over high heat until it reaches 350ºF. Remove from heat; let the oil cool down to 225-250ºF then pour the oil into the jar containing the chilies, stirring a couple of times. Let cool in a shady place for at least 24 hours. I transferred the chili oil from the canning jar to a bottle with a stopper (once Hubby and assorted company drank all the bourbon, that is!). I refrigerate the oil until needed.

   Hubby and I made Dunlop's recipe for General Tso's Chicken one night, and it was absolutely fabulous! If interested, you'll find that recipe in NPR's piece on Dunlop's book (click NPR link then scroll down).
   If interested in an Italianized version of chili oil, check out Giada's recipe on the Food Network site. Please let me know if you try that one as I haven't...just found it.
   Haven't uploaded the pics yet to prove it, but I have eaten WAY too much sugar on my 4-Hour Body cheat day. So much so that I'm more than ready to go back to eating healthy! Who'd have thought that possible? ;)
   Have you been in healthy or cheating mode today? Feel free to fess up either way. Love hearing from you, if you've the time to comment. Great weekend...the SUN came back to see us, well, for part of the day at least!!

4 comments:

Lace up and Walk said...

Good idea...we love General Tso's Chicken and anything spicy!
I have to admit that I've had a pretty bad cheating day today...out running errands and we stopped and got a burger, fries and a coke. Coke is my downfall and I love hot fries right out of the cooker! It's been a long time since I've had any fast food so I guess I'm not doing that bad:-)

The One Handed Gardener said...

Nothing to do with chilli but.....You told Rose on Greening The Rose that you were playing with growing your own garlic. It is the same as growing onions. Stick the separated cloves in soil as deep as the size of the clove. Water and then totally ignore. They are ready when the leaves start to die off. Easy peasy! Back to chilli oil......

As It Was Written said...

I can never stay healthy... Eh :(

Dmarie said...

@Patti Bee, tho' we don't eat at McDonald's, I love their fries. Don't eat them after watching "SuperSize Me," but still long for them...
@One Handed, THX so much for that...the part about when to pick them was the part we didn't know!
@As It Was, why is eating healthy sooo hard?!! this one day cheat seems to be working for me tho'!

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