Fragrant chilli oil

Name: Fragrant chilli oil
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 1/2 litre rapeseed, veg or groundnut oil; 1 cinnamon stick; 5-6 star anise; 1-2 tbs szechuan pepper corns; 3 bay leaves; 1 cup crushed chillies; 3 tsp flaked sea salt (use less if using fine salt)

Dr Ruth Cooks @cook_19220260

Dorset

My chilli oil I made about a year ago was on it's last dregs so though I'd make some more as it's so easy and wouldn't involve too much standing up (I've just had a knee operation!!) My sister in law loves chilli so I doubled the batch to make 2 jars 😊

Last time I made it with a mix of whatever chilli I had in the cupboard, including some crushed birds eye chillies and it was seriously hot 😂 this time I remembered to buy a big bag of crushed chillies last time I was in a chinese supermarket (there isn't one near where I live annoyingly, so have to remember to go when I'm at work!!)

Dr Ruth Cooks @cook_19220260

Saved

Ingredients

1/2 litrerapeseed, veg or groundnut oil
1cinnamon stick
5-6star anise
1-2 tbsszechuan pepper corns
3bay leaves
1 cupcrushed chillies
3 tspflaked sea salt (use less if using fine salt)

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Steps

1

Pour the oil in a pan and add the spices and bay leaves (but not the chilli and salt)
Gently simmer this for 30 mins, don't let it get too hot as you don't want to burn the spices. I used a thermometer and whenever it got up to 130c I turned it off, gave it a stir, let it cool a bit before turning it back on. You want the spices to barely sizzle!
2

Measure the chilli and salt into a heat proof jug (preferably a jug to make it easy to pour into jars, but a bowl will be fine).
Pour the oil through a sieve (to strain the spices) onto the chilli and stir.
3

I then poured the hot oil into hot sterilised jars (or let it cool and pour into cold sterilised jars)
4

Then use whenever you want a chilli kick, use sparingly at first until you have an idea of how hot it is!! The fragrant spices in the oil make it so much tastier than straight chilli!