Fresh Dried Chili Oil Food

HOW TO MAKE CHILI OIL

Steps:

• Gather all the aromatics you plan to use. Place oil and selected aromatics into a pot with at least two inches of clearance between the oil and the rim of the pot. If using minimum aromatics, 1 ½ cups of oil should do it. If using all the aromatics, you can add up to 3 cups of oil.
• Set it over medium heat to start, then progressively lower it to medium low or low heat as the oil comes to temperature. The oil should be at about 225-250° F / 110-120° C and causing small bubbles to slowly rise from the aromatics. If you notice the spices sizzling more vigorously than that or turning dark too quickly, reduce the heat to cool it down. If you are not achieving small bubbles, slowly increase the heat. Hovering around 200-225° F is the safest way to prevent burning. Infuse the aromatics this way for a minimum of 30 minutes, or up to 1 hour for best results.
• While the oil is infusing, prepare your Sichuan chili flakes by placing them in a heatproof bowl. If you used 1½ cups of oil, ¾ cup of chili flakes is best. For 3 cups of oil, use 1¼ cups of chili flakes. You can experiment within this range (if you like more oil and fewer flakes, for instance).
• Generally, the oil should be between 225-250° F (110-120° C) when pouring over the chili flakes. If you like a darker color, opt for 250-275° F/135° C. If your chili flakes are already super roasted, you may want to be closer to 225° F/110° C. When in doubt, test the oil on a small bowl of chili flakes before you do the rest. Carefully pour the hot oil through a strainer onto the chili flakes. Stir to evenly distribute the heat of the oil. You'll know you've gotten it right when you smell a "popcorn"-like smell that is not at all burnt-smelling.
• Stir in the salt, and allow the chili oil to cool. Store in airtight containers in the refrigerator. Always use a clean utensil when handling to prevent spoilage. It can last for up to 6 months if handled in this way.

HOW TO MAKE CHILE OIL

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Prepare a clean, dry glass bowl or jar and place the crushed chile peppers in it.
• In a small saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat for a few minutes, just until it begins to smoke. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the oil to cool in the pan for a minute or two. Be mindful that olive oil has a low smoking point and if heated up too much for too long, its flavor can change.
• Slowly and carefully pour the oil over the crushed chile peppers, making sure that the oil completely covers them. If necessary, use a spoon to stir so that all the chile is submerged. If using the whole chiles, add them now, and stir.
• Set the oil aside to cool for at least an hour or two.
• Once cooled, you can taste the oil. If it's to your liking, strain the oil to remove the crushed chile peppers. If you'd like more heat and flavor, cover the oil and allow it to infuse overnight or for as long as desired before straining-if choosing to do so, as the crushed chile will settle on the bottom of the jar, and you can use it along with the oil as a condiment.
• Once strained, store the oil in a clean, airtight glass container. If you used whole dried chile peppers, they can be returned to the oil to gradually intensify its color and flavor. If left unstrained, the infusion will continue to mature, and the heat factor will amplify.

FRESH DRIED CHILI OIL

Steps:

• Crush chilies with fingers into pieces no bigger than 1/4 inch across. Place in small bowl and add just enough boiling water to cover, about 1 tablespoon; let sit until chili is hydrated, 10 minutes.
• Add garlic and mint, and mix while slowly adding olive oil. Taste and season with salt. For best flavor, make several hours before using.

MEXICAN RED CHILE SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Place chiles on a baking sheet. Toast lightly in oven, 3 or 4 minutes, until they give off a mild aroma. Do not burn, otherwise, chiles will be very bitter.
• Remove chiles from oven and set aside until cool enough to handle.
• Remove and discard stems, seeds, and any pink pithy materials.
• Rinse chiles in cool water, drain briefly, then cover with hot water and soak for an hour.
• Process chiles in blender with enough of the soaking water to obtain a nice, blended consistency.
• Add remaining water, tomato sauce, garlic, oil, salt, oregano, and cumin. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Sauce can be refrigerated for up to 1 week or frozen for later use.

HOW TO MAKE CHILI

Steps:

• A great chili rests on two foundations: its protein, and the peppers that flavor it. It is, essentially, a stew. We'll get to the chiles, but we'll begin with the protein. If you're cooking with meat, look for a cut high in fat and flavor. If you're cooking with beans, find a sturdy variety: A pinto or navy bean is an excellent chili bean.Chuck beef, from the steer's shoulder, is excellent for chili. But you can also do very well with brisket and short ribs, and there are fantastic chilis made of lamb and pork shoulder. Whatever protein you use, cut the meat into 2-inch cubes, or, if you'd like to work faster or simply prefer the texture, use ground meat. In much of Texas and at the butcher shop anywhere, you can get your meat coarsely ground, which just about splits the difference between cubes and ground. But you can also use a combination: Some cooks even like to use a number of different cuts, combining stew meat with ground. Consider between ¼ and a ⅓ of a pound per person. It should yield enough fat to flavor your chili well. Whatever you choose, be sure to fry some bacon in the pot before you get started, and then set it aside to crumble into the chili later in the process. There are those who swear by ground turkey chilis or who make the dish with chicken. Be careful when doing so, however, so that the meat does not dry out. Consider between ¼ and a ⅓ of a pound per person, supplemented perhaps with a few strips of bacon to help keep everything juicy. Or use chunks of dark meat from the richer, fattier thighs, or even duck.Farm-raised or wild-shot game - venison, buffalo, moose, marsh duck, goose - often bridges the distance between red meat and poultry: It delivers powerful flavor whether it comes from the field or the sky. Cook between ¼ and ⅓ pound per person, substituting some ground beef or lamb if the game is very lean. As with turkey and other lean cuts, you'll want to add some fat to the proceedings, for flavor and lusciousness. There are those who consider beans in chili to be an apostasy. But beans in chili can be delicious and, indeed, are an easy way to "stretch" a chili from a dish that serves 6 to a dish that serves 10 or even 12. (Figure something in the neighborhood of a cup of cooked beans per person.) Pinto beans make a wonderful addition to a beef chili, and white ones are beautiful with poultry and lamb. Some may cook only with beans, using chiles and spices to deliver big flavor into each legume. It is a good idea, in this case, to think about increasing the variety of chiles used, and to consider increasing the level of spice as well. A base of sautéed onions and garlic, heated through with oregano before adding chiles and beans, is a fine way to launch a vegetarian chili. (Take a look at Melissa Clark's recipe for a vegetarian skillet chili, if you want a starting point - or a finishing one.) All will defend their decisions as the only permissible ones. And do you need to cook the beans from scratch? You do not, unless you want to. Chili should never be a project.
• Traditional Texas chili is made with meat, chiles and little else. What kind of chiles and what form they take is a matter of some debate. Best in our view is a mixture: fresh jalapeños, dried anchos and pasilla powder. Top row, from left: Dried ancho chiles, dried New Mexico chiles and fresh jalapeño peppers. Bottom row, from left: Dried chipotle peppers, dried pasilla peppers and fresh poblanos. Some varieties of chiles are hot, some sweet and some smoky. Some are dried and toasted and ground together; others are toasted and then simmered in water or stock before being blitzed in a blender or food processor or fished from the pot and discarded; still others are used fresh. As a general rule, you'll want to add any chili powder early in the process, preferably after you've seared the meat and as you're cooking down any aromatics. But whole chiles can be added along with the cooking juices, and pulled out before serving. The world of chiles is broad, but here are a few varieties that work especially well in chili. There was a time when some of them were hard to find, even in large urban supermarkets. That is no longer true, save perhaps in the case of the delicious Chimayo. In which case, as ever, the internet can provide. Poblano: A big green pepper that is not too punchy in its heat. As poblanos ripen, the fruit reddens. Ancho: A dried, ripe poblano pepper becomes an ancho chile, sweet and smoky, mild to medium hot. Pasilla: This is a dark chocolate-brown dried pepper of moderate pungency, and brings great deepness of flavor to a chili. Jalapeño: Arguably America's pepper, this fiery little fruit can provide real zip and freshness when added to chili. When it has been smoked and dried, a jalapeño is called a chipotle. Chimayo: A New Mexican pepper of extraordinary richness, which when dried and ground brings a deep redness to all that it touches. If you can't find any Chimayos, note that any pepper from the state of New Mexico, usually labeled a "New Mexican" chile, is a worthy substitute, fresh or dried.Confusingly, chile powder and chili powder are two different things. (More confusingly, The Times has conflated them for years.) Chile powder is just dried, pulverized chiles. Chili powder, on the other hand, is a mixture of dried, ground chiles with other spices, and it helps bring a distinctive flavor to the dish that bears its name. HOMEMADE CHILI POWDER: Come up with a good recipe for chili powder, and it will give you some of the confidence to call your chili the best you've ever made. To follow the Texas restaurateur Robb Walsh's recipe, toast three medium-sized ancho chiles in a pan, then remove them and allow to cool. Do the same with a ½ teaspoon of cumin seeds. Seed the anchos and cut them into strips and then process them in a spice grinder with the cumin seeds, a big pinch of Mexican oregano and, if you like, a shake of garlic powder. Use that in your chili, and then store what's left over in a sealed jar. Use it quickly, though. It grows stale fast. STORE-BOUGHT CHILI POWDER: Chili powder is, like the dish it serves, a Texas tradition, most likely dating to the arrival in the state of German immigrants who thought to treat the local chiles as their forebears did the hot peppers in Europe, drying and grinding them into a kind of New World paprika. Eventually other spices were added - cumin and oregano and garlic powder, for instance - and now each chili powder you see in a store is slightly different from the last. For some, using chili powder in chili is anathema. They don't like the uncertainty of knowing what the mixture is going to taste like in their stew. They don't trust that the powder is fresh. They believe the resulting chili won't have layers of flavors. For many others, though, chili powder is a delicious timesaver, particularly if they've found a chili powder they like. If you do find one, use it a lot. The critics aren't wrong about the freshness.
• You've gathered your protein, and made executive decisions about your spices. It's time to make the chili. Making one calls for layering flavors into the stew, deepening each as you cook. Start by browning the meat in batches, then removing it to rest while you sweat onions, garlic and peppers, in whatever form you're using them, in the remaining fat. If you're making a vegetarian chili, start with the sweat! Then comes liquid, which will deglaze the pot and add flavor, while also providing a flavorful medium in which to simmer your meats or beans. In her Texas-style chili (below), Julia Moskin here at The Times taught us to use dark beer along with water and some canned tomatoes, but you can use plain stock instead, or a lighter beer, or more tomatoes in their juices, or a combination, according to your taste. Some like to add body to their chili by adding masa harina to the stewing liquid, or a sliced-up fresh corn tortilla that will dissolve in the heat. Julia allows for both in her recipe, which we've taken as our standard, but we encourage you to use the information you've gleaned here to make chili your own. The dish is very simple: browned meat and chiles, or chili powder, or both, simmered until tender. Everything else is up to you. Add a few dried peppers to simmer alongside the protein, and if you're cooking beef or game, consider adding a tab of dark chocolate to help deepen the flavor of the sauce. Then bring the heat to the lowest possible temperature until the protein is, as the saying goes, fork-tender. That could take 30 minutes if you're working off coarsely ground beef. It could take four hours if you're working with venison or a big clod of beef. If your stovetop can't go lower than a fast simmer, cook the chili in the oven instead, partly covered, at 325 degrees. Or use a slow cooker set to low, and keep a good eye on it after four hours or so. Fish out the dried peppers, and you're ready to eat. Once you've aced Julia's master recipe for Texas-style chili, you can explore other chili styles, whether it's a vegetarian chili with winter vegetables, Cincinnati-style chili, chili-gumbo of south Louisiana, Pierre Franey's lamb chili with lentils or his turkey chili. All reflect and celebrate America's ever-changing relationship with the dish.
• The chili's done, but don't eat it yet. As with gumbo and beef stew, chili is a dish that benefits mightily from an overnight "cure" in the refrigerator. Reheat gently on the stovetop or in a low oven when you're ready to eat, and top it with any or all of these fixings. • Chili gains a lot from the bright punch of alliums: Chopped onion and scallions are a great bet. As are avocado slices, or, one better, homemade guacamole. • Cut through the dish's richness with the clean flavors of fresh chopped tomatoes and cilantro leaves. • Or if a lightly vinegary finish is more your speed, top your chili with pickled jalapeños or red onions. • To mellow your chili's heat, pair it with a spoonful of sour cream, or some plain Greek yogurt. • Shredded Cheddar or Monterey Jack can add a mellow saltiness. • And, lastly, consider the fried egg. A worthy companion, it can even make last night's chili dinner into a hearty breakfast.• Pour the chili over rice, whether white or brown; spaghetti, as a nod to the Cincinnati style; or warm and creamy grits. • Or top it with corn or tortilla chips, crumbled Saltines, oyster crackers or Fritos. (Or, put the chili on top of those Fritos for a Frito pie.) • Serve it with warm tortillas or one of many kinds of cornbread.

CHILI OIL OR DRIED MUSHROOM OIL

Steps:

• Chop mushrooms or chilies in a food processor until fine.Place in a pot with the oil and heat until mixture begins to bubble. Let cook 10-15 seconds and remove from heat. Swirl until just warm. Strain into a bowl through 4 layers of cheesecloth. Squeeze well to extract as much oil as possible. Pour into a sterilized jar or bottle, seal tightly, refrigerate and use within one week for best flavor.