ordered Chinese. asked for extra spicy..they gave me this. stuff is amazing

[NetWareHead]

any flavor neutral oil should work. Just make sure you stay below the smoking point of the oil. There's no reason to crank up the heat.

The smoke point of the oil is not at all important here, I'm talking about a low and gentle simmering, lower than that if possible. The red pepper flakes are already dried and so easy to burn. This is not a fry. I put my gas burner on the stove at the lowest possible setting, let the oil get warm and steep the flavors out of the flakes. Keep it there for like half an hour and you are set. If the flakes turn black, the oil becomes bitter and unpleasant, throw it away.

 

[OCGuy]

By chance, did they play joke?

 

[pontifex]

something they dipped out of their toilet?

 

[Kaido]

Yeah, pepper-infused oils. Good stuff. I like to toss it in General Tso's when they make it too sweet and not hot enough.

Yeah, my local Pho place does a pepper-infused oil dip mixed with srichacha. It's amazing :wub:

 

[akshatp]

Hot oil. Welcome to 1994

 

[yhelothar]

That looks like mala sauce and not any normal chili oil. Mala literally means numb spicy in Mandarin. It's made from Szechuan peppers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mala_sauce

 

[Tiamat]

If you don't want something as oily, you can cut up Thai or any very hot chilli peppers and soak in a small saucer of quality soy sauce, like French or German Maggi.

 

[TXHokie]

I make my own. Get some dried hot chili pepper flakes and pour a bottle in a pan with oil. Adjust the oil quantity to give you the ratio desired. Slowly simmer the oil at low temperatures. The longer you simmer the oil, the more flavor extracted from the seeds and the hotter the oil becomes. If the dried pepper flakes are turning borwn and black, you are way too hot and need to start over. Low and slow is the way to go. You'll know you have done it right when the oil takes a red shade and is spicy. I think I did my last batch for half hour and it was pretty spicy.

I make my own batch once a year too. Pretty much use the same instruction except I also add in a bunch of chopped garlic for added flavor. Just about most of my food get the spicy oil or the sriracha treatment. I probably need to cut back on the heat I eat....naaaah.

 

[Bee4945]

 

[Slew Foot]

You are in the middle of the US....doesn't your town only have one generic "Asian" place that tries to be VieThaineeSushi?

 

[Born2bwire]

Best stuff has the picture of an old lady on the front and is mixed with peanuts -

Might also want to try Chili Garlic Sauce -

Yeah, I was going to say get the bottle with the disgruntled lady on it.

 

[DigDog]

Akugami knows his stuff.. i would expect nothing less from a man with Al Bundy's face as avatar.

But, everyone else, do try

They have - although it's difficult to find - a chili-only version, without the beans; if you find it, its pure heaven.

Lee Kum Kee is ok but it's a bit commercial, not really the hardcore only-chinese-people-allowed stuff.

 

[Ns1]

It's so true it hurts.

 

[Perknose]

One of the drawbacks of living where I do is that the Chinese restaurants right around me all suck BIG TIME. Mediocre doesn't even begin to describe them, and yet they are successful because apparently the farmers and 2nd Amendment crowd don't know any better. What can you expect from folks who mob the sole Red Lobster in the area (I kid you not.)

Now, you can drive a little ways and find decent ones, but still . . .

And there are only starting to be a few half-decent Indian and Thai places in my general area. You have to go 45 minutes to find a Viet place, though.

I guess that old rule of thumb still holds true: You can have Mennonite raw milk or you can have good Chinese food in your area, but you can't have both.

 

[brainhulk]

Most of the pho places I go to just have siracha or the chili oil. There is one pho restaurant though that makes the best damn hot sauce around. It's spicy as hell but it just makes you want to eat more until I'm literally sweating...lol

 

[The Boston Dangler]

that oil is made with the same peppers my favorite place puts in general tso's, but roasted and whole. they're terrific and right at my maximum heat.

 

[rsutoratosu]

you can make that yourself too, get hot chili oil and put it in with the peppers.. google for recipe.. less artificial from can stuff

 

[UncleWai]

Mix that with some xo sauce and you get teh win.

Xo sauce is oil infused with dried scallop, dried shrimp, cured chinese ham, garlc.

If you guys don't mind hygiene issue, chinese hot pot is the shit with these sauces.