It’s the condiment of the moment... Our food editor Tom Shingler is a superfan with a secret recipe to share, and he promises that whether you’re a spooner-over, a stirrer-in or a dunker, you’re going to love it
PHOTOGRAPHS ANDY GRIMSHAW FOOD STYLING SEIKO HATFIELD STYLING TONY HUTCHINSON
The project.
WHAT EXACTLY IS THIS STUFF?
Chilli crisp – chilli oil complete with an edible ‘sediment’ of crunchy garlic, shallot, chilli and spices – has been used in Chinese cooking for centuries, but it only recently started gaining ground in the UK. The lip-tingling heat, addictive savouriness and endless variations (containing everything from tofu and peanuts to black beans and dried shrimp) make it one of my favourite things to spoon over rice, eggs and stir-fries for an instant hit of flavour that almost smacks you in the face. Feeling hardcore? Try it on vanilla ice cream for a feisty alternative to sprinkles.
The thing with shop-bought chilli crisp is that it’s never quite tailored to your individual taste. In terms of flavour, I like Lao Gan Ma – most certainly the top dog in the chilli crisp kingdom – but, on the heat scale, it lacks the almost-too-hot-to-eat punch of Lee Kum Kee’s Chiu Chow chilli oil. The solution? I make it myself, combining my favoured parameters of chilli, spice, crunch and seasoning, resulting in my own Goldilocks chilli crisp – it’s just right.
Of course, what’s right for me probably isn’t right for you (I tend to go overboard with heat, black beans and sichuan peppercorns), but the joy of homemade chilli crisp is that it’s very easy to prepare and tweak until you have your own version nailed. In just 24 hours, you can be the proud owner of a homemade jar of the hottest condiment in town (in every sense).
GET CREATIVE WITH YOUR AROMATICS
Chilli is, of course, essential, but the type of chilli you use will provide different levels of heat and flavour. I tend to stick with a base of gochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes), as these aren’t too hot, have a smoky fruitness to them and provide plenty of deep red colour to the oil. I can then tweak the amount of heat with regular chilli flakes (for me, plenty) and add in other chillies if I want to layer the hot flavours further. While they’re certainly not traditional, dried Mexican chillies are the easiest way to provide depth. Ancho adds raisin-like sweetness while chipotle adds bags of smoke, but there are literally hundreds of varieties from all over the world, each with their own flavour profile.
Next up are your fresh aromatics, of which garlic and shallots are the most important. These provi
