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Post by glen on Nov 11, 2019 18:36:27 GMT -6
Chili oil is not my expertise. However, today I was in a Chinese food store and saw this product. Bhut Jalokia chili's chopped up and packed in soya oil. Here are foto's of this product. Naturally I bought the product. The jar is small, about 8 oz but I cannot tell by reading the product since it is made in Taiwan and all the information, except the ingredients are in Chinese. It is a type of chili oil except that the chili's are not removed from the oil after the infusion. I have never seen this type of product before. Online I googled this type of product and the only products I have seen are oils infused with chili. I saw oil that is infused with bhut Jalokia. The chili is not in the final product. You can see that on this product the jar is just filled with what looks like sauteed chili peppers including the seed. I have not opened the jar but when I do I will report how strong it smells. The jar does say that the chili's are Bhut Jalokia, the worlds hottest pepper. Well, it used to be the worlds hottest pepper back in 2007. This pepper comes from India. The product cost me 6.50 which is probably a bargain price. I have seen little packs that were sold online of dried bhut jalokia peppers for a small fortune. I am thinking that this product will be a good table condiment if used with a little common sense and respect. Of course, I am assuming that this is the real thing. Has anyone tried chili oils? What do you think of them? How would you use this product? Do you have any suggestions?
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Post by glen on Nov 12, 2019 0:15:48 GMT -6
I haven't tried the product yet. I am afraid to. However, this product has given me some idea's. Why couldn't I chop up my hot peppers that I still have outside with some garlic and sugar and salt. I can use any oil I want. Why not use olive oil? I can gently sautee the goody's in the olive oil. Not for long. At a low temp. Add the sugar and salt to the mix of course. I could just sautee until the peppers get a little soft. Then, let the mixture cool. Then I could add the mix to a jar, oil and all, leaving the peppers and the seeds in the oil. I don't know how long you would want to let this sit. I guess you could just leave it on the counter for a few days then put in the fridge.
I wonder if olive oil would congeal in the fridge?
Does anyone have any suggestions on what oil would be best for this recipe? The jar I bought uses soya oil. I read online that this type of recipe should last for 2 years without spoiling but I do believe that it would need to be in the fridge.
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Post by glen on Nov 12, 2019 0:21:02 GMT -6
Just using my imagination, I believe this type of product would be good, drizzled over a bowl of hot chili con carne? Or, maybe on a taco? The Bhut Jalokia mix is probably not right for this(too hot). I am going to have to rethink how I am going to use that product. But, if you used regular hot peppers I believe this would be good on a lot of foods or in recipes that need a little jazzing up. When I get the nerve up, I will open that jar and see if what I have read about Bhut Jalokia is true or not?
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 12, 2019 8:38:44 GMT -6
I believe I would use the Bhut Jolokia oil to keep iguanas out of the garden. Maybe use it as a special salad oil on their favorite veggie. Bok Choy sprouts for instance. That is, if your iguanas are not chili heads. If they are, they might be like my ex-brother-in-law and just keep coming over for unwanted visits.
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Post by rdback on Nov 12, 2019 10:17:28 GMT -6
Glen, you need to be careful with peppers and oil. Both are low acid, and can create an environment to support the development of botulism. Please be safe, do your homework, and only use a tested recipe.
Lots of folks scoff at botulism, and it is true that very few people have died from it. What's also true is botulism can make you sicker than you ever thought possible.
Be safe my friend.
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Post by glen on Nov 12, 2019 10:39:04 GMT -6
I will make sure and refrigerate any experiments I come with. In Panama's heat, its always a good idea to treat everything like it is subject to botulism. I don't know what else to do other than that. Can you give me any other suggestions in more detail? This type of product is not popular online. I have found very little in the way of pepper infused oil recipe's online. It hasn't caught on yet.
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Post by macmex on Nov 12, 2019 11:32:46 GMT -6
You'll have to do some research on chiles in oil. I don't believe I've ever heard of it before. Bhut Jolokia will really pack a wallop. If I had such a product in my fridge, I'd probably ration it out, a few drops at a time, as seasoning for stir fries and stews.
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Post by glen on Nov 12, 2019 12:28:38 GMT -6
George, I asked some questions on a Chili pepper forum so I should be getting straightened out soon from the experts. Today I tried the product. It is very hot. I used a little spoon on the table to dole it out. I tried it on white rice, which I didn't like that much. It doesn't spread around the rice. It just sits there. Then I tried it on chicken. Bercy made BBQ chicken in the toaster oven. I just put a dab of this chili oil on my plate and than dipped my chicken piece in the sauce. Its excellent on chicken. The heat is immediate. No sneaky heat at all. Very spicey hot and with very little of the sauce. No fruity back ground flavor. Its messy though since I have a cold. My nose started running of course during the course of the meal and I did have a sweaty forehead. All from a little dab of this stuff on the plate. Very delicious but I highly recommend not offering this chili oil to children and always giving this hot chili oil its much demanded respect. Because its hot. Oh, this sauce does have a sweet background flavor from the sugar that was added. Not much but you can tell its there. The bottle of sauce contains soya oil which will not solidify in the fridge so that is not a problem. That little bottle of hot sauce will last me a year probably. Well worth buying in my opinion.
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Post by glen on Nov 12, 2019 12:37:15 GMT -6
Ok, based on the little bit of reading that I have done, it is true that oil based sauces can become infected with botulism. The solution is to refrigerate the sauce. You treat the sauce as if it is an un-cooked or fresh hot sauce. You would refridgerate a fresh hot sauce as well to avoid food borne illness. I have not seen any recipes for an oil based hot sauce yet. Its more of an Asian thing as far as I can tell. Also, I have seen pepper concentrates and pepper infused with oil for years in the US in the Chinese grocery stores. Its not expensive. Maybe Asians mostly buy this product instead of making it at home? Or, maybe because I do not speak Chinese I can't read Chinese recipes?
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Post by glen on Nov 12, 2019 13:45:31 GMT -6
Bon, stay in touch. I plan to do an experiment today with my hot peppers. I have already picked the peppers which are in a large bowl in the kitchen. I have a mix of Thai hot, Tobasco and wild bird peppers and 3 or 4 large Chombo peppers. I still have to pull the stems and wash. Then I will chop them up. I did some research on oil to see which one would be ideal. Soya oil is ideal since it will not solidify in the fridge. Olive oil would solidify so I am not using that. Canola oil would also be fine. Once the peppers are cleaned and chopped I will put them in the container I plan to store the sauce in. Then I will chop the garlic to taste. I will pour the oil, salt and sugar into the container as well. All will be done according to taste but it will be about 2 tablespoons of unrefined sugar, about 2 teaspoons of salt. Once this is done I will pour this mix into a deep frying pan and heat it up to a fairly low heat. I don't want to fry this mixture, I just want to cook the peppers slowly in the oil. I have never done this so I won't even leave the kitchen while I am doing this. In probably less than 5 minutes I will turn off the stove. Then I will let this mixture return to room temperature. Then, spoon this mix back into the container, with a a cover of course to sit on the counter for about 2 days. Two days of room temperature will help get the pepper oils infused into the oil a little faster. Then the mix will go into the fridge.
This is the plan. I have never done this before nor have I seen a recipe.
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Post by glen on Nov 12, 2019 14:30:02 GMT -6
So far, I have had several suggestions on a chili forum called The Chili Pepper. There will be more later I am sure. The Admin guy suggested I use an oil called Grapeseed oil. I have never seen this oil in Panama. He said this oil would be neutral in flavor. Another guy suggested I use a slow cooker for simmering the peppers in the oil. This is a great idea but not for 2 cups of peppers. I have one of those huge slow cookers. I plan to do this in a large frying pan since its only a small experiment. Maybe I should simmer the peppers for longer than 5 minutes though. I will see what the peppers look like when I start doing this. No one yet seems to have direct experience doing this. The experience is directed at growing the peppers, variety of peppers, and fermenting and making traditional hot sauce. Regular hot sauce. Not chili oil. I may be forced to experiment. Which means I may have to do this recipe a few times in order to attempt to get something palatable.
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Post by glen on Nov 12, 2019 19:17:26 GMT -6
Bon, I am going to try and post a couple of foto's of this experiment. It could be a flop so don't laugh if it is. Someone suggested in the pepper forum that soya oil would not be good since he said that it tastes like crap. I disagree with him. He suggested different oils that are not available to me here in Panama where I live. Like grapeseed oil, or, walnut oil and several others. So, I am going with what I have and hoping for the best. I even bought more hot peppers. Chombo's are what they sell in my grocery store. They are spicey and look like scotch bonnets from Jamaica. The important part is that I need to heat up the oil pretty hot so it will kill any bacteria in the peppers like botulism. Then, of course, we store the finished product in the fridge.
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Post by glen on Nov 12, 2019 21:04:29 GMT -6
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Post by glen on Nov 12, 2019 21:06:36 GMT -6
Oh, I slipped in a foto of some red snapper we bought from a chico on the side of the road. We got 8.5 lb snapper today for 2.65 per lb. Thats one of the benefits of living in Central America. The chili oil may or may not be a benefit. We will see.
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Post by glen on Nov 13, 2019 0:02:50 GMT -6
Ok, Bercy tasted the chili oil. We added another teaspoon of salt. Plus 2 tablespoons more of yellow sugar. That was a couple of hours ago. Its 1 am. I tasted it again. Its hotter than Hades right now and does not need more salt. However, I still could not taste any sweetness. I will have Bercy taste it again tomorrow to see if it needs more sweetness. Its a fairly big jar. Probably at least 24 oz. It probably does need more sweetness. The oil is not the best tasting in the sauce. The suggestion was probably correct that it needs a better quality oil base to be real tasty. The sugar should cover that over. If you have ever tasted Asian chili oil it is usually very sweet and hot. I assume now that the reason is because of the taste of the soya oil. Probably end up putting another 2 tablespoons of sugar in tomorrow. Remember, I have not seen a real recipe. I am winging this totally. I got the hot part down. Its hugely hot and spicy. Not as hot as the Bhut Jalokia sauce I bought at the Asian store. But, super hot never-the-less.
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