Ingredients
| 1½ cups (approx. 230g) fermented black beans | |
| 500ml sunflower oil or other neutral oil | |
| 2 tablespoons Sichuan peppercorns | |
| 2 cinnamon sticks | |
| 3 star anise | |
| 2 bay leaves | |
| 1 tablespoon fennel seeds | |
| 3 black cardamom pods | |
| 5 slices ginger | |
| 2 spring onions | |
| ¾ cup (approx. 80g) chilli flakes | |
| ¼ cup (approx. 25g) fine chilli powder | |
| 3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds | |
| 1 teaspoon sea salt | |
| 1 tablespoon black vinegar |
It’s easy enough to buy black bean chilli oil, but it’s also lovely to make your own. Last year I made a version of this to give as Christmas gifts.
There are a lot of spices here and some of these can be tricky to get hold of. I usually get them from my local Chinese or Indian supermarket. Don’t worry if you don’t have all of the spices; they do add complexity but think of this as a rough guide. I like to add a finer ground chilli to the mix which helps to add colour to the oil.
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Instructions
| 1. | Fermented black beans often come with slices of dried ginger – if so, you’ll need to pick the ginger out before using the beans. |
| 2. | Rinse the beans and drain well on paper towels. If you prefer you can lightly mash half the beans. |
| 3. | In a saucepan, put the sunflower oil, Sichuan peppercorns, cinnamon, star anise, bay leaves, fennel seeds, black cardamom pods, ginger and spring onions. |
| 4. | Put onto a low heat and slowly bring up to 120°C to allow the flavours to infuse – this should take around 20 minutes. |
| 5. | Strain the oil through a fine-meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, discarding the aromatics. Return the oil to the saucepan. |
| 6. | Add the fermented beans, put onto a medium heat and bring back up to 120°C – approximately 10-15 minutes. |
| 7. | While the beans are cooking, put the chilli flakes, chilli powder, sesame seeds, salt and black vinegar in a bowl. Set aside. |
| 8. | Add half the chilli mix to the hot oil. It will sizzle up, so allow it to subside then add the remaining chilli. Set aside to cool. |
| 9. | Spoon into clean and dry sterilised jars. Keep in the fridge. Use over everything. |
Recipes & food styling Ginny Grant / Photography Aaron McLean / Styling Jess Hemmings