Chinese or Szechuan Pepper Oil
Szechuan pepper-infused oil is a tasty and versatile condiment. Use it in marinades for meat, as a dipping sauce or to spice up soups and other dishes.
It’s more than just pepper flavored. It has layers of taste from other spices and aromatics. Once you see how flavorful it is, you may find yourself making up a batch of this every month or so to use in all your cooking.
Ingredients
2 cups avocado oil. Peanut or sesame oil are good substitutes
5 cloves of thinly sliced garlic
4 medium shallots
1 1/2″ piece of ginger
4 green onions
2 star anise
1 stick cinnamon
2 tsp whole cloves
1 tbsp Szechuan peppercorns
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
2 tsp salt
2 tsp white pepper
1/2 cup chili flakes. Thai Chili or your favorite peppers, depending on how spicy you want it.
1 tbsp Chinese black vinegar (optional)
1 tbsp soy sauce (optional)
Directions:
If you are using large dried peppers, put them into a food processor or blender and blend the big pieces into flakes so that you have ½ cup of flakes.
Roast the cinnamon, star anise, cloves and Szechuan peppercorns in a pan over medium high heat for 2-3 minutes, until the spices begin releasing their aroma. Pour the roasted spices into a 1-quart jar.
Peel garlic, ginger and shallots. Thinly slice the shallots. Finely dice the ginger and garlic. Slice the green onions into 1½ – 2” segments.
In a heavy bottom sauce pan, heat up the oil to 300°. While the oil is heating up, add all the remaining dry ingredients to the jar: sesame seeds, pepper, salt and pepper flakes.
When the oil is hot, add the shallots and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and fry another 1-2 minutes. Finally add the ginger and fry for a minute or two. Pour the oils and these sauteed aromatics into the jar.
Add the green onion, vinegar and soy sauce to the jar. Put a lid on it and shake so that everything is evenly distributed throughout the jar. Let everything steep for a couple hours. The oil can be used once it is cool, but I prefer to let it steep overnight.
After the oil has steeped to your satisfaction, pour the oil through a fine-mesh sieve into another jar to remove all the spices. Put a lid on the jar and store at room temperature for up to two weeks or refrigerate for up to two months.
A Note About the Ingredients
You can use any oil that has a high smoke point, but avocado is best as it is the most neutral. Olive oil is the least desireable.
I like to break the cinnamon stick into 2-4 pieces before toasting. It provides more surface area for the aromatic oils to release.
If you don’t have Szechuan peppercorns, you can substitute black telichery with a few coriander seeds added.
This recipe traditionally uses Tien Tsin or Erjingtiao peppers, but you can use any dried pepper you have on hand. Here’s where you can decide the level of heat by choosing peppers that are more (or less) spicy.
The soy sauce and black vinegar are optional but they add new depths of flavor with a hint of Asian flavor.
