Chili Oil

[Biscombe]

How do you make yours??

[TPeers]

I don't - didn't know you could! Any recipes? First year growing chillies and peppers and got loads! The only major success of the gardening year.....

[jlottie]

I make chilli oil and its pretty lethal. You need to make sure that the peppers are thoroughly dried then just add as many as you want to some olive oil and leave to mature. You can add garlic cloves and/or black pepper too, depends how much of a kick you want it to have.

[vicren]

never heard of chilli oil but sounds good, we love chillies and have grown hundreds this year so will try making some chilli oil,but what do you use the chilli oil for???

[jlottie]

Its great on Pizza, salads and just about anything you would use olive oil on but with an extra kick. Its also great for cooking things like stir fry and in curry

[vicren]

Originally Posted by jlottie

Its great on Pizza, salads and just about anything you would use olive oil on but with an extra kick. Its also great for cooking things like stir fry and in curry

thanks for that advise am going to make somr tomorrow!

[vicren]

do you leave your chillis whole when you make this???

[jlottie]

I just put them in whole Vicren, they look very nice too

[Biscombe]

I was worried about botilism, but no danger of that in this recipe!

I've been doing a lot of researching on this and have found that If you chop up dried chilis, boil them in vinegar, drain then cover with oil, shake to release the bubbles, leave a little while to mature.

Enjoy

[jlottie]

Thats why the chillis have to be thoroughly dried Biscombe, they seem to get even hotter when they are dried out

[Biscombe]

Don't you think It's better to chop up the chilis, or prick em so the oil can penetrate?

[jlottie]

I suppose it depends on how soon you want to use the oil, I leave mine for a couple of months to mature and as the stalks have already been cut off the oil can still penetrate, its all trial and error and what suits you

[TPeers]

So... I have to dry the chillies first.... can I just string them and hang them up near th boiler?

How long will they take to dry, and how do I recognise a dried chilli - other than I assume it will be wrinkly!

[vicren]

does anyone know the best way to pickle chillies, have been researching and am still confused has anyone out there tried it??? do you chop em, do you leave them whole? which vinegar?

[julian]

Soak them in brine for 24 hours.
This keeps them crunchy.
Then you can get pickling vinegar from the supermarkets.
I tend to slice them into rings.
You don't want any air inside so don't pickle them whole.

[Morpheus]

Soaking them in brine really does make all the difference.

[paul]

Vicren

you can dry chillies either by hanging them on the washing line in warm to hot dry weather or put them in the oven on a really low heat until they are shrivelled. Shake them when you think that they are done. If it has a maraka sound, then they are dried to perfection.