The Best Condiment, I promise

During the 2020 Nativity Fast, the NYT Cooking newsletter featured a ramen stir fry with chile oil. It's behind a paywall now, but I wrote it down in my recipe book.  It is heavenly: crunchy, tender, spicy, and nutty.  I made it weekly for a while, adding shrimp on fast days and making it with chicken one time.  But the chile oil...well, that's what makes the dish.  It's now a fridge staple for us.  I put it on just about everything--today's lunch was a bowl of steamed carrots and green beans on a bed of hummus*, covered with chile oil.  I'm going to make it again tomorrow! Z especially loves it, and, like me, she finds ways to incorporate it in her lunches.  I've changed the recipe a tad; I don't add any salt to the oil, but to my food, if needed.  The salt won't dissolve in the chile oil, which means that some people get unsalted portions and others get too much salt.  Blech.  I won't speak to how long the oil keeps well in the fridge--I ate some today that has been in there for a couple of weeks.  No food poisoning yet, but I'll keep you posted. 

Here it is:

CHILE OIL

2T red pepper flakes

1/2 c. neutral oil (I use sunflower or grapeseed oil)

1" piece of ginger, chopped into teeny bits

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 t sesame seeds, toasted

1 t sesame oil

Put red pepper flakes in heat proof container.  Place oil, ginger, garlic in small saucepan and heat over medium until it bubbles, 2-3 min.  Be careful not to burn the garlic!  Pour over red pepper flakes and stir.  Add sesame seeds and oil.  Enjoy!

*We have found a new hummus recipe that's amazing!  It's from this cookbook.  We learned two things 1) we weren't adding enough tahini to previous homemade recipes, and 2) hummus is best when it's the consistency of pudding.