I'm making one of the staples or mis-en-place items in my kitchen. One of the most useful things I make from fried shallots, but onions can also be used.
I use extra virgin peanut oil, but you can use whatever oil you like, including chicken fat, lard, avocado oil, or coconut oil. Sometimes I will use another oil that you would eat.
The point is, is that it will serve as both a condiment that can be used with steamed grains or eaten on a bowl of rice or added as a seasoning agent to cold or fried tofu.
You can also add chili crisp to it.
Or throw some into a tadka right before tempering.
A tablespoon or two of this in a salad dressing or any kind of a dressing or a steamed vegetable or a sauce even mixed with butter.
And you can definitely add shio koji, doenjang, fish paste, kosho or miso to it.
I like adding a crispy mushroom based chili paste. Or the fried chicken skin chili crisp.
This is a great gift to bring if you're going to a party.
It's also great to always have on hand if you have guests who are intolerant to or dislike alliums or hot pepper, whatever it may be, so this can be used as a side condiment.
Also, if you're going someplace and you know you're gonna wanna to add your own seasoning, it's easy enough to take some of this along with you.
I use this as the foundation or everything from chili crisp to a peanut topping to mixing it in with a very intense either plant-based (like miso or cashew butter) or a dairy-based butter.
Or to finish a sauce win. The trick is to not make too much at once.
As you can see, There's almost as much sliced shallots in there as oil.
It has to be cooked at 315 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.You do not want to get too brown or black. You want the moisture to evaporate out very slowly. That is why as opposed to frying something or deep frying something properly, you want to crowd the pan so that the moisture or the water slowly releases and it does not brown too quickly.
I lightly salt the oil using one teaspoon per 400 milliliters or pint of oil. You can omit the salt. Also, you can add some hot mustard oil to it if you are going for a specific taste. Usually a heavy bottomed pan, aromas and taste stay in the oil.
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