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DIY Mala Chili Crisp and Chili Oil Kit
$78
Make Your Own Premium Chili Oils and Crisps
Chili crisp has become the "it" condiment over the past few years for good reason: It is spicy, numbing, crunchy umami in a jar and it enlivens almost any dish you put it on, from Sichuan noodles to dumplings to quesadillas to pizza.
Many have tried to duplicate the phenomenal taste and success of China's Lao Gan Ma chili sauces, and many of their efforts are tasty. But yours will be even tastier, because chili crisp is infinitely customizable, and yours will be customized to your taste. Plus, it will be fresher and far less expensive than the small store-bought versions.
The Mala Market has bundled premium versions of the hard-to-source ingredients that are must-haves for making either a Sichuan-style chili oil for cooking or a chili crisp condiment.
The kit includes caiziyou, Sichuan’s favorite, toasty oil; the perfect, moderately hot blend of three Guizhou chilies; our super fragrant and numbing Sichuan pepper; Chinese warm spices; and Sichuan's heritage fermented black beans. You'll just add easily sourced aromatics and nuts (if you wish) to create your own unique oil and/or crisp.
The kit also includes detailed instructions and an oversize jar in which to store your creation.
What's Included
This kit makes three 17-ounce batches of chili crisp or aromatic chili oil. Use leftovers from the full-size products to make other Sichuan dishes. Each is all natural, with no additives or preservatives.
The star ingredient, roasted rapeseed oil, or caiziyou, is an essential component of Sichuan gastronomy. It is related to canola oil, but is made from deeply roasted, non-GMO oil seeds that are cold-pressed to retain aroma, flavor, vitamins and antioxidants. It is a highly flavored virgin oil that has not been refined, bleached or deodorized, which is exactly why it is prized in Sichuan cooking.
Caiziyou is central to chili oil and the “red oil” dressings made from it due not only to the fragrance and taste it imparts but also to its high viscosity and adhesiveness. Caiziyou’s high adhesive quality means chili oil produced with it clings better to all your noodle, dumpling and cold dishes. This is a large, 1.5 liter bottle.
Our Chengdu-made ground chili blend is the most traditional in Sichuan cooking and is called xiang la, or fragrant hot. Each chili is chosen for the specific characteristics it brings to the blend.
Er jing tiao: very strong coloring ability, strong fragrance
Zi dan tou: strong coloring ability, strong fragrance, moderate spiciness
Xiao mi la: strong spiciness
The ratio of chilies in this blend is fine-tuned to be highly fragrant and deeply red but only moderately hot, since Sichuan cooks use chilies and chili oils in abundance and prize the flavor and color as much as the heat. The chilies are lightly roasted in rapeseed oil to enhance flavor and texture before they are ground to a coarse mix of flakes, seeds and powder perfect for making chili oil.
The Flavorings
Chinese 5 Spice, 2.2 oz
This is a collection of whole spices in one bag that are the classic mix used for five spice in Sichuan: cassia bark, star anise, fennel seed, clove and our premium single-origin da hong pao Sichuan peppercorn. They are used to infuse the oil for an aromatic chili oil or a chili crisp.
Sichuan Pepper, 2 oz
An additional full-size bag of da hong pao red Sichuan peppercorns. This is a recipe for mala chili crisp, after all, and you'll add ground Sichuan pepper to provide the citrusy tingle.
Tongchuan Fermented Soybeans, 9.5 oz
Sichuan’s heritage brand of fermented soybeans, or “black beans,” is a Sichuan secret ingredient that brings a super-umami boost to chili crisp.
The Jar
Bormioli Rocco glass storage jar with latch lock, 17 oz
This functional beauty holds 17 ounces, so your creation will be not only better and fresher, it will be significantly bigger than store-bought chili crisp and chili oil, which ranges from 4 to 8 ounces.
Recipe Card
A beautifully printed large-format recipe card with instructions will get you started on your first batch of chili oil or chili crisp.
Use links above to see individual products on this site for more description of each one, including provenance, history, production methods, ingredients and nutrition facts.
If this is a gift, know that our shipments do not include any pricing info. The collection is packaged with red tissue paper and a product storage and usage guide.
How To Use It
The detailed recipe card included with the kit will walk you through your first batch of aromatic chili oil or chili crisp. We also have detailed blog posts on our recipe site that provide additional information, photos and trouble-shooting tips:
The Sichuan chili crisp recipe is available only with the kit (but feel free to email us should you misplace it)
Two things to note about Sichuan chili oils:
Since dressings and sauces for Sichuan noodles and cold dishes often call for the red oil component of chili oil (not just crisp), Sichuan chili oil has a higher ratio of caiziyou to ground chilies. Traditionally, this is between 3:1 and 5:1. Conversely, chili crisps tend to be mostly crunchy bits and have very little free oil, so the chili crisp recipe calls for a higher ratio of chilies and flavoring ingredients to provide the additional crisp and crunch.
Sichuan cooks long ago devised a method for preparing the ideal chili oil. Theoretically, the oil and ground chilies each require adding in three distinct phases. The first pour-over at the highest oil temperature extrudes or “forces out” the smoky-fragrant chili aroma; the second pour at a middle temperature draws out the attractive red color of the oil; and the third and last pour at the lowest temperature preserves the spice of the chilis. But it’s the first two phases that are the most important, and many chefs only use high and middle temperature oil in their chili oil. The included recipe walks you through this process.
Storage
All products are shelf-stable and can be stored in a cool, dark pantry.
Optionally, once opened, we recommend refrigeration for caiziyou to maintain peak freshness. Spices and chilies can be frozen for long-term storage.
Allergens
Products in this collection include soybean.
The products are all natural, with no additives or preservatives. They are all gluten-free. See individual product pages for a complete listing of ingredients and nutrition facts.
Fragrant-hot red oil, aka aromatic chili oil, is the foundation of so many Sichuan dishes— from noodles to dumplings to cold dishes and salads—and the key to their authentic flavor
Hongyou wei, or chili oil flavor, is one of Sichuan cuisine's official complex flavor profiles. Dishes like this three-sliver salad are dressed in chili oil, soy sauce, salt and sugar.
