Zao Lajiao, fermented chili sauce! This style of chili sauce can be found throughout southwest China... spanning from Yunnan to Hunan (where it's called 'duojiao', or chopped chilis). It's an awesome sauce to use as a base for stir-fries: just fry a bit of the chili sauce with oil, then fry whatever you want in that.
Originally, we wanted to release this guy simultaneously with a Guizhou-style fried rice that uses it, but we've been a bit busy - will release that video next week.
INGREDIENTS
1. Fresh red chilis, 1.8kg. Try to find a C. Annum in the ~10k SVU range. But just use what you can find.
2. Ginger, 180g. (10%)
3. Garlic, 180g. (10%)
4. Baijiu liquor (白酒), 90mL or vodka or gin. (5%)
5. Salt, 90g. (5%)
6. Sugar, 36g. (2%)
For the Baijiu... if you'd like, you can pick up a bottle of Ming River, which's the international brand of Luzhou Laojiao. Their shop's here: mingriver.com/
AFAIK it's one of the few premium Baijiu's available in the West. While it would generally be a bit odd to use a premium baijiu for cooking, baijiu is one of those things where when it comes to drinking, the price point really matters. Cheap baijiu like erguotou is $8-17 in the West. If you're looking at the lower bound of that range, I'd use the cheap one for sure. If you're looking at the upper bound of that range, I'd personally just drop the extra $15 to get something where the remaining 660mL is tasty. Personal preference and all.
Note that we did get that bottle of Ming River for free from them, but we're not getting paid to say nice things about them (because apparently we're the worst internet marketers ever, you can check out the pinned comment for the full story). I just think they're doing a good job - it's a tasty Baijiu.
Oh, the water seal fermentation vessel that we use is called a 'fermentation crock'. They're traditionally used in Germany too. You can absolutely use mason jars instead if you prefer.
PROCESS
1. Remove the stems from your chilis. Be careful not to break the top.
2. Thoroughly wash your chilis.
3. Leave the chilis to dry for a few hours under the sun to get off the water from washing.
4. Slice the chilis into 1 inch pieces, peel the garlic and ginger.
5. Pulse in a blender until everything's in small bits.
6. Mix in the salt, sugar, and baijiu (or your alcohol of choice).
7. Transfer to your mason jars or fermentation crock and ferment for at least 15 days.
It will continue to get better with time.
HOW TO USE DRIED CHILIS/CHILIS AVAILABLE IN THE WEST
So I know that fresh red chilis are frustratingly difficult to find in the west at times - particularly at the ~10-20k SVU range we're looking at here.
In the USA at least, it seems the most commonly available fresh red chili is the fresno chili. In some places, you can also find red jalapenos, red serranos, or Korean cheongyang chili peppers. While these wouldn't exactly be the same as what we're doing, I think there's wisdom in localizing stuff re chili peppers.
Alternatively, you can use dried-and-reconstituted chilis. We haven't tested this, so this advice is from our awesome Patron "Sauerkrause", who's a bit of a home fermentation aficionado (and always a huge help). He recommends no more that 2/3 dried chilis though - you do need a bit of life in there. Another route would be to use dried chilis, but seed it with a bit of liquid from fermenting vegetables - bonus points if it's a chili or pepper ferment. So.
ROUTE #1: USE ALL FRESNOS/RED JALAPENOS/CHEONGYANGS/ETC
Not the same taste, but will still be tasty. Red Jalapenos is what Sriracha USA uses, so maybe there's some precedent for the sub. You can also add a bit of fresh Thai bird's eye to up the heat a touch.
ROUTE #2: USE 1/3 FRESNOS/ETC, 1/3 DRIED KASHMIRI CHILIS, 1/3 DRIED CAYENNES
Guizhou Xianjiao, after all, tastes a bit like a cross between Kashmiri and Erjingtiao (which's a variety of Cayenne). These chilis are available on Amazon. Reconstitute your chilis overnight with a cold water soak, and dry off the surface water. Base off of your POST RECONSTITUTED WEIGHT. So we'd be looking at 600g reconstituted kashmiris, 600g reconstituted cayenne, 600g Fresnos or whatever.
ROUTE #3: USE 1/2 DRIED KASHMIRIS, 1/2 DRIED CAYENNES, SEED WITH A STARTER
Make any sort of vegetable ferment you like. For this purpose, we could use bell pepper. Fill a mason jar with a 3% brine (e.g. 2 cups water, ~14g salt), then submerge your pepper. Once you can see some bubbles forming, you know it's alive. Enjoy your fermented pepper, transfer 90g of the brine into your jar with the reconstituted kasmiris/cayennes and such.
And check out our Patreon if you'd like to support the project!
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Outro Music: คิดถึงคุณจัง by ธานินทร์ อินทรเทพ
Found via My Analog Journal (great channel): • Live Stream: Favourite...