Ingredients

There is a significant difference between homemade chili oil and store bought, so it is worth the time to make your own to use or to give. It will become a pantry essential.

Dried chili wreaths and bouquets available in specialty markets are your best bet for freshness and they provide a nice contract of colour as well. 
If so inclined, grow a small pepper bush of your own, then hang ripe peppers to dry in the kitchen or attic. You will need:

• dried peppers of your choice, stems removed
• good quality olive oil like Domenica Fiore.

Full disclosure:  thinking that good quality olive oil might be wasted in chili oil, we did try using both grapeseed oil and camelina oil. The camelina oil produced a herbaceous, somewhat green tasting chili oil which was quite nice, but the grapeseed oil produced a greasy, oily tasting product that we didn't care for at all.  Interestingly, the fruitiness of good quality olive oil remained very much apparent in the finished product, in spite of the heat.

Methodology

Test your peppers for moisture by squeezing one between your fingers.  If it is at all pliable then it contains unwanted moisture and requires further drying.  If necessary, spread peppers on a cookie sheet in a slow (120F) oven and leave for an hour or so until dry.  Prop the oven door open with a wooden utensil to let moisture escape.

Once dry and cool, place peppers (stems removed), in batches, in a mortar and pestle and crush until flakes are small enough to sift through a shaker top.  Reserve most of the crushed peppers for shaking and storage and use a tablespoon or two to make chili oil.  Making oil in small batches, as needed, keeps it fresh.

A good ratio for success is 1 teaspoon of crushed chili flakes per 4 ounces of oil, but let your tastebuds be your guide on this.  Checking a Scoville Scale is a good place to start when anticipating heat and shopping for peppers.

Tip: We keep a few small dried chilis whole to add to each bottle of oil as a beautiful brightly coloured accent.  The air contained in the whole chili prevents it from floating to the bottom of the oil with the chili flakes.

In a small deep saucepan, gently heat the olive oil and chili flakes to near boiling. Turn heat off and let cool.  Pour into glass jars and seal.  For gifting, choose beautiful jars and tie a whole dried chili pepper around the neck with kitchen string or rafia.

Submitted by:

C@H Kitchen