Coconut Lemongrass Chilli Crisp
This spicy, umami-forward chilli crisp will soon be your new favourite condiment. It’s inspired by some of my favourite Thai flavours – coconut, lemongrass, fish sauce, shallots, garlic, the list goes on. It’s great on just about everything – rice, noodles, fish, chicken, eggs, vegetables, soups… you name it.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 1 jar 1x
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 lemongrass stalks, tough outer layer removed
- 1 echalion shallot (banana shallot), thinly sliced
- 2 head of garlic, separated into cloves, thinly sliced
- 300ml vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp crushed red chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp desiccated coconut
- 1 tbsp fresh galangal (or ginger), peeled and minced
- ½ tbsp fish sauce
- ½ tbsp sugar
Instructions
- Using the flat side of a chef’s knife, bruise the lemongrass stalks. Place them in a medium saucepan along with the shallot, garlic and vegetable oil.
- Set the saucepan over a medium heat and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low/medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the shallots and garlic are lightly browned (emphasis on the lightly). Don’t be tempted to turn the heat up to high to speed up the process. Extracting the moisture from the shallots and garlic, which is key to crisping them up, takes time – anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place the crushed red chilli flakes, desiccated coconut, galangal, fish sauce and sugar in a medium heatproof bowl. Place a fine-mesh sieve over the bowl and set aside.
- Pour the shallot-garlic oil through the sieve and stir to combine, leaving the solids to cool in the sieve – this will help them fully crisp up.
- Once cooled, discard the lemongrass then stir the crispy shallots and garlic into the chilli oil.
- Once the chilli crisp is fully cooled, transfer it to a jar and store in the fridge for up to a month. Stir well before serving. You can use it as soon as it cools down, but it’s even better the day after once the flavours have had a chance to develop and meld together.
Notes
If you increase the amount of chilli crisp you’re making, you’ll also need to increase the amount of time you spent cooking the garlic and shallots.