Appears in Cook's Illustrated July/August 2017, America's Test Kitchen TV
The hallmark of Sichuan chili oil is a balance between là—the concentrated heat from dried chiles—and má—the numbing effect of Sichuan peppercorns.
Chili oil is a key ingredient in Sichuan cuisine, as it gives many Sichuan dishes their distinctive spicy and numbing flavor. Sichuan chili oil is a quintessential example of málà—a combination of spicy chiles (là: hot, spicy) and numbing S...