[0:00] So this product, red oil chili bean paste, it's 
a big reason why ‘Sichuan food’ is really so  
[0:07] synonymous with ‘the color red’. Like this is 
a Mapo Tofu that's made with it and this is a  
[0:13] Mapo Tofu that's made without. The stuff, it's 
not actually very spicy… it primarily has this  
[0:18] really deep fermented bean flavor to it, but it 
is importantly, incomparably… gorgeously red.  
[0:26] But something that I've seen when people are 
trying to hunt this down for their mapo tofu or  
[0:30] whatever is honestly… a lot of confusion. Because 
like, you don't want this. This one is Cantonese  
[0:38] and it's really a bit more for dipping sauces. You 
also don't want this. This is Taiwanese and it's  
[0:45] not really the same thing as our red oil chili 
bean paste. And further confusing everything, even  
[0:51] in Sichuan itself, there are two major different 
varieties of red oil chili bean paste. There's  
[0:58] this and there's also this, which is in turn made 
from this. So, red oil chili bean paste variety  
[1:10] number one, which is a chili bean paste that's 
been aged together with oil, which is basically  
[1:15] what this product is here, which is honestly for 
most home cooks the standard kind of red oil chili  
[1:22] bean paste. If you see a recipe online calling 
for Pixian Doubanjiang, whether it's in English or  
[1:29] in Chinese, 99 times out of 100, they're going to 
be calling for this thing. The way that it's made  
[1:34] is by fermenting broad beans together with chili 
pepper and a whole bunch of salt and then taking  
[1:40] that and aging it together with oil inside of a 
fermentation crock. I'll leave an English language  
[1:46] recipe for the stuff if you're in the market for 
a fermentation project, but you can also just  
[1:51] buy this bottle. It's easy. It's ready to go. But 
there's also chili bean paste variety number two,  
[2:00] which is a chili bean paste that's been fried with 
oil. Now, this I think you might be able to tell,  
[2:06] is a homemade red oil chili bean paste that is 
in turn made from this, which is a not-homemade  
[2:14] oil-less Pixian Doubanjiang. This specific 
pack here, it's pretty popular in restaurants,  
[2:19] but in Sichuan itself at the markets, you can also 
find some more… artisanally made… varieties. What  
[2:25] you'll do is you will get your oil-free Pixian 
Doubanjiang and then you'll bring it home and  
[2:31] then you'll fry it on low together with a bunch 
of oil and then you can take that, reserve it,  
[2:36] and save it for dishes. So if you've gone online 
and you've mistakenly bought a pack of this,  
[2:43] know that it actually is a pretty nice product, 
but also know that it is not quite ready to use  
[2:49] just quite yet. Again, you're going to need to fry 
it. Now, there's a couple different ways that you  
[2:56] can fry this stuff. You can also flavor your oil, 
which we'll show you how to do a little bit later.  
[3:01] But first, let's just show you how to get this 
guy ready to use. So, assuming a base of about  
[3:06] 100 g of our packaged Pixian Doubanjiang, we're 
going to be using a half a cup of oil. Now, the  
[3:12] oil that we're using today is this – Caiziyou - 
which is a sort of virgin rapeseed oil that's very  
[3:19] traditional in Sichuan cooking. Now, Caiziyou, 
unfortunately, it is a raw oil. So, first we're  
[3:26] going to need to cook it. Now, to do so, you 
just toss that into a walk and over a high flame,  
[3:32] you begin to get that up to smoke point. So, for 
this stuff, we're looking for an oil temperature  
[3:37] about 230C. Then, we'll swap the flame to low 
and keep it at around that temperature for 30  
[3:43] to 40 seconds. Then, shut off the heat and let the 
temperature come down. The reason for this move is  
[3:50] whenever you're working with any kind of raw oil 
like this kind of Sichuan Caiziyou or if you're  
[3:56] in Guangdong or Guangxi, a more kind of artisanal 
peanut oil or maybe an Indian mustard seed oil,  
[4:01] which is our common Caiziyou sub, cooking it first 
is going to be a pretty important step to really  
[4:07] remove its pungency. With most mass-produced oils, 
even the nicer ones, you're not going to have to  
[4:13] do that step. So, you're probably not going to 
need to do it. But, uh, if you're curious what the  
[4:19] result is, you could try it on the raw natural oil 
that's popular in the West, which is, of course,  
[4:25] olive. Try the before and after. But anyway, 
once the oil's cooled down, we can then toss  
[4:31] in our Pixian Doubanjiang. And over a low flame, 
we'll start to fry it. You'll be looking for the  
[4:37] oil to start to stain red, which is going to 
take about 10 minutes over a medium low flame.  
[4:43] You're going to be done once the oil's been 
stained and the chili peppers inside of the  
[4:47] doubanjiang have started to curl slightly and ever 
so slightly lose the color like this. And then you  
[4:54] can just toss that in a bowl and jar it up once 
it's cooled down. But with that said though, we  
[5:00] should probably talk about color because like this 
is the color that we just fried up, and this is  
[5:07] the color of the package bottle. Now, this one, it 
is going to get a bit darker as it sits, but trust  
[5:14] me that it is never going to get as red as the one 
that's actually been fermented together with the  
[5:19] oil. So, functionally, I think for us as cooks, 
type two, it'll often have a superior flavor, but  
[5:27] then type one, it's going to end up with a bit of 
a better color. Now, unless you're making stuff in  
[5:32] a restaurant or on YouTube, if you're just cooking 
for yourself, obviously not everything needs to be  
[5:39] super super red. But if you find yourself using 
the pack and you do want to amp up the color a  
[5:46] bit, three options for you. First, if you're using 
this, you could also try adding a half part of a  
[5:53] red fragrant chili powder to your recipe. So 
like if your recipe is calling for something  
[5:57] like a tablespoon of Pixian Doubanjiang, you could 
maybe try adding a half tablespoon of a Kashmiri  
[6:04] or Gochugaru to your recipe, mixing that in. It's 
not going to end up being quite as red, but it'll  
[6:12] end up kind of splitting the difference. Then 
option two is if you happen to have both this and  
[6:17] this both on hand, you could try going half/half. 
So you could do like half a tablespoon of your  
[6:23] homemade one for depth, half tablespoon of the 
package for color, that kind of thing. And then  
[6:29] option three, you can also fry up your own flavor 
with a mix of different Pixian Doubanjiang. And  
[6:37] that really is the benefit of these kinds of packs 
is that as a cook, you can really kind of take it  
[6:43] and make it your own. Now, the most common way 
to make it your own is to mix different ages  
[6:49] of Pixian Doubanjiang. So, today we're going 
to be doing three parts of a hongyou douban,  
[6:55] the red one. Three parts of a one-year Pixian 
Doubanjiang, that's the pack, and then also one  
[7:02] part of a three-year Pixian Doubanjiang, which is 
a little bit saltier, but it has this really deep  
[7:09] fermented flavor to it. Now, again, this is just 
our mix. One-to-one is another very classic mix in  
[7:16] Sichuan. But again, you can just make it your own 
because in addition to that you can also - if you  
[7:22] want - add in a bit of spices and aromatics. So 
today we decided to go with a quarter of an onion  
[7:28] and about 3 inches of smashed ginger together with 
this spice mix right here - which we tossed in a  
[7:34] bowl and wetted with a bit of baijiu liquor… and 
vodka would also work great. Then we'll cook one  
[7:40] cup worth of our rapeseed oil just like before. 
Let it cool down just like before and then add in  
[7:45] the onion and the ginger and let those fry over 
medium flame. After about 5 minutes, we'll then  
[7:51] toss in our liquor-wetted spices and continue to 
cook. Once the onions are nice and golden brown,  
[7:58] about 5 minutes more, strain that all and then 
return the oil back to the walk. Then add in your  
[8:03] Pixian Doubanjiangs. We've got 90g of our red oil, 
90g of the 1-year together with 30g of the 3-year.  
[8:11] Then slowly fry those again, medium low flame for 
about 10 minutes until red and fragrant. And then  
[8:18] out. And with that, you've got yourself a nice 
and seasoned red oil chili bean paste. So, right,  
[8:27] big question whenever you're making any kind of 
intermediate product in a home kitchen is, uh,  
[8:34] is this actually worth it? Like, is it the bread 
or is it the butter? And for me, I would say this  
[8:40] kind of home fried Pixian Doubanjiang, I would 
say it's… kind of worth it? Like if you're making  
[8:48] Sichuan food on the regular, I think the easiest 
way for you to level up, so to speak, is if you  
[8:54] can make a good quality homemade chili oil. And 
we have a whole video on the topic here. Um, then  
[9:01] the second most important thing, if you can swing 
it, is going to be a homemade stock. Now, that's  
[9:06] obviously a lot more common in restaurant kitchens 
than it is in home kitchens for a reason. But if  
[9:13] you can even whip up a simple pork bone stock, 
I do think that that's really going to move the  
[9:18] needle on your Kung Pao. And then I would put this 
one, I think, underneath those two. Like if you  
[9:25] already have a homemade chili oil and you already 
have homemade stock AND you are frying up a lot  
[9:31] of stuff in the homestyle flavor profile, which 
we covered a couple weeks ago, but is basically  
[9:37] Pixian Doubanjiang and not all that much else. I 
do think that it can be pretty tasty, but um it's  
[9:45] I don't think that obligatory. You can also just 
use this bottle. So yeah, recipe for everything is  
[9:53] going to be down in the description box. Free 
as always. And again, huge huge thank you to  
[9:58] everybody that's supporting us on Patreon. And of 
course, subscribe for more Chinese cooking videos.