Mark Bittman's tofu and chinese celery salad with chile oil.
The salad was pretty good (don't undersalt it!) but the chile oil is the really tremendous part. The recipe makes plenty more oil than you need for a single meal, and we've been using it happily as a condiment. Extra good drizzled over avocado on toast.
It's spicy but not LIKE OH GOD I CAN'T FEEL MY FACE spicy and certainly not too spicy to let the other flavors come through. You can get good Szechuan peppercorns from Penzey's, and I'm sure from many other places too.
1 cup peanut oil
1 piece ginger, 2 inches long, cut into 3 or 4 slices
1 piece cinnamon, 3 inches long
3 cloves
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
4 star anise
1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns
1/4 cup red chili flakes, or more to taste
Heat the oil to simmering and add the other ingredients, then immediately remove from heat. Let cool and steep for a couple of hours, then strain.
In the video version of the recipe, Bittman adds a few scallions cut into 2" lengths, as well. We didn't, but I'm sure it's good that way too.
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