Start by placing 500ml of the neutral oil in a pot with the sliced shallots and place on low heat. Allow the shallots to sizzle away, you don’t want them to burn, but this should take around 20 minutes. You’ll know they’re nearly done when the bubbles stop appearing. You want lightly golden crunchy pieces. Remove with a spider style sieve and place on paper towel.

Add in 100ml more of the oil to cook it down and then place in garlic and do the same thing. Place on low heat and allow to sizzle until lightly golden. This should take about 10 minutes. Remove with spider and place on paper towel to crisp up.

In the same oil (make sure all garlic is removed) add in cinnamon stick, dried bay leaves, star anise, cardamom pods, coriander seeds and fennel seeds place on low heat and allow to very gently sizzle for 1 hour.

After the hour, remove the aromats by straining the oil through a sieve into a fresh pot. Place pot on high heat and allow to come to a super hot temperature, you want the oil steaming.

Whilst the oil comes to temperature, in a large heat proof bowl place chilli powder, dried chilli flakes, sesame seeds, sugar, salt and black vinegar and mix it all together.

Once oil is super hot and steaming, pour over the bowl of chilli in 2 parts. The oil will very quickly come to the top and boil up so be careful.

Once the bubbles calm down give it a mix through and allow to infuse for a few minutes. Add in the remaining neutral oil and a bit more if you want a looser chilli oil. Don’t add if you want a classic thick chilli crunch.

Once everything is cooled down, add in the fried shallots and garlic and mix through. Add to clean container and use how you like for up to 3 months if stored correctly. Best place to store is somewhere dark and cool or the fridge.