Searching for a recipe, the red pepper paste in oil that is served alongside the meal at Thai restaurants.
Doing some Google searches I come up with the name, Chili Sauce in oil - Lao Gan Ma. The Thai version is called Nam Prik Pao. I’ve enjoyed this condiment at Chinese restaurants. It appears to be red pepper flakes (the stuff you shake on pizzas) in oil.
Here’s a link to a Chinese company that makes jars of the stuff. They list the ingredients as: pepper, vegetable oil, salt, gourmet powder, sugar.
I wonder if the “gourment powder” is MSG?
Here’s a link to a jar of the Thai version called Nam Prik Pao.
Roasted Chilli Paste (Chilli Jam), Pantainorasingh » Temple of Thai Food Store
I looked for a recipe and haven’t found one so far. You have to be careful about immersing things in oil at home because the oil makes a perfect environment to grow botulism due to lack of air, which it thrives on. Commercial products prevent this with chemical preservatives and acid PH.
Thanks for the information! I wondered whether it was safe to have it at room temperature. The Thai restaurants I have been to keep this in medium-sized glass jars on the table all day. There is about an inch or two of oil at the bottom that is separate from the pepper paste.
At Chinese restaurants I’ve been to, the oil is about an inch or two above the seed/chili flake mixture at the bottom of the jar, and it has a small, long handled, spoon sticking out of it. Like you said, it sits out all day on each table.
Maybe it’s like Tabasco sauce. They age that for 5-years in wooden barrels, with a salt crust on top. I’ve seen TV tours show the factory, it was real interesting,