Liquid Gold – Liquid Fire
I’m a lover of garlic so when I saw a post about Liquid Gold garlic crisps I knew that I had to order their range. They have three varieties with three heat ranges – Liquid Gold which is their no heat variety, Liquid Heat which is the subject of this review at the middle-child of the lineup, and Liquid Patay (Tagalog for death) which is the hottest variety.
Liquid Gold is the brainchild of a husband and wife chef duo that began by doing Filipino pop-up dinners and private chef services before eventually creating a no-heat garlic crisp to be the perfect way to create garlic rice. It became so popular they jarred it and began to sell it, and added the spicier versions afterwards for those who love the great flavor of garlic but also want some heat.
Liquid Fire is similar to a chili crisp except for instead of crushed chiles it’s crushed garlic. The company uses very high quality oils, grapeseed and olive oil in this case, which is a major improvement from many cheaper brands of chili crisp which use soybean oil, an oil I’ve always found to have an unpleasant fishy flavor. Some spices including onion powder, garlic powder, and the all important MSG boost the savory nature of the garlic and scorpion, reaper, and habanero peppers bring the heat. Sichuan peppercorns add their distinctive citrusy numbing quality.
The flavor is very garlic forward with a nice warming heat that’s less than you’d expect from the super hot peppers used in Liquid Fire. The garlic flavor is first and foremost with a fulfilling umami quality and savoriness that comes from the supporting ingredients. Since it’s already cooked it can be used straight on top of foods but the high oil content also makes it excellent for use in sautés instead of a cooking oil.
One of the first things I tried with Liquid Fire was to sauté some broccoli rabe in it to accompany a grilled steak. Several spoonfulls along with a bit of the oil made for an amazing fragrant dish, the sweetness of the garlic helping to cut the bitterness of the greens, and the heat adding a great addition to the side dish. Since this was developed for rice I also used some mixed in with cooked rice to accompany a Japanese curry I prepared and it does add a great depth of flavor and umami richness to plain rice that makes you never want to eat your rice plain and white again. A spoon mixed in with a bowl of instant ramen elevates the dish and makes it taste more similar to something you’d get at an actual ramen shop. Adding some to a bowl of chili pumps up the garlic flavor considerably and adds more meaty flavor from the umami elements.
The bottle recommends not refrigerating it but consuming it quickly once opened, and I had no problems finding multiple ways to use it so the little jar was finished off within a week. I can easily recommend Liquid Fire and look forward to trying the other two varieties soon.
Ingredients: Fried garlic, grapeseed oil, extra virgin olive oil, spice, sugar, less than 2% of: brown sugar, paprika, monosodium glutamate, garlic powder, onion powder, ghost pepper, cayenne, Carolina reaper, Sichuan pepper, habanero pepper, sea salt
Heat Level: 3/10. This has some kick but the overall heat level is still medium-low.
