Fire Up Your Winter With These Three Chilli Oil Snacks from Chotto Motto’s Owner

If you’re hunting for some of the most popular gyoza in Melbourne, head for the backstreets of Collingwood. An eye-catching black and white building is home to Chotto Motto, the idiosyncratic diner known as much for its Japanese junk shop fit-out as its signature dumplings.

These days, it’s also known for its retail condiments – particularly the jars of house-made crispy chilli oil. It’s the same oil you’ll find on top of the restaurant’s pan-fried chicken or pork gyoza; the team began selling it during the pandemic and it’s still a hit today thanks to its moreish spicy and savoury profile.

“We put in a lot of garlic, shallots, onions and all those kinds of things,” says co-owner Tomoya Kawasaki. “Then we use the best quality sesame oil and put a little bit of douchi, which is fermented black [soybeans], for a little twist.”

Now, the cult-hit crispy chilli oil has been given a wintry makeover, in collaboration with Melbourne’s Starward Whisky. Kawasaki says the whisky-infused chilli oil has taken both elements towards a “completely new taste”.

It’s made by infusing the chilli oil with Starward’s flagship Two-Fold whisky, a wheat and single malt whisky that’s matured in red wine barrels to give it notes of red berries and orchard fruits. “You get a little bit of a slightly sweeter taste and it’s a little bit fruity – it’s really nice,” Kawasaki says.

While Kawasaki reckons you can put the whisky chilli oil on just about anything, it shines when jazzing up wintertime snacks. Here are his top three suggestions.

Loaded chilli oil hummus with crackers

The combination of hummus and crackers is always a hit, but to take a simple serve to another level of flavour, Kawasaki recommends not overthinking it – just take a little of Chotto Motto and Starward’s whisky-infused chilli oil and drizzle it over your favourite hummus.

“With the hummus, it’s just one spoon of the chilli oil on top and then you eat it together,” he says. “We wanted to create something a bit easier for daily use, not something complicated from Japanese ingredients.”

Chilli oil cheese jaffles

Whether snack, lunch or quickfire Sunday night dinner, the jaffle is always there for us in our time of need – especially when we’re looking for something to quickly warm our bones in winter.

Again, there’s no real recipe for Kawasaki’s chilli cheese jaffle – instead, you’re putting a melting cheese of your choice (a mild cheddar or gruyere would be great) and a healthy spoonful of chilli oil between bread and firing up the jaffle press. The slight sweetness and spicy, savoury flavours of the whisky-infused oil should take this old-school favourite up a few notches.

Crispy chilli popcorn

Popcorn is a clear lock for snacking on those cold winter movie nights – especially when it gets the whisky chilli oil treatment. Kawasaki reckons the popcorn comes out a little caramelised, owing to the touch of sweetness from the whisky that balances with the deep umami of the chilli oil. “It’s not like a dessert-sweet kind of vibe, but it’s more savoury,” he says.

You’ll just need some popcorn (fresh is best, but go with what you can get) and enough chilli oil to coat. “It’s just tossed in a bowl and we get the oil split across the popcorn.”

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Starward Whisky. The limited-edition Starward x Chotto Motto chilli oil is available for $18.50 for a 200-gram jar. It’s available now, in-store at Starward’s Port Melbourne distillery and online. It’ll also be available at Chotto Motto from July 29.