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Infused Oils - Four Techniques For Creating

Category: Misc

Author: The Savvybearcat

Date: 1/1/2007

Rating:

(3.0) by 1 users

Ingredients:

Oil, Infused
Homemade

Instructions:

Here are some guidelines for making your own infused oil. Always
sterilize the bottles into which you will put the oil. Wine bottles
are a good choice, but you may want to use smaller containers, such
as cruets, because the flavor of infused oil, like all oils,
deteriorates with age. Don't use more expensive extra-virgin oil to
make infused oils. Because you are introducing flavors into the oil,
you do not need or want the often peppery or perfumey flavor that is
intrinsic in fine first pressings of olives. Don't exclude grape seed
and canola oils, especially for flavors such as ginger, mint, and
mustard. In his book "Marinades" (Crossing Press), Jim Tarantino says
that he uses grape seed oil for steeping fresh herbs. When he is
heating the oil to make infusions with dried chilies, mushrooms,
curry, dried lemon grass or other Asian spices, he prefers light
peanut or canola oil. Pure good-quality olive oil is a good match for
spices and herbs ~- rosemary, oregano and the like -- with
Mediterranean character. After the flavoring ingredients are placed
in the oil, keep the bottle in a cook, dark place while it is
infusing. Crumple and bruise herbs such as basil before adding them
to the oil to help the flavor and aroma to escape. These are four
main techniques for infusing oil: | 1. Simply clean herbs (or use
dried ones) drop them in a bottle of oil and allow to sit in a cool
dark place for at least two weeks. This technique does not produce an
oil with added color. |
2. Blanch an herb such as basil in boiling water for a second or
two, pat dry with paper towels, puree the herb with a bit of oil and
then add it to more oil. After a few days, strain the oil. This
method has produced lightly tinted, highly flavorful but sometimes
muddy-looking oil. When omitting the pureeing step, and simply adding
the blanched herb to the oil, the result is a highly flavored,
fragrant oil, but not one that changed color. | 3. Warm the oil in a
microwave for a few minutes, in a saucepan over medium heat, or in a
double boiler. You can add the infusion ingredients while warming the
oil, or drop them in after the oil is warm. This method is speedier.
It produces flavorful oil in a day or two. | 4. Make a paste. This
method comes into play when using dried spices. As described by James
Peterson in his book, "Sauces" (Van Nostrand, Reinhold $39.95),
ground spices (as well dehydrated foods such as dried mushrooms) must
be moistened before being combined with oil. |
Then, if using ground spices, make a paste with an equal
amount of water before whisking the paste into a quart of oil. Allow
to stand for a week before straining. The author made an interesting
cardamon oil and an orange curry oil this way.