Olive oil is a magnificent oil. It is very versatile, very flavorful, very yummy. It can make even a regular family meal special. It can turn a simple dish into an extravagant recipe. Before you dream about garlic infused olive oil or herb infused olive oil, learn through this tutorial first about how to make infused olive oil.
What You Will Need
To make infused olive oil, you will need olive oil, of course. Choose an herb or other flavoring that you want to infuse in the oil. Your choice is endless. There’s garlic cloves, lemon peel, ginger, orange rind, vanilla beans, and different herbs like rosemary, coriander seeds, white peppercorns, and thyme.
You must also prepare a couple of tools for this DIY project. Gather around a saucepan, a measuring cup, a cheese cloth, and a container, may it be glass, steel, or porcelain.
What To Do
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to make infused olive oil:
Step 1: Take a cup of olive oil and pour it into the saucepan. Regular olive oil will do for this project.
Step 2: Add in the flavoring of your choice. Be careful that the flavor of your ingredient, whether that is garlic, lemon, orange, or herbs, is not overpowering. Add in enough to coat the oil with your desired flavor but not too much. For a cup of olive oil, you can add in about a small piece of ginger, two cloves of garlic, two pieces of vanilla beans, a teaspoon of lemon peel, and a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary or thyme.
Step 3: Start heating the saucepan. Keep the mixture heating over low to medium heat. Leave it on top of the stove for about three minutes or more but not more than five minutes. Your goal is for your infused olive oil to be fragrant but it should not retain the color of the ingredient you added in.
Step 4: After three to five minutes, remove the saucepan from the heat. Let your infused oil cool but remember not to cover it at this stage. When it is completely cooled, that’s when you do the covering and leave that cover for the next hour.
Step 5: After an hour, strain the oil mixture in a cheese cloth to make sure that the ingredient you added will be discarded.
Step 6: Put the infused olive oil in the container. Store it in the refrigerator if you are not going to use it yet. Your infused olive oil will make for an exciting and yummy addition to any regular dish.
