Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Garlic and Rosemary Infused Olive Oil

Here's a quickie for you: infused oil. I love this stuff, it's great for so many things. In case you don't know what it is, it's oil that has had something left in it for some time so the oil picks up the flavor. You can do it with almost anything (as far as I know anyway), but today it's going to be garlic and rosemary.

This is all you need to do:

1) Put a bunch of garlic cloves, or half cloves, and rosemary into a container. I like to use glass, it doesn't retain the smell.
2) Pour some olive oil in, at least enough to cover the garlic/spice. You can do more if you want, but how much you add helps determine how long it takes to get good flavor.
3) Let it sit for at least several hours, many days is better (update: I have read that there is a worry about botulism with this kind of oil infusing. I don't know the specifics at the moment, but you should be careful and not let the garlic/rosemary sit in the oil too long) . The longer it sits the stronger the flavor.

And that's it. What do you do with it you ask? Well, dip some bread in it then eat it. Brush it on some roll halves and broil them to make garlic bread. Brush it on pizza before putting on the sauce to add a kick of flavor. Brush it on bread before you bake it, saute vegetables in it, use it in a marinade, brush it on food before you grill it, add it to rice when you cook it, anything you use olive oil for you can use infused olive oil for.

You can infuse oil with anything though, go nuts and try your own combos. What did I do with it? Stay tuned, you find out tomorrow. Heh.

19 comments:

Andrew Clarke said...

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Emily said...

Mmm, I need some of that.

Anonymous said...

I love infused oils - the garlic and rosemary one sounds wonderful and you can use it on so many things!

Bob said...

Andrew: Thanks, I'll check it out.

Emily: Whip some up! I know you have the skills to make it, I've seen you do much harder things. :)

5 Star Foodie: Thanks, it's good stuff. :)

Karen said...

Good idea... waiting to see what you're gonna do with it :)

Bob said...

Karen: I'll give you a hint, it involves cheese. :)

Reeni said...

YUM!! I can't wait to find out what you made!

vanillasugarblog said...

I've thought of doing that. I wanted to try and do a cheese one. Like blue cheese and something spicy.
These are great for dipping in warm crusty bread in...a whole meal for me! LOL
Looks good Bob!

Bob said...

Reeni: Thanks! Heh, I have a feeling I might be building it up too much. Oh well. :D

Dawn: Thanks! I don't know how blue cheese would work , but I've seen it done with parm and other really hard cheeses. I love dipping bread in infused oil. Good times. :)

The Food Hunter said...

great combination. can't wait to see what you're going to do with it.

Spryte said...

I LOVE infused oils!!

I know you already have one of these... but I'm giving you another one!

I always check your blog first every day!!

Lemonade Award? Make it a double!
http://sprytesplace.blogspot.com/2009/01/award-blush.html

(I don't think you have to nominated 10 more blogs though!)

Joie de vivre said...

That looks wonderful!

Anonymous said...

I love making oils like this...It's very french Laundry you know.

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to see how this was used. We've heard of lemon thyme infused olive oil too which sounded divine.

Hayley said...

I love rosemary! My mom has a bunch of rosemary growing next to her garage, so anytime I'm cooking over there I can just walk outside and get the good fresh stuff :)

Bob said...

Food Hunter: Not long now. :)

Spryte: Thanks! :D

Joie: Thanks!

noble pig: ... ok, what's French laundry? I'm going to assume a "thanks" is in order though. ;)

Duo: Lemon thyme oil sounds awesome, especially for chicken!

Hayley: I'm jealous, I'll admit it. I wish I had fresh rosemary all the time. :)

Anonymous said...

another thing to do is to put this on LOW (as low as possible) to warm the olive oil in order to infuse the flavors. then let it sit and cool for a few days. the flavor is intense!

Bob said...

Never Full: I'll have to try that out next time.

Chef Jay said...

You're absolutely right about botulism, roast the garlic first! This applies to anything that comes in contact with the ground that you're going to allow to live in a perfect anaerobic environment like oil. Botulism can actually kill you, so unless you're growing your own Botox, either refrigerate the oil and use within a week to ten days, or heat the garlic! (I usually roast the garlic, then heat the olive oil to a low simmer, add the garlic and let it simmer for 30 minutes, then strain it. Intensifies the flavor.

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