Flavoured oils

Plum_Pie

Olive oil is no good for woks as it starts smoking at too low a temperature.

For stir fried veg + meat/tofu, I use 1 tsp sesame oil and 2 tsp vegetable oil.

OliveOyl_2

when stuck in a hotel room last week I watched a lot of TV, and one of the chefs made lemon infused oil - it looked wonderful.

Put lemon rind, tumeric into cold oil. Heat, allow to cool and then strain through a bit of J-cloth (that's what it looked like) otherwise the oil is cloudy instead of a beautiful clear yellow.

freyasmum

Hiya

My mum made some chili oil to sprinkle over pizza - yum!

I think she just used basic vegetable oil, though I'm sure Nigella's was very expensive stuff, and put a bit of chili in it. The amount would depend on your own tastes. My mum likes things hot and so she put a three or four dried chilis in - maybe a bit more? It really is strong, or as my sister's fiance said (just from looking not trying) 'that's sore bum stuff!'. You then leave it to infuse

Hth.

If I have confused you even more, I'm sure there'll be other people along who know, too.

Lx

Edit: Wow, I'm slow... three replies before I got mine in, lol. Anyway, hope we helped you

Debt_Free_Chick

You need to be very careful with making home-made oils as there is no way of killing all bacteria (unlike preserves, chutneys etc). Oils provide an ideal environment for many bacteria, as air is excluded and the oil is kept at room temperature. (Even in the fridge, the growth of bacteria would simply slow or be suspended, temporarily).

Very many people have flavoured oils with no problems - but do be aware that this is more risky than producing the normal home preserves.

Debt_Free_Chick

Oh - and I'll bet Nigella gets a taxi to Fortnum & Mason to buy hers!

moanymoany

OliveOyl wrote: »

when stuck in a hotel room last week I watched a lot of TV, and one of the chefs made lemon infused oil - it looked wonderful.

Put lemon rind, tumeric into cold oil. Heat, allow to cool and then strain through a bit of J-cloth (that's what it looked like) otherwise the oil is cloudy instead of a beautiful clear yellow.

OliveOyle, is that put the lemon rind and turmeric into cold or hot oil? Sounds lovely. Thanks

Debt_Free_Chick

Olive oil also has too strong a flavour to enable anything else to dominate.

I would use Groundnut. Ideal for frying, no flavour and good value for money (cheaper than Grapeseed, for example).

SarahShattered

I've made my own flavoured oil and vinegar, both for my own use, and as Christmas pressies.

I made 'posh' rosemary and garlic extra virgin olive oil. A couple of sprigs of rosemary from the garden and a few peeled garlic cloves that I'd made cuts in to release the flavour; dropped into a bottle of oil and left for a week or so to infuse.

For the pressies, I picked up some really pretty bottles with cork stoppers from Ikea and decanted the oil into those, and added a gift tag as a label. Went down really well. :money:

I've done the same with juniper berries, crushed and added to oil, chillies, oregano...etc etc

I think you could probably use whatever kind of oil you liked, depending on the flavour or effect you wanted.... cheaper oil flavoured for sauteeing (sp), or frying, or more expensive e.v.olive oil for a dressing.

In case you're interested.... wine vinegar, red or white, works really well flavoured with raspberries. I've got some red wine vinegar infusing in the cupboard at the moment with blackberries.

HTH

~~~giggle~~~~ I'm much much slower than you 'freyasmum' !!!! 10 ahead of me!!

Debt_Free_Chick

SarahShattered wrote: »

In case you're interested.... wine vinegar, red or white, works really well flavoured with raspberries. I've got some red wine vinegar infusing in the cupboard at the moment with blackberries.

And the acidity of vinegar is likely to kill bacteria spores, so less of a risk of botulism.

moanymoany

Thank you all, especially regarding the safety aspect. I read the post from debt-free-chick and made a very small amount with some garlic in it. After reading the post from pink I'll put it into the fridge.

I wonder if the flavourings were cooked in some way would make them safer?