Food is food, but food with flavour is way better. Using your own homemade garlic oil in your cooking and salads adds an abundance of flavour right at the start.
Homemade Garlic Oil
I use so much olive oil in my cooking and as garlic appears in a great many of my recipes as well it seems only fitting to make my own garlic oil.
Infused oils are available in lots of supermarkets but why buy it when you can make your own homemade garlic oil instead, it costs less and tastes great too.
Garlic
The flavour of garlic is unique and also strong. It can be overpowering. Raw garlic is far stronger in flavour than cooked garlic.
Once garlic and heat come together they dance and the strident heat that once was the main characteristic of the garlic mellows and becomes a creamy delicious flavour.
Like a grouchy guy meeting a sweet girl, her gentleness softens his edges and raises a smile where a frown once sat.
Garlic and botulism
There was a lot of talk about botulism with using garlic in oils. But please note we are removing the garlic here. We are also heating the oil with the garlic which kills the bacteria.
What type of oil
I am using olive oil. It’s my favourite oil and if living on the Greek island of Crete taught me anything it was always use the oil YOU love for cooking.
I love the flavour of olive oil as well as all it’s amazing health benefits. however, you can infuse any oil you like with garlic.
Why not try rapeseed oil or vegetable oil. Garlic infused oil is for you to use so choose your favourite oil as a base.
Ingredients for infused garlic oil
There are only 2 ingredients here. Olive oil and garlic. That’s it. Don’t you just love a simple recipe!
How to make garlic oil
Peel the garlic cloves. There is no need to do any chopping or mincing. Just peel the skins off the individual cloves of garlic.
I heat my oil with the peeled garlic and let it simmer for 20 minutes. I don’t boil the oil or have it on a high heat.
We don’t want the garlic to colour up as that would make the oil very strong. Here we are going for a simple infusion.
Remove the pan from the heat, pop on a lid and let it just sit there for an hour and cool completely.
Pour the garlic infused oil through a sieve into a jug and then carefully pour into a sterilised glass bottle.
Pro tip
Don’t use a plastic bottle for this garlic oil. The plastic itself will leach the flavour from the garlic oil. You will end up with a weaker infused oil and a very smelly plastic bottle.
Adding herbs to infused oil
You can add other flavours to your garlic oil. Rosemary goes particularly well. In fact, rosemary and garlic oil is my winter stanby for booking.
It adds a great punch of flavour when I’m starting on a base for any soup or stew.
The more robust herbs make the best dancing partners for garlic. Think of the woody-stemmed herbs like rosemary, sage and thyme.
Rosemary goes particularly well. In fact, rosemary and garlic oil is my winter standby for cooking. It adds a great punch of flavour when I’m starting on a base for any soup or stew.
Adding spices to garlic oil
Why not go for a garlic and chilli oil. Other spices like coriander, cumin and turmeric all work well with garlic. Have a bit of fun and come up with your own infused cooking oils and give your cooking that personal touch.
How long does garlic oil keep
Your homemade garlic oil will keep for up to a month. Keep it in a cool dark place.
If you have olive oil in the fridge it will solidify. No problem. just remove it from the fridge and let it come up to room temperature and it will run clear once more.
How to use homemade garlic oil
I love using this oil as a basis for almost any savoury dish. Instead of using plain oil use your garlic oil.
And I just love using it for simple fried eggs.
Use it as a salad dressing too of course.
For roasting a chicken, pork or veggies. Sprinkle first with your garlic oil to ramp up the flavours while the oven does the work.
And it’s just perfect for making a homemade garlicy mayonnaise, check out my Aioli recipe.
Kali Orexi!
Looking for more super easy cooking basics you can be making yourself? Then check these out before you go;
The easiest foolproof homemade mayonnaise
Homemade traditional style hummus
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Homemade Garlic Oil
Ingredients
- 500 ml/1 pint olive oil
- 2 bulbs of garlic about 8 cloves
Instructions
- Peel the garlic cloves and heat in the oil to simmering (bubbles appearing round edges of pan) and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Remove from heat and cover and leave to cool completely for 1 hour
- Strain out the garlic using a sieve.
- Pour into a sterilised bottle and pop on the lid.
- Will keep for up to a month in the fridge but remove for 30 minutes before using as the oil will solidify.
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