Although this blog focuses mostly on the craftiness aspect of my mom, it hasn't mentioned her cooking skills! She's a whiz in the kitchen, and always makes the best tasting food. Hopefully those skills will rub off on me one of these days!
One of her secrets to making great meat dishes is using her garlic infused olive oil. She makes this herself, and it adds just little extra flavor for chicken and steak dishes. The process of making your own infused oils is pretty simple!
Step 1: Grow garlic in your garden, dry, and braid to hang in your kitchen. Don't happen to have kind of time? Buy garlic bulbs from the supermarket instead....
Step 2: Assemble your ingredients. You will need:
- 4-5 Garlic Bulbs
- Black Pepper
- Sea Salt
- Olive Oil
- Thyme
- Glass baking dishes, a cutting board, and a sharp knife
Step 3: Cut off the top of the garlic bulbs so that the tops of the cloves are exposed, but the bulb is still intact.
Step 4: Pour a thin layer of olive oil into the baking pan. Place the cut bulbs into the oil, and pour more oil into the bulb.
Step 5: Season with black pepper, sea salt, and then pour more olive oil on.
Step 6: Put the baking dishes into the oven, set at 350°F, for 30 minutes. About 15 minutes in, spoon some of the oil in the dish on top of the garlic to keep the garlic moist.
Step 7: After 30 minutes of baking, take the garlic out of the oven, lay the thyme branches on top of the garlic, and add more salt, pepper and oil. Cover the dishes with aluminum foil to keep the moisture in.
Step 8: Bake for another 20 minutes.
Step 9: After the last 20 minutes of baking, take the dishes out to cool. The garlic should be soft - see how the fork easily cuts into the garlic?
Step 10: Wait for the garlic to complete cool down. Peel the garlic cloves out, and put them into your bottle of olive oil. Depending on what we are using the oil for, we either keep the oil in its original store container, or transfer the non-infused oil into a glass serving container. Put as much thyme and garlic into your container of olive oil as you desire - we usually put about 3-5 branches of thyme, and 5-8 cloves of garlic. There is usually left over garlic, which is stored and used for other recipes that call for garlic - it also makes a great spread for toast!
Step 11: Enjoy!
Have you ever infused your own olive oil? Any tips or secret recipes you would like to share? Please let us know in the comments section!
3 comments:
Holy cow, Franziska, that looks absolutely amazing! I LOVE garlic. I'll trade you a bottle of my vanilla for your delicious infused olive oil :)
I am definitely going to add this to my recipe book!
Coming next: Step by Step tutorial on making kitchen skills infused Franziska.
I wanted to do something with all of the leftover pith I had from making jalapeno poppers, so I came up with this...
Jalapeno infused olive oil:
remove the seeds and pith from a dozen jalapenos.
Place pith and seeds into a slow cooker.
Add enough olive oil to just cover the pith.
Cook on low for 4-6 hours.
Strain oil into a glass bottle or jar.
Be careful when you use it though, if you cook it too hot, it will make you have a coughing fit.
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