Monday, October 3, 2011

Homemade basil oil

Basil and other herb-flavored oils have always been on my wish list, always tried in specialty shops but never purchased or attempted. The reason? Storage. While I hate to "waste" flavored oils on "ordinary" meals, the last thing I want to do is to hold on to them until well past their prime. So rather than enjoy them, I've held off.

Until I ran across a comment in an eating-fresh cookbook that said the flavored oils freeze well. My problem solved: My muffin tins easily hold 1/4-cup servings, easy enough to make flavored oils and store in small quantities until I'm ready to use.

So this weekend, I attemped my first flavored oil to good success. My basil oil is currently in my freezer and ready to pull out for the "right" pasta dish.

Basil oil
based off of a recipe from Farm Food

1/2 cup fresh parsley
1 3/4 cups fresh basil
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 cup canola oil
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Blanch herbs then shock in cold water. Squeeze most of the water out of the herbs and put in a blender. Blend with oils and pepper, about 2-3 minutes, until well-blended. Season to taste. Freeze in 1/4-cup servings or use immediately.
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4 comments:

  1. PamNovember 8, 2011 at 8:45 AM

    Great idea! I always make pesto and freeze it. I'm curious what you would eat basil oil on, as I'm unfamiliar with it. :0)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Melynda@Scratch Made Food!November 9, 2011 at 5:28 PM

    Thank you for sharing with the Hearth and Soul hop. It will be fun to see what you use this for in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SwathiNovember 9, 2011 at 10:08 PM

    Home made basil oil looks a nice idea. Thanks for sharing with Hearth and soul blog hop.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Alea MilhamNovember 13, 2011 at 2:21 PM

    What a delicious idea! Thank you for sharing your recipe with the Hearth and Soul Hop.

    ReplyDelete