On my kitchen trolley I have had lemons steeping in extra virgin olive oil for several weeks. I love to use flavoured oils on salads, fish and chicken, and wherever else appropriate. I am known in the family for my citrusy salad dressings made with any number of citrusy oils like mandarin or blood orange or lime. So I thought it was about time I made some of my own infused oil. This has been going the rounds of many blogs lately; I am not sure where I saw it first but I know it was on
Selma's Table recently. Apologies to any other bloggers for forgetting you!
It is so simple- basically throwing unwaxed lemons into olive oil and letting it steep for about a month. I had some organic lemons from my neighbour, and some EVOO sitting in the pantry so last month I did the deed. They have been infusing quietly since then, with the occasional opening up to make sure the gases could escape. As I could only fit one lemon into each of my narrow jars, I decided to peel some of the other lemons then air-dry it for an hour and place into the jars with the whole lemons. The peel did turn a funny brown colour over the 5 weeks and the jars smelled like bananas for a while but it all seems to have turned out ok in the end. Today was the day where I finally got around to straining it and putting it into bottles. I plan to give some of it away to friends as gifts, and splash it around into lots of my dishes.
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| beautiful home-grown lemons and peel |
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| lemons steeping for about 5 weeks-and now ready for bottling |
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| the big day- straining and bottling the now citrusy oil |
This is a great way to use an excess of lemons - which we tend have at this time of the year here:) Could you any citrus - yum.
ReplyDeleteIt smells fresh and zingy Rachel.
DeleteWhat a great idea. I love citrusy dressings. I've never made my own lemon oil but you've inspired me xx
ReplyDeletethanks that's great. you just have to remember to release the gases every couple of days.:)
DeleteThis is right up my alley Sherry! Lemon infused EVOO is the best. I also do this with herbs from the garden...tarragon is always nice. It's such a rewarding thing to do with little effort.
ReplyDeletehi Jem
Deleteyes flavoured oils are great aren't they? I like to buy pressed oils rather than infused but not having an olive press I make do with infused:) It adds a great flavour with little effort as you say. And feels very homey to have done it yourself.
wow, I thought you only used the peel to infuse oil. How easy just to put the whole lemon in there!
ReplyDeletehi maureen
Deleteyes a great idea to just chuck 'em in!