Friday 25 July 2014

Lemon infused oil

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.


beautiful home-grown lemons and peel


lemons steeping for about 5 weeks-and now ready for bottling


the big day- straining and bottling the now citrusy oil

 


8 comments:

  1. 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.

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  2. What a great idea. I love citrusy dressings. I've never made my own lemon oil but you've inspired me xx

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    1. thanks that's great. you just have to remember to release the gases every couple of days.:)

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  3. This 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.

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    1. hi Jem
      yes 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.

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  4. wow, I thought you only used the peel to infuse oil. How easy just to put the whole lemon in there!

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    1. hi maureen
      yes a great idea to just chuck 'em in!

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