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Thanks Levans and Does The Cooking! Think I'll give it a try with both normal olive oil and sunflower oil, and maybe a more specific one with groundnut oil...they seem to be the best options everyones taking.
Just a quick question, some people seem to remove the ingredients before storing and for example you don't Levans, what's the best option and reasons for this?
Thanks again, J

Sorry! I didn't realise you wanted oil for Thai cooking.

My understanding of Thai cooking is that they do not use olice oil. Otherwise my approach is similar to that of Monica above.

I heat the groundnut or veg oil until it is fairly hot. Then add ginger, garlic, chilies (and sometimes spring onions) unt. Cook until veggies start to turn brown. Remove from heat, allow cool. Strain trough sieve into container. Store in fridge,

Quantities - 10 fl oz of oil; at least 6cloves of garlic. about three inches of fresh ginger as many chilies as you wish.

Hope this works for you. Last time I did tis I ws living in Australia. Not done for a while

Hi janinnel,

I always use normal olive oil because extra virgin is too strong, I just really guess the quantities (sorry not to help), I don't sterillise the bottle, I just wash it well in hot water and I lightly warm the oil and add the ingredients before adding it to the bottle.

Hi,
I've never made my own flavoured oils but want to start. If someone could answer a few basic questions for me to get me started, I'd appreciate it!
1) What oil is best to use: Olive, Extra Virgin Olive etc (I'd like to be as healthy as poss.)
2) What's the ratio of ingredients to oil to use, e.g. how many scotch bonnet chillis; how much fresh lemon etc for say 500ml oil
3) How do you make sure the bottle is sterilised
4) How long before it's ready to use
5)What are best conditions for infusion
Thanks,
J

Hi,
I've never made my own flavoured oils but want to start. If someone could answer a few basic questions for me to get me started, I'd appreciate it!
1) What oil is best to use: Olive, Extra Virgin Olive etc (I'd like to be as healthy as poss.)
2) What's the ratio of ingredientsil to use, e.g. how many scotch bonnet chillis; how much fresh lemon etc
3) How do you make sure the bottle is sterilised
4) How long before it's ready to use
5)What are best conditions for infusion
Thanks,
J

Hi RalphH,

I make a lot of my own oils, and I have found that heatin the oil, let it cool down a bit and if using ingredients like coriander etc I dry pan roast it and add it to the oil. Roasting the spices bring out the flavours. With things like lemon-grass, kafier leaves, curry-leaves cut them up and dry pan roast them a bit then add to the warm oil. The other day I made a lovely oil with ground dry red chillies, by soaking the chillies in hot water till soft, draining and blending it to a course paste, frying it in some oil together with red mustard seeds, whole cinnamon, cardamons, and cinnamon bark till fragrant, adding it to the oil and letting it infuse for 24 hours. And then straining it through a strainer before bottling. I also make a Basil oil using Thai Basil, I use a good handful of basil and add it to the oil so that it cooks a bit. let it cool and then bottle it. You can use chilli flakes, I make my own by pan roasting dry chillies and blitzing it in a coffee grinder. Then pan roast the other spices and adding it to the oil.
I alway use Sunflower Oil. I am a trained Chef but dont work professionally for personal reasons, but I do a lot of cooking and love to experiment. I make small quantities as I find it works better for me. They last me for about 3 months. Hope this is of help to you. Monica.

Sunflower Oil and good clean equipment (BONE DRY)

Nick
Chef River Cottage Foods

Yes I understand the problem Ralph because I am Karen (just karen) and Karen1 is the original who appeared on GFL. I have offered to re-register under a new name but I think the real problem is that the newies (as in me and the other Ralph) do not have numbers and the originals do. Going by other sites, email accounts etc. this seems the wrong way round and I think is bound to lead to confusion. I would still like to be Karen but maybe have an initial or number so that the original is easily recognised as the original.

Sorry this has nothing at all to do with the oil!

Hi all, it is confusing, I am the original RALPH, the one who appeared on GFL with Maria and Karen, I am down as Ralph1, this new "ralph" is just down as ralph. Ian, this could get confusing and annoying, Mary has this problem as does Lesely I think. I did not post this query re the oil, Thanks Kirsten for remembering my posts on this matter. Maria, how did your attempt at infusing oils turn out?

Welcome back Ralph .. Happy New Year to you and your family!

thanks Kirsten (now I really am confused!!)

Ralph,

This might be of interest:

To make a Thai oil, I would use 2-3 red chillies, a stick of lemon grass, a 2.5cm piece of root ginger, 3-4 kaffir lime leaves and ½ tbsp coriander seeds. Cover with the oil and allow to infuse.

I think sunflower oil would be better than extra virgin olive oil for Thai flavourings as the flavour is not as dominant; keep the olive oil for another flavour.

Different Ralph! But the original wrote a long post about this in about October/November in reply to a similar question, so the information should still be available on the site if the new Ralph wants to search for it.

i used olive oil for this infusion thanks for the replys

Welcome back ralph I had the same problem with my roasted red pepper oil , I have yet to find out why. in my garlic lovers book it says that you should acidify your garlic first and that in America garlic infused oils are banned unless they have been acidified first it also says that it will last 10days out of the fridge and 1 month in the fridge my pepper oil was about 3 weeks old.

what kind of oil were you using? I noticed that pickled garlic (in balsamico and olive oil and herbs) will also ferment a little, but, wow, the cloves sure give you quite a kick. Adding some wine (or raki) stopped the fermentation, but you wouldn't want that in the oil....