My wife just bought a set of four square bottles in a whicker holder at a car boot sale. We thought it might be a good idea to fill each one with olive oil but with a different flavouring agent in each one. We thought of chillies for one and smoked garlic for another but after that our rather feeble imagination gave out on us.
“Never mind,” I told her, “I know a place where hundreds of people will give us dozens of suggestions. Possibly one or two of them might even be usable.” So go to it my culinary friends, astound us with your knowledge of taste sensations.
when I had a garden (sigh… can’t have one now, this yard has too much shade) I did the following:
Cut roma tomatos in slices (round way). Ground up fresh oregano, basil and chopped garlic, and put a small amount of that mix on each tomato round. Put them in a dehydrator, and dried until “stretchy” (tomatos will get burnt if you let them dry too long - and the basil will get black). Then I put them in jars, herbs and all, and covered with olive oil.
I would use these as is on hot pasta, or put them on pizza.
I second that, extra virgin, of course. Extra virgin olive oil has it’s own unique flavor, and the greener it is, the more intense the flavor.
The greener, the better, and don’t get fooled by manufacturers that use green bottles. I won’t buy from them at all.
These bottles hold about a pint and a half each. Far too small for unadulterated extra virgin olive oil. My family get through that in industrial quantities. It’s more specialised stuff I need help with. Missy’s suggestion sounds good.
In that case, I’m personally fond of the flavor of rosemary and olive oil…on lamb or chicken especially.
And then you could always make something a little tangy, like lemon zest, or ginger. I might use the first when searing fish, and the second in stir fry, as obvious choices.
You gotta be careful with some of this stuff: I’ve read that leaving garlic in olive oil for more than a few days can be pretty risky (e.g., for botulism) unless you keep it refrigerated.
You might want to use those bottles for herb vinegars instead, which have a longer shelf life. Or set one aside for good extra-virgin olive oil. There are some truly amazing olive oils out there; once you get into tasting them it’s like wine (with prices to match). I recently paid $40 for a pint of olive oil from Provence, and that was by no means the most expensive oil in the store. Oil at that price shouldn’t be wasted on cooking, it’s best for dipping bread or drizzling on tomatoes, making simple salad dressings, or other delicacies where the flavor of the oil isn’t going to be overpowered by something else.
OK, now I’ve got it. I’d been trying to figure out why y’all wanted him to put spinach in his olive oil. :roll: D’oh.
Give us some credit, will you? We’re not completely illiterate, nor totally lacking in cross-cultural astuteness, Dubhlinn.
Yes, we call them yard sales, but we have yards. If you are so lacking in space that you have to sell things out of the trunk of your car, well, we can understand that. It’s a small island, after all. You do what you have to do!
Well, you learn something new about Americans every day.
Ah Peggy, car booting is great fun. The organisers announce they’re having one and anyone turning up to sell pays a small fee, parks up, and starts selling stuff they don’t want any more out of the boot of the car. The larger ones can have anywhere up to a thousand vehicles with little tressle tables set up selling just about anything you can imagine.
Now if someone can just convince Anthea that ‘car boot sale’ doesn’t mean she has to fill our car boot with stuff she’s bought.
It’s more specialised stuff I need help with. Missy’s suggestion sounds good.
