Rosemary Infused Groundnut or Sunflower oil

[Toddy]

My household's the same. Himself still eats meat, but very sparingly since it is inclined to be difficult for him to digest (he had an old fashioned operation for a stomach ulcer nearly fifty years ago, long before we were married, and long before we knew that they are often caused by something that can be cured by antibiotics, the Surgeon cut the vagus nerve so he doesn't produce much stomach acid) and gives him stomach ache at times.

I know he doesn't miss meat much at all. He eats a fair number of eggs though.
Veggie food can be very good, very healthy and very tasty.

If it's bacon that's his downfall then there are little sprinkle over a salad things, called Bacon Bits, that are vegan but apparently taste like the real dead pig.

I'm vegetarian long enough that I really don't see the need to make pretend meat, so haven't tried them and can't recommend bar that I've read others like them.

M

 

[oldtimer]

Rick Stein did a programme from where I spend much of my time in France. In it, a local fisherman showed him that he used sunflower oil in his mayonnaise rather than olive oil because " the taste of the olive oil is too strong". I'd be among the first to admit that Pyrenees- Orientales is not the epicentre of French Cuisine, but he may have had a point.

My younger son makes his own olive oil in Spain and I wouldn't dare tinker with it. Elder son, a vegetarian is the family's champion roasties cook and he always uses sunflower oil. I use sunflower oil, drizzled on to parboiled potatoes tossed with sea salt and herbes de provence. I'm interested to know whether using ready-infused oil would make much of a difference. I have a hunch I'll be trying this out on Sunday after reading your post!

 

[bobnewboy]

We like olive oil and have made some differing infusions with it. Very tasty on salads, pasta and pizzas. However for high temperature cooking (roasties, Yorkshire puds, roasted veg) olive oil burns or just doesn’t taste that good. Since we read about it and tried it we always use Alfa One rice bran oil, which we get at Tesco. It doesn’t smoke or burn in a domestic oven and it doesn’t give any kind of taint to foods that I can detect. It’s supposedly low (zero?) in cholesterol as well.

Worth a try if you like that kind of food

Cheers, Bob

 

[Allison McKenzie]

I saw that in my table (see below). But I can cook yorkies and roast veg well at 200°C, so didn't pop out. Might get some anyway as the pan will go much hotter than 200°C. Good call.

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[Allison McKenzie]

The Yorkies were not a great success. The oil tasted of rosemary, but the flavour didn't carry arcoss. Kinda worked for carrots and potatoes, but only a bit. The flat yorky prototype shows potential, will try that again.

 

[nitrambur]

Be careful with garlic infused oil, it can cause botulism

Stinking facts about garlic

Garlic is a member of the lily family and is related to onions, shallots, chives, and leeks. It has a distinctive flavor and just needs a little care when handling it.

www.canr.msu.edu

.

 

[plastic-ninja]

The Yorkies were not a great success. The oil tasted of rosemary, but the flavour didn't carry arcoss. Kinda worked for carrots and potatoes, but only a bit. The flat yorky prototype shows potential, will try that again.

If you want the Yorkies to taste of rosemary why not chop some very finely and put it in the batter?
Alternatively you could infuse the milk with bruised rosemary using a little heat to speed it up. Then fine strain it and chill until needed for the batter.
Probably too obvious and already tried.
S

 

[plastic-ninja]

Be careful with garlic infused oil, it can cause botulism

Stinking facts about garlic

Garlic is a member of the lily family and is related to onions, shallots, chives, and leeks. It has a distinctive flavor and just needs a little care when handling it.

www.canr.msu.edu

.

There's a big debate amongst sous-vide enthusiasts about whether its safe to include raw garlic at low temperatures in the vac pack with the other ingredients. Consensus seems to be use garlic powder instead. You should be ok at the temperatures for roasting and frying, although using raw garlic oil in a salad could be a risk perhaps. Would blanching make the garlic safe? If not, I think I'd use roasted garlic for the infusion.
S

 

[Allison McKenzie]

If you want the Yorkies to taste of rosemary why not chop some very finely and put it in the batter?
Alternatively you could infuse the milk with bruised rosemary using a little heat to speed it up. Then fine strain it and chill until needed for the batter.
Probably too obvious and already tried.
S

I might try infusing the milk. My guy is super sensitive to mouth feel of food. He hates woody bits in the batter, so chopping is out (that is why I am trying other things)

 

[plastic-ninja]

I might try infusing the milk. My guy is super sensitive to mouth feel of food. He hates woody bits in the batter, so chopping is out (that is why I am trying other things)

You could dry the rosemary and pulverise it in a blender/grinder. Literally make it into a powder and sift it in with the flour so there is no texture change at all. Might give it a hulk-like green tinge though.............

 

[Allison McKenzie]

You could dry the rosemary and pulverise it in a blender/grinder. Literally make it into a powder and sift it in with the flour so there is no texture change at all. Might give it a hulk-like green tinge though.............

Yeah, I might try that out. Maybe i could turn it into flour

 

[Toddy]

You could dry the rosemary and pulverise it in a blender/grinder. Literally make it into a powder and sift it in with the flour so there is no texture change at all. Might give it a hulk-like green tinge though.............

I admit that I do that. I just use a coffee grinder that's kept only for herbs. They cost between ten and fifteen pounds and they get a lot of use over the years.

I don't like woody bits of wee sticks in my herbs either.
I used to sit and pick off every leaf from things like thyme, rosemary, etc.,
These days I just pick carefully, dry then blitz the whole thing.
The powders are surprisingly useful. They add to things like eggs very easily, they're excellent to season home made veggie burgers and sosiges. I do add them to the sausage meat that a friend makes from venison for Himself at times too. Also excellent added to the flour and potato mixes for tattie scones or deep fried cheese noisettes.
I don't infuse the ground herbs in the oil, but I do sprinkle them over the oil and mix before I use it in the oven on roasted vegetables.
Seems to work fine
I prefer the infused whole herb oils for salads.

 

[Allison McKenzie]

I think that will be the next thing to try, herb flour would be super useful and would allow for veggie rosemary dumplings. The milk infusion sounds nice too for a mousse.

 

[Robson Valley]

Mix the herbs and spices straight into the dough formula as you bake. Highly recommended by me.
I have yet to find any condiment that has a inhibitory effect upon yeast activity.

I add copious amounts of Italian Mixed Herb seasoning to every focaccia and often to the baguettes that I make.
When I make my own pasta, I'll thaw a lump and roll the herbs into that for "stained-glass pasta" .

Sage pasta with chicken is good. Cajun pasta with smoker BBQ pork side ribs is a feed.
I have not made mint pasta to go with Greek-seasoned lamb but it's on my list.

It does take some experimentation to develop formulas that I can feed to other people.

 

[plastic-ninja]

In a former life I had an artisan bakery for 20 years. We made lots of Italian style breads with little 1/2% or so, salt.
The only herbs or spices we ever found to retard the yeast were Salt (obviously), black and white pepper, cumin and chilli. With ground chilli I think it could have been the sheer amount we had to put in to make it taste spicy. Bread kills that flavour and heat especially well.
The other interesting spice effect was with ground Mace, which seemed to work as a dough improver : improved texture, quicker rising and quicker bake. You only need a tiny amount as the flavour is strong. Particularly good with citrus peel in bread or for toaster loaves. There does seem to be some debate on its potential toxicity in large doses (like its fruit, the nutmeg.) and I did overdo it once or twice I suspect.
Caraway has always been my favourite addition for bread. It also makes bread keep longer! Weird but true in my experience.
Have fun.
S