How to Make Rosemary Oil

Have you seen those expensive beautiful bottles of infused oils in the specialty stores.  A tiny portion, 6-12 ounces can cost $10 to $25 a bottle (Or more if you are paying for a luxury brand name).  They are wonderful to have around, delicious on salads or amazing with a focaccia bread (come back tomorrow to hear about that).

Now, I've tried the easy way... Just dump some herbs in a bottle of oil and wait.  It was NEVER as good as the expensive stuff.  Had a flavor, but not that strong distinctive flavor I was craving (and usually too cheap to pay for).

Champa is working very hard on her food styling and food photography.  That is her photo to the left.  If you click on the photo, you will see the original post I took my inspiration from.

She gives the secret to those wonderfully flavorful infused oils that you can now make at home and save a TON of money.

First thing I did... went to Sam's Club and bought a BIG vat of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  Now, I am off the page that Champa wrote, as I read her technique and decided I would modify mine a bit.  First, she uses peanut oil, I am using EVOO.  No good reason for the change, but I had a lot of EVOO and did not want to spend the money on peanut oil.

Other change, I have fresh spices growing in my kitchen.  I indeed made some HOT chili oil (that was amazing), using the same technique, but the photos of the rosemary oil came out prettier, so I am blogging the prettier bottle.

OK, enough of the prequel, here's what I did...

Heat.

That's it.  That's the big difference between a $15 bottle of oil and $5.

Now, again, Champa's technique is a little different, but the end result is the same...

I measured out the amount of oil I was going to store in my fancy empty bottle and put it in a sauce pan.  Turned the heat on low, added a few sprigs of Rosemary and allowed the oil to seep for about 30 minutes.  Just enough heat to make the kitchen just fill with the amazing odor of the rosemary.

When I was done, I just carefully poured the oil into a decorative bottle, added the Rosemary stems into the bottle and ...

Viola!

What a great opportunity to use that useless wine stopper someone gave me (half empty bottles of wine just never seem to happen around my house).

Now, I have a wonderful oil for salads, and just amazing dipping oil!

Thank you so much Champa of the Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen blog.  WHAT A GREAT POST!  I am already hunting down bottles so I can make bottles of this oil for Christmas gifts.  It is indeed gift worthy and very versatile.  I immediately made some HOT chili oil, as well as some peppercorn oil using the same method.

THIS WAS AMAZING!  A new favorite.  Absolutely wonderful!  Champa, I just can not thank you enough for introducing this wonderful dish to me!

And everyone else, take a jump over to "Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen",take a look through her blog and tell her "Hi" from me.

And for a quick look at what she blogs, click on the logo link image to the right.  You will see all the eRecipeCards that Dee has submitted to eRecipeCards.com.  You can add her recipes to your eRecipeBox (once you have a free to set up account).

See how useful the site is and how easy it is to find new favorite bloggers!

These posts continue to highlight bloggers and recipes that I have found on  "eRecipeCards.com"...