FRENCH HERB INFUSED OIL OR VINEGAR RECIPE
In addition to herbs, purees of various types can be used to infuse oils and vinegars. Some common examples are raspberry, tarragon and basil vinegars or basil, sun dried tomato and Chinese sesame oils. The flavoring ingredients can be strained or left in the oil for an interesting texture contrast.
3 cups blanched and pureed basil
3 cups virgin olive oil or other inert oil depending on your application.
Blanch the basil leaves then chill in ice water. Combine with enough oil or vinegars to process into a puree. Combine with the remaining oil and heat at a simmer in a bain marie for 30 minutes, remove from heat and let infuse for 24 hours then strain and refrigerate.
You can use whole herbs and just let infuse naturally in the oil at room temperature – also experiment and reference your cookbooks. Basil oil had a couple of years popularity with chefs who would use a squeeze bottle to draw rings around plates and in soups no matter what the ingredients of the construct were sort of a new school parsley sprig. Don’t confuse these oil with ones like walnut, almond oils that have oil pressed from the actually nuts even though they’re usually mixed with other oils.
