Make Your Own: Infused Oils

Making your own infused oils and dressings is a great idea. They make cute little gifts for your friends and family, you know exactly what has gone into them so you don't have to worry about harmful additives and the stylishly decorated bottles can really jazz up your kitchen.

You Will Need:

• 1 bottle for each type of oil you intend to make.
• Masking tape
• Spray paint
• Permanent marker pens

Instructions:

1. Purchase a swing stopper bottle to keep your oil in. These bottles are best as they make for easy pouring, they're cheap and they have that great vintage look. I bought mine for £3ea from Cargo.
2. For my first attempt, I have gone for a simple design. I have decided I want it to have a gold bottom and that's about it. So I have masking taped up the parts of the bottle that I don't want to get paint on.
   
3. Take the bottle to a well ventilated area and lay some newspaper or rags around it for protection. Hold the bottle as far away from the area you intend  to spray as possible and spray the desired area from a distance of about 30cm until you have an even coverage. If you spray to near to the bottle you may get drip marks, if this happens, dab the area with kitchen towel asap and respray the area from further away.
4. Leave the paint to dry, spray paint tends to dry quite quickly and you will know when it is because the smell of solvents will be distinctly reduced.
5. Once the paint has dried, slowly peel off the masking tape to reveal the finished pattern.

   

   The masking tape should leave
    a clean straight line.

6. Use your marker pens to write on the bottle if you wish to label it with what's inside. Remember you can get some great typography examples on Pinterest.

Now that you've got a beautiful bottle to keep your oils and dressings in, you'll need some recipes to fill them up. So I have listed a few of my favourites below.

Lemon & Mint Salad Dressing:

Ingredients:

• 100ml olive oil
• 1 lemon
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp sugar
• Pinch of salt
• Garlic (1 clove or 1 tsp granules)
• Handful of fresh mint

Recipe:

1. Pour olive oil into a measuring jug and squeeze the juice of 1 lemon into it and give it a good whisk.
2. Chop the fresh mint leaves roughly, scrunch them up a bit to help release the flavour and add them to the oil.
3. If using garlic cloves, finely chop the clove and add it to the oil. If using garlic granules, measure out 1 tsp and add it along with the sugar and salt.
4. Be sure to give it another good whisk so that the ingredients are well combined.
5. Pour the mixture into a storage bottle with a tight lid.
6. Add the teaspoon of mustard to the bottle, secure the lid tightly and shake it until the mustard has combined with the mixture.
7. Keep refrigerated.

Balsamic Vinaigrette 

Ingredients:

• 30ml Balsamic vinegar
• 100ml Olive oil

Recipe:

1. This one is nice and easy, you just have to add the balsamic vinegar to the olive oil. No need to shake it, the vinegar will sink to the bottom as it is denser than oil.

Oriental Dressing 

Courtesy of Leon cookbook.

Ingredients:

• 1 clove of garlic
• 1cm piece of ginger
• 1 spring onion
• 1/2 a red chilli
• 2 tbsp soy/fish sauce
• Juice from 1 lime
• 100ml Peanut oil

Recipe:

1. Grate or finely chop the garlic and ginger.
2. Finely slice the spring onion and chilli, be sure to remove all chilli seeds.
3. Add the soy/fish sauce and lime juice to the peanut oil and give it a good shake.
4. Add the fresh ingredients to the oil.

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