Garlic Olive Oil Infusion

Sometimes I don't bother posting things that I make because in my head I decide it's nothing novel or new, and fairly self explanatory. This is one of those things. But then, last week at my Shabbos table as I was pouring some of my homemade garlic olive oil my friend asked me how I make it. After telling her how simple it was, and then saying how that is why I don't post things like that, she told me I was ridiculous -- and it is absolutely something I should be posting... especially because I refer to it in almost ALL of my recipes to use instead of plain old EVOO, so... here it is ladies and gentleman.

My easy two-in-one have to have on hand at all times recipe for garlic infused olive oil (and the delicious garlic confit that you get with it as a result!)

What do I do with these two precious items you may ask? Well, EVERYTHING. I pretty much use the garlic olive oil to cook with or use in everything I would use normal EVOO in, and then I also am left with a jar filled with roasted garlic to now have on hand at all times for everything else. Garlic makes everything better in my opinion. The roasted garlic cloves are great to spread on meat, (steak!), potatoes, to blend into dips and dressings, it is AMAZING on its own, warm, spread on challah or crusty bread, and you can even make a nice paste of it, add some fresh parmesan or asiago and have it with a loaf of french bread that way. The awesome thing about the garlic is that you can freeze it. If you don't use absurd amounts of garlic like I do, you may want to portion it out (you can use an ice tray, or simply spoon small amounts onto a baking tray, let it freeze, and then pop them into a ziploc) and then you have roasted garlic on hand whenever you need it!

YUM!

GARLIC OIL INFUSION

Ingredients:

garlic cloves (as many as you'd like)

extra virgin olive oil (I use the Kirkland Organic)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F

Assemble your garlic cloves on the bottom of a casserole dish

Pour enough olive oil over the garlic to cover the cloves (the more garlic to oil ratio, the stronger the infusion will be)

Bake for approximately an hour and a half, you want the garlic to begin turning golden, the oil to be bubbly, and your house to smell delicious!