Dispelling the Illusion of Infusion.

These days you can hardly watch or listen to a cooking show without hearing the word infusion.  There's beer infused ice cream, red chili infused chocolate, coffee infused cigars, and the list goes on.

What is infusion anyway?  Simply put, it means to steep an aromatic ingredient in hot liquid.  That's it, really.  If you've ever made a cup of hot tea, you've made an infusion.  

 

Tea Infusion

Or if you made lemonade, you infused water with lemon juice and sweetened it with sugar.  And technically speaking, using a French Press can be considered a coffee infusion.

Lemon Infusion

Often the infusing of herbs requires a hot liquid for steeping.  Again, by example, if one is infusing water with a tea bag, the best results are because the water is hot.  The tea bag is allowed to infuse the water for 10-15 minutes to get the full effect of the herbs and flowers.

Sometimes, your liquid does not have to be hot to have an infusion.  Infused oil is a great example of that. If you are looking for a savory infusion consider the most useful and versatile of all bulbs...yes, you guessed it....garlic!   Take a handful of peeled and crushed garlic cloves.  Place them in a bottle and fill the bottle with grapeseed oil.  Leave in a cool, dark place and allow to infuse for a week.  Feel free to shake the bottle up a little every once in a while .  Your oil can be used in any dish that you want to give the always welcomed taste of garlic.

Garlic

If you have some fresh Rosemary and some olive oil, plus a bottle, you can infuse!  Place the Rosemary in a clean bottle and fill it with olive oil.  Place in a cool, dark place and leave for a week.  When you are ready to sauté some chicken, put some of the infused oil in your pan and sauté away.  Add a bit of salt and pepper and you have a nice addition to your big salad night for dinner.

Fresh Rosemary

Now what about that cocktail party you are planning to celebrate being fabulous?  Do you like pineapple? Do you like vodka?  Then you best make pineapple infused vodka.  Just get a fresh pineapple and peel and core it.  Slice it into rounds.  Place the sliced pineapple in a jar.  Fill the jar with vodka.  Place on a shelf and leave until you just can't wait any longer (at least several days).  Strain the vodka.  ENJOY!  You can even make a second jar and put it on your table for a very attractive part of your party decor.   You can kick this up a notch by adding some orange peel curls and then you'll have pineapple orange vodka.  Brilliant!

Pineapple Infused Vodka

If you celebrate being fabulous without alcohol, feel free to infused fresh water with any assortment of fruits like raspberries and blackberries, or strawberries and kiwis.  For a clean and refreshing summer cool down, infuse your dinner water with sliced cucumber.  It is so crisp and clean!

Fruit Infusion

So, go ahead, infuse something just for the fun of it.

Now, go out and make something good!