Quick Kitchen Tip: Running out of toasted sesame oil?

This is one important staple if you’re thinking of cooking anything even remotely Asian-inspired.  But sometimes, we don’t plan ahead and run out.

So!

Once you’ve poured off the last drops, grab your trusty bottle of cheap-and-flavourless cooking oil:  we use canola, but whatever you usually use for salads and things will be fine.  Pour some into the sesame-oil bottle.  Less is better, of course, because it won’t dilute the flavour, but if you need, say, 1/4 cup or whatever for a recipe, use that much.  Put the lid back on and shake your new oil well.

Refrigerate for a few hours or more – giving it more time lets it pick up more flavour.  Use as you would sesame oil.  The colour isn’t quite so rich & beguiling, but it will impart some yummy sesame taste. 

You could probably get even more flavour by toasting actual sesame seeds, adding them to the oil, letting it sit for a while or overnight, then filtering out the seeds.  But then, you could get the very best flavour by running to the store and buying a replacement bottle.  Neither of those is what I’d consider a “quick tip.”

(PSA:  Always use TOASTED, not plain sesame oil, when you want a nice Asian flavour!  And always refrigerate between uses; it goes rancid fast at room temperature.)

What do you do when you’ve run out, or are running out, of a favourite hard-to-replace ingredient???