Cooking Delicious Latin Food with the Thermomix® TM7™
Sweet Sofrito

Puerto Rico recipeAchiote Oil (Annatto Oil)

Orange-red cooking oil colored with annatto seeds, the base of sofrito, arroz con gandules and pasteles.

By Wanda Oyola 20 min Easy

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Recipe in testing: I'm cooking it in my TM7™ and will soon update the steps and post photos or video.

A small clear glass jar of deep orange-red achiote oil with a spoon beside it, whole annatto seeds scattered on the table and a few seeds in a small dish.

Achiote oil is the little jar of orange-red oil that gives Puerto Rican food its color: the sofrito, the arroz con gandules, the masa of pasteles and alcapurrias, the pastelón. It is nothing more than vegetable oil warmed with achiote seeds (annatto) until the seeds give up their color. The flavor is mild and a bit earthy; the color is the point.

The Thermomix® TM7™ keeps the oil at a steady, gentle heat so the seeds color it without scorching, which is the one way to ruin it: burnt achiote turns the oil bitter and dull. Five minutes at 100°C (212°F), a quick strain through the simmering basket, and you have enough for a month of rice and sofrito.

Made in the Thermomix® TM7™

Achiote Oil (Annatto Oil)

Makes: About 200 g (just under 1 cup)

  • Prep2 min
  • Cook5 min
  • Total20 min
  • Serves16

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Place the oil and the achiote seeds in the clean, dry mixing bowl and heat 5 min/100°C (212°F)/speed 1. The oil turns from pale yellow to a deep orange-red; do not go hotter or longer, since scorched seeds make the oil bitter.
  2. Set the simmering basket over a heatproof bowl or jar and pour the oil through it to strain out the seeds. Let it drip for a minute, then discard the seeds.
  3. Let the oil cool to room temperature, then pour it into a clean glass jar with a lid.
  4. Use 1 to 2 tbsp wherever a recipe calls for achiote oil: to sauté the sofrito, to color rice or beans, to tint the masa of pasteles and alcapurrias, or to brush on a plantain leaf.

Tips

  • Keep the jar in a cool, dark cupboard for up to 1 month, or in the fridge for up to 3 months, where it may turn cloudy; it clears again at room temperature.
  • Double the recipe if you cook a lot of rice: the TM7 handles 440 g of oil just as well. Keep the seeds at the same proportion, 4 tbsp per cup of oil.
  • You can rinse the strained seeds, dry them and use them one more time; the second batch comes out a little lighter.
  • Achiote seeds are in the spice aisle of Sedano's, Latin markets and most Publix stores, often under the name annatto. Avoid the ground powder for this: it clouds the oil.

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