Too Much Olive Oil?
Perhaps I have too much olive oil at home. Many food writers (including the best, Nigel Slater) argue that, in the countries where the olives are grown and olive oil is a vital part of the diet, there will only be two bottles of olive oil in the kitchen. One will have been decanted from a tin drum and will have cost tuppence a litre. The other will have come in a bottle and will have probably have been a present from a friend or a neighbour who has grown and pressed their own.
I, on the other hand, have 5 bottles of olive oil (not including the Flavoured Oil – see below) on the shelf above the fridge. I can’t help it though. I just love the stuff. From the soft, sexy (expensive) Spanish oils that are perfect for a delicate salad dressing to the smoky Moroccan oil that is just the best for dipping fresh, warm bread into (see, The Mediteranean Tea). Not forgetting the two bottles of Puget (my working oil) – one normal, the other extra fruity. I have no real favourite – I buy the Puget because Fernandel is on the TV advert (you have to be French to understand).
Most of the time (for cooking, rather than for dipping or salad dressings), I will use a flavoured olive oil….
Flavoured Olive Oil.
At a Vide-Grenier (a sort of very polite, relaxed car boot sale) last year, I bought a pretty 1.5 litre wine bottle with a handle (someone’s souvenir of an Italian holiday – me thinks). This, I fill with cheap olive oil (the sort that comes in a one litre plastic bottle and costs about half of what a ‘name’ oil (such as Puget) would cost. To make it worth doing, I now add a handfull of peeled Garlic cloves and some sprigs of Thym, Basil and Rosemary. After about a month, the oil loses it’s rawness and takes on the flavours of the garlic and herbs. I now decant some of it into another bottle (another very pretty one that I think once contained Rose de Provence – but who knows?). This is what I use for cooking. The large bottle gets topped up with more cheap oil (and perhaps some more herbs) so that I have a constant supply. I need it – I buy (and thus use) about 2 litres of oil each month.
I do much the same thing with another bottle (this time a very attractive bottle that came wrapped around some rather interesting Moroccan red wine). This time, rather than Garlic and herbs, the bottle contains Chilli-Peppers. Now, that makes a very interesting oil (it can be used to make a salad dressing that’s a real suprise!).
The last bottle has contains a garlic flavoured oil that is the by-product of my stored garlic cloves (see below). This is so naughty, it should be banned.
All bottles described (apart from the Moroccan, which is too expensive, too super sexy and has to be rationed) above have pouring spouts so that the oil is always ready to use.
Mediteranean Tea.
Perhaps I am greedy but I now eat four times a day. Possibly my favourite meal (actually, they are all my favourites) is the snack that I have after work. This is often salad with fish or cold meat. But sometimes, when I am really lucky (or greedy), it is a handfull of vine tomatoes, sliced and sprinkled with some chopped shallots – an olive oil and lemon juice dressing – fresh basil if I am lucky. A filet of smoked mackerel and some freshly cooked bread and I am in heaven. (I use the half baked baguettes that only need ten minutes in the oven). The real treat, of course, is the dish of smoky olive oil to dip the bread into. Sometimes I have this meal as an evening snack – but just the bread and oil. I understand that bread and oil is starting to become a trendy starter in some restaurants – I can understand why.
Preserving in Olive Oil.
Sometime before the end of the Autumn, I shall detail my experiments in preseving Mushrooms and Cheese in oil. The results will probably be detailed here – but who knows?
All the best
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