Essentials: Seasoned Olive Oil

You Need This.

by Renwick Miller

04/17/2013

 This one's likely familiar to many of you, as it's an old kitchen staple that's easy and inexpensive to make, and very versatile.  You'll need the following:

• Olive oil
• Vinegar and Oil Serving Bottles
• Basil / Oregano
• Bay Leaves
• Fresh Garlic
• Other Herbs / Spices

The process itself is very, very simple:

      1.Pour oil of your choice into the container of your choice.
      2.Add herbs and spices.  
      3.Place in a sunny windowsill so that flavors permeate the oil.
      4.Use copiously. 

The Tricky Part

Choosing your olive oil.  I'm going to rely primarily on The Olive Oil Times for this section, them and whatever knowledge of the subject is floating around in my head.  A good bit of googling and comparison to other sites seems to put them in...  SHIT, am I sleepy.  No point in writing, but it's like an addiction.  According to OOT there are 8 types of olive oil, with Extra Virgin being the top of the heap.  The others are as follows:

1.Virgin olive oil: This is virgin olive oil which has a free acidity, expressed as oleic acid, of not more than 2 grams per 100 grams and a median organoleptic defect value of 2.5 or less.

1. 
   
1. 2.Ordinary virgin olive oil: Virgin olive oil which has a free acidity, expressed as oleic acid, of not more than 3.3 grams per 100 grams and a median organoleptic defect value of 2.5 or less than 6.0.
2. 
   
1. 3.Olive oil: A blend of both virgin and refined olive oil. It has a free acidity, expressed as oleic acid, of not more than 1 gram per 100.
3. 
   
1. 4.Refined olive oil: This is the olive oil obtained from virgin olive oils by refining methods which do not lead to alterations in the initial glyceridic structure. It has a free acidity, expressed as oleic acid, of not more than 0.3 grams per 100 grams.
4. 
   
1. 5.Olive-pomace oil is the oil obtained by treating olive pomace with solvents or other physical treatments, to the exclusion of oils obtained by re-esterification processes and of any mixture with oils of other kinds. It is marketed in accordance with the following designations and definitions:
5. 
   
1. 6.Crude olive-pomace oil is olive pomace oil whose characteristics correspond to those fixed for this category in this standard. It is intended for refining for use for human consumption, or it is intended for technical use.
6. 
   
1. 7.Refined olive pomace oil is the oil obtained from crude olive pomace oil by refining methods which do not lead to alterations in the initial glyceridic structure. It has a free acidity, expressed as oleic acid, of not more than 0.3 grams per 100 grams. Olive pomace oil is the oil comprising the blend of refined olive pomace oil and virgin olive oils fit for consumption as they are. It has a free acidity of not more than 1 gram per 100 grams. In no case can this blend be called olive oil.

Personally, I've been using olive-pomace for the last...  Six months or so.  Found it on sale at this phenomenal grocery store I learned about commuting to and from my last contract day job.  Seriously, if you're ever in Niles, IL check out Jerry's Fruit and Garden.  Fresh veg and meat at good prices, and a wide selection of "ethnic" goods, mostly eastern European, but a decent smattering of Mexican and Caribbean stuff as well.

One last, potentially confusing but definitely bewildering factor to consider when choosing an olive oil is veracity.  Believe it or not, olive oil is one of the most counterfeited foods in history.  I started a bit of googling for this article about a month ago and was so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information I had to walk away for a bit.  Here's a few articles to chew on:

Guardian UK book review:  Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller

Cracked Magazine.com:     The 6 Creepiest Lies the Food Industry is Feeding You  

Food Renegade.com:          Your Extra-Virgin Olive Oil is Fake

Chowhound.com:                 Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Fraud: Whole Foods, Rachel Ray, Safeway,        Newman's Own, Colavita, Bertolli

Yes, that Cracked magazine.  They've evolved.  Solid research and hilarious presentation.  You "Daily Show" fans will love it.

It's a really fascinating subject, actually.  Both the Cracked article and the book "Extra Virginity: ..." make note of the fact that the ancient Sumerians had a royal anti-fraud squad devoted to the matter (over 5000 years ago),  and in modern times, there's more than one mention of organized crime, and if that's not deep enough for you, follow this link to learn about scientist Ming-Qiang Zou's spectroscopy based olive oil authentication method.  No shit.  

I started out with a few paragraphs on seasoned olive oil, and look where we wound up.  I LOVE food!

Recipe: Apple / Sesame Tilapia

AKA:  I Love Grilling! 

by Renwick Miller

04/27/2013

This one is tasty, quick, and currently residing in my belly, so I thought I'd take the time to pen the recipe before succumbing to the food coma.

It looks like spring may finally be taking hold in Chicago, so I took the camera out for a walk.  After an hour or two of  random point and shoot, I realized I was hungry.  Spring weather always makes me want to fire up the grill, and my first thought was of the 2-3 lb bag of chicken parts I'd thawed for this purpose.  

"But chicken takes so long when you smoke it...  I'm hungry NOW.  OH, wait!  There's that tilapia in the fridge!"

It's been nearly three weeks since the last shopping trip, and I REALLY don't feel like going to the store, so we're working with what we've got.  Lesse... There's;

4 medium sized tilapia filets

1 small yellow onion, sliced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed. 

1 small apple (don't know what sort), sliced or diced.

About 1 cup of tahini

Salt

Black pepper

Garlic powder
Paprika

1/2 to 1 cup of water.

***NOTE:  The prep designations above (sliced, diced, chopped), like most anytime I write about cooking, are just suggestions.  If you'd prefer diced to sliced, or think pureed in a food processor might lend you better results, have at it.  I'm just writing out what I've done, and if you can improve, please do!  And share your secret if you like the results.  Don't be stingy.***

First, you open a beer and start the grill up.  This would work just as well in the oven, but I'm really fond of the smoke flavor that comes from a nice, low wood fire.  My method is to let a few decent sized pieces of wood burn down to coals.  That's my source for the heat, and the next bits of wood to go on get added just before placing the dish and closing the grill, so if they ignite there's not much fire, but plenty of smoke.  

While the fire's making coals for me, I pop back into the kitchen and start food prep.  Grab yourself a grill safe pan large enough to hold everything and add about half the tahini, onion, garlic and apple, adding pepper to taste.  

From here I added the fish and mildly salted it, sprinkled on the rest of the dried spices, and repeated our tahini, onion, apple, garlic exercise and poured it on top.

By now the grill should be ready, assuming you or someone else has been tending it.  EXCELLENT!  I tossed my batch (in the pan) on the grill for about 35 minutes or so.  Here's where the water comes in;  Keep an eye on things.  Check at the 10 minute mark or so and see how the moisture content is.  Not only do you not want things to burn, but you can control how intense or subtle the apple / sesame combination permeates the fish by how much water you add.  The more dilute the mixture, the subtler the flavor, of course.  If you prefer intense flavor, you'll need to REALLY keep an eye on things, adding small amounts of water every so often.  I'd say a couple ounces at a time.  


Lazy as I am, I'd normally suggest just adding all the water and letting it cook down, but we're not working with red meat, poultry, or even salmon here.  It's a whitefish.  Too much water and time and you'll either wind up with rubber or soup.  Besides which, I kinda enjoy hovering over the grill.  "MAN... FOOD...  FIRE!"  

Hand me a beer, would'ja?

Time's up?  Enjoy!  Pull the pan off the fire and serve.  As pictured, tonight's dinner came with rice and peas. I like to spoon a bit of the tahini sauce over the top of it all, have a bite of fish, rice and smoky apple and wonder what the hell made me think the oven would've been a good idea.