A Splash and a Drizzle... E-Book

Ursula Ferrigno

• Herausgeber: Ryland Peters & Small
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 167

Beschreibung

Over 75 delicious recipes and tips on how to season and cook with the finest oils and vinegars. Just as with any ingredient, the flavours in oils and vinegars must complement the foods they are paired with in order to bring out their subtleties. In this sublime recipe collection for the oil and vinegar aficionado you'll discover which types (and flavours) to use to make classic appetizers like Beef Carpaccio with Gorgonzola and Walnuts, refreshing salads, such as 'Dama Bianca', and exceptional pasta dishes, like Orecchiette with Chickpeas. You'll learn how to make delicate, refined fish dishes, such as Poached Turbot with Watercress Oil and aromatic meat dishes, including Pork Roast Braised with Milk and Fresh Herbs. You'll also be able to put your baking skills to the test with Potato and Gorgonzola Focaccia before tucking into one of the sublime desserts, including an incomparable Olive Oil Ice Cream. Finally, you'll discover the secrets of divine dressings, magnificent marinades and classic cocktails, which you could always make with your wonderful new homemade vinegar.

Leseprobe

A SPLASH &

A DRIZZLE

Ursula Ferrigno

A SPLASH &

A DRIZZLE

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF OIL & VINEGAR IN YOUR KITCHEN

WITH PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAN BALDWIN

Senior Designer Megan Smith

Senior Editor Abi Waters

Production Manager Gordana Simakovic

Creative Director Leslie Harrington

Editorial Director Julia Charles

Food Stylist Emma Marsden

Prop Stylist Jo Harris

Indexer Vanessa Bird

Published in 2024 by Ryland Peters & Small

20–21 Jockey’s Fields

London WC1R 4BW

and

341 E 116th St

New York NY 10029

www.rylandpeters.com

Recipes in this book were previously published in A Gourmet Guide to Oil & Vinegar and Cucina Siciliana.

Text © Ursula Ferrigno 2014, 2016, 2024. Design and commissioned photography © Ryland Peters & Small 2014, 2016, 2024 (see page 176 for full image credits).

ISBN: 978-1-78879-609-5

E-ISBN: 978-1-78879-658-3

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

US Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data has been applied for.

Printed and bound in China.

NOTES

• Both American (Imperial ounces plus US cups) and British (Metric) are included in these recipes for your convenience; however, it is important to work with one set of measurements only and not alternate between the two within a recipe.

• All spoon measurements are level unless otherwise specified.

• All eggs are large (US) or medium (UK), unless specified as large, in which case US extra-large should be used. Uncooked or partially cooked eggs should not be served to the very old, frail, young children, pregnant women or those with compromised immune systems.

• Ovens should be preheated to the specified temperatures. We recommend using an oven thermometer. If using a fan-assisted oven, adjust temperatures according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

• When a recipe calls for the grated zest of citrus fruit, buy unwaxed fruit and wash well before using. If you can only find treated fruit, scrub well in warm soapy water before using.

• To sterilize preserving jars, wash them in hot, soapy water and rinse in boiling water. Place in a large saucepan and cover with hot water. With the saucepan lid on, bring the water to a boil and continue boiling for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the jars in the hot water until just before they are to be filled. Invert the jars onto a clean kitchen cloth to dry. Sterilize the lids for 5 minutes, by boiling or according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Jars should be filled and sealed while they are still hot.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Introducing oils

Types of oil

Introducing vinegar

Types of vinegar

Soups & salads

Fish & seafood

Meat & poultry

Vegetarian dishes & sides

Breads

Preserves, marinades & dressings

Baking & sweet things

Index

Acknowledgements & credits

INTRODUCTION

Both oils and vinegars are ancient ingredients, known and used variously in many cultures and cuisines for millennia. Oils are mostly pure, with nothing added – especially olive oil – and vinegar is produced by a natural process, the natural souring of wine or beer when exposed to air. Oils, along with other fats, are used in cooking to add richness, variety and smoothness to foods that might otherwise be too dry to eat. Vinegars act as preservatives, and wonderful flavour enhancers.

Olive oil is the oldest food known to man, the olive tree being much older than the grape vine. (And the trees grow in the most beautiful places on earth, according to my grandfather.) We are fairly sure the oil itself has been made in the Middle East from as long ago as 6,000 BC. Olive oil is also one of the healthiest foods, playing a major part in the lauded Mediterranean diet. Professor Tim Spector, an eminent British epidemiologist and medical doctor, advocates extra virgin olive oil in the diet: its polyphenol content is good for the gut and heart, and helps to lower levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol.

But other oils are interesting too. The Ancient Egyptians used cypress and cedar oils, as well as olive, in the embalming process. Vegetable oils of all kinds have been used for centuries in cooking, as lighting fuel, as medicine and for lubrication – and some still are. For instance, in the late 19th century, Rupert Diesel invented an engine to run on peanut oil, and some 150 years later, biodiesel – far greener than fossil fuels – can be made from waste cooking oil.

Vinegar was known to the Babylonians and to the Ancient Egyptians, used for medicinal, preservative, culinary, agricultural and cleaning purposes. And it can be effective in more ways than in the kitchen, even now. For instance, did you know that apple cider vinegar is a magnet for fruit flies? Put some vinegar in a glass, cover the top with clingfilm/plastic wrap and pierce it with several tiny fruit-fly-sized holes. The flies will get into the glass, but can’t find their way out again. And apple cider vinegar has very recently been touted by health gurus: a teaspoonful in a morning glass of water is said to be good for gut bacteria, and more….

Both vinegars and oils are essential in my dispensa (store-cupboard) and in my cooking. I am Italian, and my passion is Italian food, so I tend to lean heavily towards olive oil. I buy different extra virgins: the lighter oils are good for dressing fish, vegetable dishes or more delicate salads and for making mayonnaise; the stronger ones I use for dressing meat and soups, or sturdier salads. Use a basic olive oil or other general-purpose vegetable oil for sautéing, deep-, shallow- and stir-frying: never use extra virgin. I use olive oils in cake-making, substituting a tablespoon for each 25g/1oz of butter. I even put a small container of good olive oil in the fridge, where it sets, and I then spread on toast instead of butter. In fact you can use olive oil instead of butter in many dishes: in mashed potatoes, on top of cooked vegetables, brushing filo or other pastry.

And of course, I have little bottles of more exotic oils, such as sesame, hazelnut and walnut oils, for adding their incomparable flavours to the appropriate dishes.

The oil used in a dish often gives away its culinary and cultural origin: for instance, olive oil in the Middle East and the Mediterranean, sesame and coconut in India and South-East Asia, palm oil in Africa. And so it is with vinegars: northern Europe is known for its malt vinegar, derived from beer-brewing. In France wine vinegars rule, with Spain famous for its sherry vinegar. China uses rice wine vinegar. Fruit vinegars are associated with fruit-producing countries – apple cider vinegar in northern France, and south-western England – and apparently there is even a kiwifruit vinegar which (obviously) is produced in New Zealand.

All have different flavours, and all have different uses: as an acidic additive to many international dishes, to preserve foods as pickles, chutneys and relishes, and to add tang to a multitude of marinades, mustards, sauces and dressings, particularly the famous vinaigrette. An uninspiring casserole can be transformed by the addition of some red wine vinegar, and strawberries and other soft fruit sing when sprinkled with a little fruit or wine vinegar. In the UK, your paper-wrapped fish and chips would not taste the same without the addition of vinegar (usually malt, why?), and your windows will shine after they have been wiped down with newspaper soaked in an inexpensive vinegar.

I was introduced very early on in life to the magical properties of oils and vinegars. My grandfather taught me how to savour olive oil each year, the first taste of the new pressing, and those lessons have remained with me ever since. I hope that you too, through reading the following pages, will learn to love and appreciate these wonderful ingredients as much as I do.

Ursula Ferrigno

INTRODUCING OILS

Oil is one of the most absorbing and tantalizing of subjects, because its origins are shrouded in mystery… Every olive oil producer I have met is truly passionate and their dedication to producing and perfecting this historic food is remarkable.

I love to use many different types of oil in my cooking but I have a personal passion for olive oil. This is undoubtedly because some of my earliest memories in Italy are of my grandfather showing me precisely how to taste it. I enjoyed watching him smack his lips enthusiastically and closing his eyes if the oil he was trying was good.

Good olive oil is bountiful in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea and many have access to excellent oil, which is often stored in large cans, carboys or demijohns and decanted into smaller bottles as needed. In Italy la dispensa (the storecupboard) is incomplete without these magical bottles filled with a golden or green elixir. The opportunity to smell and taste great oil as a child has stayed with me to this day. I think that there’s nothing in the world that compares with a good, freshly milled olive oil.

There is evidence that olives were already being cultivated over 6,000 years ago. It is probable that the plant originated in Syria and it is thought to be very likely that the first people to transform the wild plant into a domestic crop spoke a Semitic language. The journey of olive cultivation from Syria to the Aegean islands and the sunny hills of Anatolia was relatively straightforward. From there, it travelled on to the rest of Greece where it enjoyed unexpected success and was put to uses that made it indispensible to the ancient peoples of the Aegean. The use of olive oil in cooking then spread slowly westwards from the Eastern Mediterranean.

Olives would be harvested in September and October, and timings are still the same today. Long poles were used to shake the branches and olives tested for ripeness and quality by squeezing the juice from a few olives through a funnel into a small bottle. The flavour and smell of the oil extracted in this way was then evaluated, the precursor to the elegant bottles of olive oil we display in our kitchens today.

But beyond my beloved olive oil we can now also use vegetable, rapeseed/canola, grapeseed, palm, peanut, avocado, sesame and coconut oils in our food, meaning that the world of culinary oil can be a very confusing place! For the best results with your cooking it’s important to understand that when it comes to performance and flavour, not all culinary oils are created equal. Some perform well at high temperatures, making them ideal for frying/sautéing. Others are deliciously strong in flavour but turn rancid when heated so are best kept back for drizzling over a finished dish or as an ingredient in salad dressings.

In the pages that follow I profile types of olive oil and some of the most popular oils in use today – some long-established favourites, others that have recently gained in popularity due to their supposed health benefits. Use this information as a general guide in your own cooking and take your lead from the way in which I have used oils in my own recipes in this book, for example delicious extra virgin olive oil for drizzling over simply grilled white fish, coconut oil to add an additional hint of flavour to spiced Indian dishes, toasted sesame oil in a tangy Asian-style dressing, flavourless grapeseed oil for a mayonnaise, and so on. Experimentation is key!

TYPES OF OIL

As you will no doubt have noticed, a vast variety of different culinary oils are now available to buy. Buy the best you can afford and keep a good range to choose from in your kitchen as they serve myriad purposes – from using in simple salad dressings and marinades, to frying/sautéing and even in your baking.

OLIVE OILS

This magical oil is now an essential item in everyone’s kitchen. There are hundreds of different varieties of olives, and styles of olive oil. Like grapes, the variety grown depends on the climate, the soil and also whether the olives are to be pressed for oil or preserved for eating. With table olives, the firmness and fleshiness of the fruit is of the greatest importance, whereas olives grown for pressing must have a high oil content. All olives are green at first and turn pinky, purpley and then black when fully ripe. Olives flourish in dry, arid conditions. The trees can survive long periods of drought but cannot tolerate extreme cold or damp weather, which is why olives are principally found in Mediterranean climes where the winters tend to be mild. That said, the ‘New World’ is experiencing a period of growth in its olive oil markets, with Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the USA at the forefront. South Africa is worth singling out as it has picked up many awards in recent years. Frying/sautéing with extra virgin olive oil is not recommended, as the heat causes the oil to burn and release free radicals. Also the flavour of the oil is often destroyed, along with the nutritional benefits. There are five grades of olive oil as designated by the International Olive Oil Council:

EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL This is virgin olive oil of absolutely perfect taste and odour, having maximum acidity in terms of oleic acid of 1 g per 100 g or with an acidity of less than 1 per cent.

VIRGIN OLIVE OIL This is virgin oil of absolutely perfect taste and odour, but possessing a maximum acidity in terms of oleic acid of 1.5 g per 100 g or acidity of less than 1.5 per cent.

OLIVE OIL This is the oil mainly used to cook with. It is in fact obtained from virgin olive oils by refining methods.

VIRGIN OLIVE OIL LAMPANTE (OLIVE OIL) This is an off-tasting and off-smelling virgin pressing intended for refining or technical purposes.

OLIVE RESIDUE OIL This is a crude oil obtained by treating olive residues with solvents and is intended for subsequent refining prior to human consumption.

ALMOND OIL

This is a pale, clean oil with a fairly neutral flavour and, rather surprisingly, not much of an almond taste. It is mainly used in baking and confectionery. It can be useful for oiling baking pans or soufflé dishes when making very delicately flavoured batters, or for oiling a marble slab when making sweets/candy. Used alone, it is not enough to give an almond flavour to cakes and biscuits/cookies. For that you need to use almond extract or, of course, almonds themselves.

ARGAN OIL

Argan oil comes from the fruit of the argan tree, native to the Argan forests of Morocco. It is green and fleshy, not unlike a ripe olive. The fleshy part is eaten by the nimble-footed goats who graze off the trees, digest the fleshy part and after nature takes its course the kernels are collected from the ground and pressed to yield a delicious and distinctive oil. It has a reddish tinge and nutty aroma. High in monounsaturated fats, essential fatty acids and antioxidants, it is used as a cooking oil in Morocco, to stir into couscous or add a final flourish to tagines. It makes a tasty dressing for salads and vegetables or can be mixed with ground almonds and honey to make a delicious spread for hot toast. It’s costly as it takes 20 hours to render sufficient nuts to make 1 litre/quart of oil, but a little goes a long way!

AVOCADO OIL

The oil of the avocado fruit has long been known for its properties as an ingredient in beauty products, but it is now generating excitement in the health and fitness world as it is high in monounsaturated fats and cholesterol-free. It is one of the few fruit oils not derived from the seeds; it is in fact pressed from the fleshy pulp surrounding the avocado stone/pit. Extra virgin avocado oil has the characteristically creamy flavour you would expect and an unbelievably high smoke point (250°C/482°F), making it a good choice for frying/sautéing but it really comes into its own when used in salad dressings. Look for ‘Hass’ cold-pressed avocado oil, which is emerald green – the colour is attributed to high levels of chlorophylls and carotenoids extracted into the oil. It has been described as having an avocado flavour, with grassy and buttery, mushroom-like notes. Because the avocado is a year-round crop, some olive oil processing facilities, particularly in Australia and New Zealand, process olive oil during the olive season, and avocado oil throughout the rest of the year.

CITRUS OILS

These differ from other culinary oils in that they are used for flavour and not for emulsifying (as in mayonnaise), lubricating (as in salad dressings) or cooking (as in deep-frying). They are extracted from the essential oils stored in the skin of citrus fruits. Grapefruit, lemon and sweet orange oil are all remarkable for their aroma and concentration. Just a drop is needed to permeate a dish with the scent and flavour of the fruit. Use them with a dash of gin or vodka to flavour a sauce for fish or chicken dishes. They are delicious stirred into custards or creams for cake filling but less successful added to cake batter since they are so volatile that they simply disappear.

COCONUT OIL

Coconut oil is in high demand these days but the coconut has long been an important food source for people living in the tropical areas of Asia, Africa, the Pacific and South America. Pressed from the fruit of the coconut palm tree, coconut oil is ideal for light and subtly flavoured dishes. It gives a perfect hint of coconut flavour to Indian and South-east Asian recipes and works well in cakes and desserts. Choose from certified organic, either virgin (unrefined) or refined, depending on your needs and taste. Organic virgin coconut oil has a soft coconut aroma and more pronounced coconut flavour. If you are not keen on the taste or smell of coconut but you want the benefits of the oil, the organic refined version is a better choice. It stands up well to high heat and doesn’t add any coconut flavour. Use organic refined coconut oil for sautéing and stir-frying. If you want to taste the coconut, perhaps in bakes, try virgin or extra-virgin, but take care as it can burn more quickly, making it better suited to medium to low-heat cooking.

CORN/MAIZE OIL

This is one of the most economical and widely used of all edible oils. It is extracted from the germ of corn/maize. It is a deep, golden yellow with quite a strong flavour. Refined corn oil has a high smoke point making it a valuable all-purpose frying oil. It is technically suitable for all culinary uses including baking, but is not pleasant in salad dressings and mayonnaise.

GRAPESEED OIL

A pale, delicate, quite neutral but pleasant-tasting oil, extracted from grape seeds, that is quite widely available. It is excellent for frying and for general culinary use, and it is a good choice for making mayonnaise. If you like to use hazelnut or sesame oil but find them too strong in certain recipes, then grapeseed oil is excellent for diluting them to your preferred concentration.

GROUNDNUT/PEANUT OIL

This is a clear, pinkish-golden oil made by pressing specially-grown peanuts from Spain, China and India. It is also widely known as groundnut oil. The refined variety has been treated to mellow its strong peanut taste and create a mild-tasting oil with a thin pouring consistency that is suitable for frying and baking as well as in salad dressings and mayonnaise. It is used a great deal in French, South-east Asian and Chinese kitchens. It has a high smoke point and does not burn easily, making it a particularly good choice for wok cooking.

HAZELNUT OIL