OLIVE OIL NOT JUST FOR SALAD DRESSING
Try it for roasting, dipping and baking — even in chocolate cake
Fear not the smoke point of extra-virgin olive oil. You can bake, sauté, stir-fry and even deep-fry with it.
“Olive oil is a monounsaturated fat so, without getting technical, it has what I would call a medium smoke point,” says chef Christine Cushing, who has been producing a Greek olive oil for a decade. “Different sources say different amounts but 375 F (190 C) seems to be the average.”
When they are heated past their smoke point, they start to degrade and produce off-flavours.
Cushing explains that deepfrying should really be done from 350 to 365 F (175 to 185 C), adding that in the Mediterranean region cooks use olive oil for everything, including deep-frying french fries.
“I promise you, they are the best french fries you’ve ever had. It’s just like your grandmother is making them — if she’s Greek, of course,” she laughs.
Cushing was born in Athens and raised in Toronto. She fell in love with the region of Kalamata, in the south of the Peloponnese Peninsula, when scouting groves to produce her olive oil. Much like wine, terroir affects an olive oil’s characteristics.
“It is very magical, and in some cases quite remote. You have the coastal region, and the incredible Taygetos mountain range where there are snow-capped mountains, waterfalls; it’s very lush,” she says of the area. “My olive oil is a PDO (protected designation of origin) Kalamata, but that region is quite broad. The city of Kalamata is the epicentre, but then there are olive groves, and pine and cypress trees all around.”
The degree of bitterness, fruitiness and spiciness, as well as the level of antioxidants in oil, depend on the cultivar of olive used, of which there are hundreds.
“Each of those olives brings forth a different flavour profile; different organoleptic qualities. The Koroneiki, which is the main indigenous Greek olive, has the highest level of polyphenols (a type of antioxidant),” Cushing says. She explains that Kalamata’s southern climate and topography result in an olive that yields a fruity oil (green-apple, green-banana tasting notes) with a peppery finish and less bitterness than other varieties, such as the Italian Leccino olive.
“The Koroneiki produces a very balanced oil; you don’t have the polar opposites. It’s very fragrant and it’s very fresh when it’s made well,” she says. “I love the intensity of oils but sometimes, like for example using it for something chocolate or putting it on a Boston Bibb lettuce, which is delicate, (Koroneiki) oil will complement it, but it’s not going to strangle it. It’s not going to say, ‘Get out of here because I’m the star.’ ”
When you’re using and cooking with extra-virgin olive oil, you have a really beautiful flavour. So for me, any fat that I’m going to use, I want it to have flavour,” Cushing says. “I don’t want a flavourless fat because then I feel like what’s the point of adding it?”
WHEN TO USE IT
Roasting and sautéing: “I would use olive oil for sautéing something where you’re going to do a medium-high temperature; let’s say you’re stirring vegetables in a pan. Roasting vegetables is the same.”
Soups or stews: “If I’m going to start a soup or a stew, I would cook the onion and garlic first (in olive oil) because I never go beyond medium-high.”
Baking: “I use it in every kind of baking where the flavour works, and it actually works in more ways than you would imagine. I have a chocolate cake recipe and chocolate cookies, which doesn’t seem to be a slam dunk, but it really is,” she says. “I bake with olive oil a lot, and you actually use about 20 per cent less olive oil when you bake than if you’re baking with butter.”
Dipping: “Use it in lieu of butter and dip your bread in it. Depending on what you’re having, that’s a great way to go,” she says. “Don’t mix it with balsamic vinegar. When you go to Italy, olive oil and balsamic vinegar is not an Italian thing at all.”
Drizzling: “When you have a great quality olive oil, you really taste the flavours. I liken it to adding freshly chopped herbs,” Cushing says. “I generally cook pretty cleanly so I don’t use huge amounts of fat when I’m cooking. But at the end of making a beautiful vegetable or fish soup, I’ll chop up some parsley or some dill and then I’ll drizzle a little bit of olive oil. And just from the warmth of that residual heat, it’s going to start to awaken your olfactory (sense), and you taste it so, so, so much better.”
WHEN TO SKIP IT
Searing: “If you’re searing something in a pan and you want it to get smoking hot, you don’t want to use olive oil there because you’re degrading it and it’s going to smoke, and you don’t want that.”