Here´s a problem I bet many people would love to have.
Every year, José´s father sends us a case of extra virgin olive oil. The best, fruitiest, green-molten gold stuff you can think of, straight off the presses, made with olives from their own actual olive trees.
Sometimes, in the mad Christmas rush of parcels, we even receive two, one from Oleoestepa and one from Torcaoliva .
And that is a lot of oil. Especially when you consider that I don´t fry.
I´m generous with the bounty, and give away bottles to deserving friends. I even take a bottle of oil rather than wine to parties.
I cook with it, and also splash it around freely for escabeches, for pestos, and to cover jars of roast peppers or tomatoes.
But there are still five 500 ml. bottles there, so I´m going to make a batch of aromatic stuff.
For starters, chili oil.
I´ll take a bottle over to my father. He treats pasta like a personal insult, and the only thing that makes it palatable for him is a good glug of oil and a liberal shake of Tabasco. So I´m making it easy for him, and making sure I have a good chance of eating spaghetti at home.
The recipe, from the Ballymaloe cookery course , couldn´t be simpler. Take 500 ml. oil, and 25 grams of chili flakes or whole dried chilies. Bring slowly to the boil, turn off, and leave to infuse for an hour.
It will keep in the fridge for months.
12 comentarios:
You are such a lucky woman! When I move to Spain (one of my life goals) I want to have enough olive trees to produce our own oil. Infusing it is a great idea. You can also make garlic oil, or use any fresh herb. I'm sure your father will enjoy!
¡¡¡My kingdom for a bottle!!!
I really love olive oil. When I lived in Germany I´ve missed so much "our Carbonell"! and the extra-virgin one is pure gold.
Lucky you!!!
Hi Lobsersquad,
I just moved to Madrid, and will be here for 4 months.
I'd love to know where you food shop, your favorite restaurants and any general food tips you have.
I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area, so my food standards are ridiculously high, but I'm hoping Madrid can be a lovely stand-in.
Oh my! I love my olive oil and use it everywhere - what a fantastic gift that would be!
Wait, make any kind of flavored oil you like - except garlic oil. Homemade garlic oil has a nasty habit of growing botulism toxin.
Don't believe me? Please Google it before you do! I wouldn't want you to stop posting because you get too sick to make it to the computer!
Keep up the good work otherwise! :)
Yes, that is a WONDERFUL problem to have, and a case of olive oil straight from the presses sounds like the perfect Christmas present. You're a lucky woman.
Julie:That´s a lovely goal of yours. I´ll come over and sqash olives too.
Guru: Abroad, it´s the thing you miss most, isn´t it?
Ellie: yep, it´s pretty good, truly.
Steve: thanks! I didn´t know about that. Lucky you stopped me. I´ll stick to basil. Phew.
Julie: I shouldn´t have called it a problem, of course.
Aaron: Welcome to the city!
I don´t know what we can do to tempt someone from the Bay Area, it´s a bit daunting, but here´s where I do my food shopping. You can email me later, if you like, or have other questions.
I do my shopping at the Barceló market. It´s not the best or the prettiest, just the one nearest where I live. Nearby there´s a place called Hespen&Suarez that has foreign stuff. In case you´re missing Betty Crocker mixes.
El Corte Inglés is not very exciting, but they have excellent stuff, meat, fish, and groceries. They´ll also deliver.
Email me and tell me what sort of restaurants you want to know about. I might make a whole post about this, actually.
quiero un poco. cuanto tarda???????????????????
you can ship any of that surplus oil right on over to NYC any time you want ;-)
i'd bake 50 loaves of bread and then have all your friends come over and you can have a dipping party!
or you could just do like the little old italian grannies do and use it on your skin to keep it all supple and healthy
might smell a little funny, but it really does work!
What a coincidence. I just made my first batch of chili oil a few days ago. I love eating it with dimsum. A post on Madrid food would be great. I'm originally from the bay as well. (missing those farmer's markets)
Dipping good quality (possibly sourdough) bread into good quality olive oil (possibly flavoured with a few herbs) can be a starter in itself.
I've found myself drizzling good quality oil over a lot of my dishes these days just for the extra touch of flavour it gives.
I think that you can buy Oleoestepa oil by phone. Visit her web
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