Everybody knows that olive oil is among the healthiest oils. Here’s why. Olive oil is plump with (MUFA), a healthy fat that helps battle heart disease, cholesterol, even blood sugar. It is higher in MUFAs than almost every single oil including sesame, coconut, rapeseed, sunflower and corn oil!
Cooking With Olive Oil
Before you start cooking with olive oil, it is a good idea to taste it, much like you would taste wine. Use only about a tablespoon of oil, swirl, smell, sip, taste and then finally swallow. You’ll be surprised at the various flavours the oils will release – they can vary from sweet to bitter to peppery to fruity to astringent. A good olive oil should boast of a powerful flavour.
Types of Oil
Olive oils are all graded by the level of free oleic acid and Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) has the lowest of all. Italians consider it to have the earthiest, strongest olive flavours (it tastes, bitter, spicy, fruity), and use it for most of their cooking.
Extra virgin olive oil is the least processed. Extra-virgin olive oil should simply be the oily juice of the olive, minus the water also contained within the fruit. It may have been filtered, but it has not been refined.
But what about the kerfuffle over not using extra virgin olive oil for frying? Reams have been written about how its low smoke point (the temperature at which oil begins to break down, burn and smoke, leading to quickly charred food) means that it’s a bad idea to use it for cooking.
Quality extra virgin olive oil is a fine choice for sauteing and shallow frying, so long as its flavour doesn’t overpower the food. (But) refined olive oil is probably a better choice for deep-fat frying, though there are undoubtedly many extra virgin olive oils that hold up well to frying – the lower an oil’s free fatty acidity, the higher its smoke-point.
A good quality EVOO can be heated upto about 365Ëš; most Indian cooking falls between 250Ëš to 350ËšF, with deep frying going up to 365Ëš and more. But extra virgin olive oil is expensive, so you may want to keep it aside for salad dressing and dips, where its determined taste comes through more clearly.
Next you have Light Olive Oil, which has a lighter flavour profile. The term ‘light’ has nothing to do with its nutritional profile. Light olive oil works well in dips and condiments, such as mayonnaise. But it all comes down to a matter of personal taste; what floats your boat may sink mine.
Olive Oil is made of a blend of virgin olive oil and refined olive oil. Again, taste differs wildly across olive oils, depending on which region the olives are born in. Some olive oils are fairly thrusting in their flavour profiles (those from Tuscany, perhaps), others are a mere whisper. Most brands in the market are suitable for Indian cooking and I use them at home for everything from sauteing vegetables to preparing pulaos and parathas – olive oil’s smoke point is 420ËšF.
Finally, we have Olive-Pomace Oils. According to the International Olive Council, pomace oil is “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.” Pomace consists of pieces of skin, pulp, stone and olive kernel, left behind after extracting olive oil. It has a very small amount of olive oil which needs to be coaxed out using chemical solvents. According to trade news website, Olive Oil Times, this is the lowest edible grade, used mostly in industrial kitchens. But in India, its feeble flavour is seen as an advantage, as it doesn’t interfere with the taste of any masala and its high smoke point makes it easy to fry goodies such as samosas, vadas and pakodas.
Oleophile Tips
The olive is a delicate little thing and starts deteriorating from the time it is plucked (which is why it is important to buy the most recently – pressed olive oil you can find, as opposed to the oil with the latest expiration date).
Keep that in mind when you browse the shelves at your shop for the appropriate olive oil – it oxidises quick as a wink in the sun, so if you have a choice, always pick the oil that is housed in a dark bottle. The colour does not really matter. At home, store it in a cool, dry place and use it up as soon as possible. Olive oil does not age well.
