Is Your Olive Oil Deodorized?

Deodorizing and coloring olive oil sounds like something food producers would do in the 1950s, doesn't it? 

But wouldn't you know, in the 1950s, not only did they eat organic produce, but also, their olive oil was REAL. 

Olive oil is the big thing in food these days. Ever since NPR’s Fresh Air  reported the bad news that imported extra virgin olive oil is, in some cases, not extra virgin at all, but lighter oils flavored and colored to taste like they're fresh-pressed. Sometimes other vegetable oils are added or substituted, even. As Tom Meuller says in this report, you could be eating lamp oil!

Yep, shopping in a U.S. supermarket, if you don’t buy extra virgin olive oil produced in the U.S., it might be a fake. That’s not to say if you happen to be in Spain, Italy or Morocco, you can’t get the genuine article. It’s just that, if you buy the imported stuff here in the United States, it might not be genuine at all.

This is important. For most recipes, Filippo Berio or Colavita (whatever oil they are selling in those bottles) work just fine from a flavor perspective. But you can only get the fantastic health benefits from the extra virgin oil, not the lighter oil. Indeed, from a naturally occurring ibuprofen to lowering risk of heart disease, olive oil is one of the reasons the Mediterranean diet is considered one of the healthiest on the planet.

The recipe that follows is best if you have a really good extra virgin olive oil. For this, I would recommend buying a decent one produced in California, just to be safe – not least because you will need a lot of it. (Although, when we go to the grocery store we’ve tried Chilean olive oil and it looks and tastes like the real thing, so just use something you like and trust, I guess.)

Since my mother was not a fan of seafood or fish, I hadn’t learned how to make Brandade de Morue until attending a class in basics at The French Culinary Institute and it has since become one of my favorite comfort foods. Basically, mashed salt cod with Idaho potatoes, some milk or cream, garlic and olive oil. You can eat it nice and hot as-is as peasant food with some steamed kale on the side, or put it into a baking dish, top with cheese and/or breadcrumbs, and brown it under the broiler for a gratin, scooping it up with some French bread toasts.

Living in a neighborhood predominately Italian and Portuguese, we get bags of salt cod (bacalhau) for pennies at the supermarket. Sure you can buy a stiff codfish in a box but that will take days to reconstitute and you have to remove the bones. So, I just buy the boneless one-pound bags that are partially reconstituted. They last for several weeks to a couple months in the fridge until I need something comforting to eat for dinner.

To reconstitute it before making the dish, I just follow the directions on the package – place the fish into a dish under 6 cups of (filtered) water and keep it in the fridge. I change the water every 6 hours until 24 hours is up, and it’s ready to use.

This recipe is just a guide. You could add up to 4 oz. more potatoes, and a little more milk or cream if you like, reducing the oil accordingly. 

I vary the amount of oil every time. The first time I did it at home, I used way less olive oil and it came out delicious. After that I thought, what the heck, and started adding the traditional amounts. 

There is a lot of oil in this version, which you will find in older cookbooks like I Know How To Cook, (that's a French cookbook published in the 1930s and recently re-issued in English). Today, though, Jacques Pepin says it’s just as good with a lot less. You decide. Go to town, it’s your comfort food.

Brandade de Morue a la Scarlet

1 lb. boneless salt cod, the one where directions say should be soaked in water for 24 hours in water changed 3 times

6 good-sized cloves garlic, chopped

12 oz peeled or partially peeled Idaho potatoes (could go to 16 oz.)

¾ cup milk or ½ and ½ milk/cream

300 ml extra virgin olive oil (about 1 1/2 cups!)

   1. Soak the cod for 24 hours, changing the water 3 times.

   2. Cook the potatoes until fork-tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and mash with a fork.

   3. Cut cod into pieces and cook in water at a low simmer for 8-15 minutes, until it flakes easily. It's important to cook at a low simmer to keep it from getting tough, apparently.

   

   4. When cod is cooked, drain. Heat ¾ cup olive oil in cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.

   5. Add cod and mix into oil with a wooden spoon, working until it forms a paste.

   6. Meanwhile, heat milk/cream just to boiling and remove from heat.

   7. When the cod has been mashed into a good paste, remove it from the heat, add potatoes and garlic and mix well. Add milk/cream and olive oil alternately, until you achieve a good smooth mash. (N.B.: Now you know why those old European grandmas have such strong arms! Jacques Pepin and Cooks Illustrated both use food processors, btw)

   8. Season to taste and serve.