Olive oil 101 postulate

Necessary subsets of any class deemed "Olive Oil 101" must be "Oil 101" and "Olive 101"

Olive oil 101 questions

Because of my four years living in a very talkative commune, I tend to overinvolve people when I seek input. This isn't a negative tendency from my perspective, but may get on other's nerves. I also have a lot of direct contact with union organizers, and really appreciate how involved they try to make everyone in order to generate a sense of ownership in a project to ensure its success. Given that, I asked for questions that my colleagues might want answered in an Olive Oil 101 class. These were their responses:

I would love to know a bit about the history.

What oils (either specific brands or specific taste profiles) work with what dishes?

I'm looking for the practical applications of different flavors.

What are the foodie terms used to describe different oils?

Are some oils better for cooking, and others for dipping or tossing pasta?

What is extra virgin oil?

How should you store olive oil?

Seriously-----is oil healthful?

What accounts for the large variation in price of oil?

Those seasoned dipping oils---what's that about?

Can we grow olives in Michigan?

Which olive oils are the best to use for every day cooking?

What is the difference between filtered and unfiltered olive oil?

Is it best to have the most recent year, for an example 2006 as to 2005? If you do have a 2005 harvest does that mean that the oilive oil is in bad condition?

Why shouldn't you store it in the refrigerator?

Does it go bad if it becomes frozen?

What makes a good olive oil?

What is the difference between the olive oils that Zingerman's carry and the ones that are found in Wholefoods?

How should you pair the best bread to the best oil?

More questions may follow as they leak in.

Olive Oil 101 class in 3 weeks

The first of my teaching goals at my work is about to happen: I will be teaching an olive oil 101 class to my coworkers in three weeks. Now I have to sift through my knowledge about olive oil and make it coherent and focused toward my foodie colleagues. Because I'm basically a lazy person who would like to pour in the energy for one project and have three or four projects be produced, I'm also going to use this as the foundation for an Olive Oil 101 tasting and use this blog as the sketchboard for my thoughts. In this way I can teach three groups of people about olive oil, my coworkers, the Ann Arbor community, and anyone in the future who stumbles on this in their web surfing.

Three entries have come before this in my fledgling series of Olive Oil 101 posts: a too-wordy introduction, a note about the expansion of the olive tree, and a paragraph about drupes (olives, cherries, plums). But the next two weeks should be much more prolific.

People's Food Coop Board - throwing my hat into the race

I'm trying to be careful about not biting off more than I can chew when my new baby gets here, but I've wanted to be a board member at the People's Food Coop since I left work there two years ago. This would have been impossible during the last two years because I had so much to learn at Zingerman's (I go overboard in the amount of research I do sometimes). But when Chris, the current President of the board came to me and told me I should run, I figured now was the time.

One of the submissions required for the election was a statement of candidacy limited to 350 words, here's mine:

I believe that members of the coop: want to shop at the coop and be involved with the coop more than they are; are active members because they want their money to have a positive impact on their community and on their world but realize that most of the food one buys has a dark side to it economically, ethically, and environmentally; would like employees working for them at the coop to feel PFC is a socially, progressive employer recognizing every employee's value to the coop, trying to evolve into the most democratic, consensus-oriented workplace that can exist. Our members should be proud of our coop, acknowledging that while we're not perfect, we are continually striving to be an example of what can exist when people give thought and moral pause to their economic choices beyond merely the maximum financial return on their investment.

For four years in New York City, I was an active member of Ganas, a 100+ member intentional community, that ran three recycling businesses on Staten Island. Our group spent three hours every day deciding business issues among 20 of us, building consensus on all decisions. While that depth of exploration isn't necessary here, that experience taught me how to organize people, generate consensus, respect diverse opinions, and run a business communally, all while keeping a constant eye on higher priorities. The last 15 years of my life have been devoted to my scholarly and passionate obsession with food. I worked at the coop for a year and am now the olive oil and vinegar expert and frequent tasting host at Zingerman's Deli.

I recognize the next three years, with planned expansion and choosing a new general manager, as a period of vital growth and change during which the Board must be vocal and active in creating inspiring visions of the direction the coop sails and organizing members in support. I will be tenacious, passionate, and dedicated to setting a course that we can all be proud of taking.

What would you like to taste?

Perhaps I need to set up a wiki. I'd like to turn a few standards on their heads and let the audience create what it would like to taste. Since this is a food group, you might be interested if I describe my job a little bit; in itself, my job is food related.

I'm a tasting host at Zingerman's Deli. My normal role is to pick some subject, say chili peppers, put together a broad spectrum of products to taste, do a scouring of knowledge pulling together all the food resources I can muster (and I've got access to a lot, some of them being producers and growers and artisans), and then create a tasting around those products in which I talk for 90-120 minutes about that subject. I have to guess what a foodie audience would want to taste and then try to communicate the existence of the tasting to those who would be interested. Each of the tasting hosts here has his or her own style, but I can describe mine pretty succinctly: I focus on culinary knowledge about a specific ingredient, I relate that ingredient to its geographic culinary surroundings, pulling in information about the biological, mycological, culinary, chemical, and cultural elements of the ingredient, and I try to build the tasting through a series of steps that will maximize the tasting experience of the audience. I run a very active tasting, asking for opinions and ideas, I want you to create the experience as much as possible.

What I want to turn on its head is the decision making portion of coming up with the idea for a tasting. Why should I be making the decision about what you want to taste? I would enjoy poring my research into any area about food, so why not try to get the audience to voice itself.

I have access to probably the best foods that the world has to offer when it comes to cheese, olive oil, vinegar, tuna, anchovies, olives, smoked fish, salamis, salts, honeys, jams, pastries, bread, chocolate, coffee, spices, pastas, teas, cakes, pies, and sweet cookies. It's a unique access that makes the tasting experience more exciting than one might think.

So I'm asking you, and perhaps I should make this into a wiki format. I'm wondering what you would pay for. You set the price, knowing that I intend to make a profit as a business, but I'm also appreciative of your patronage so I'm certainly not going to cheat you out of what you're due. So what would you pay $20 to come taste? $10? $39

Here's a list of tastings that I'm thinking about doing, perhaps you could tell me what would interest you and how much you think it would be worth.

Would you come for a bagel and cream cheese with various jams tasting? How much would you pay for that? $5? $10? Knowing that a $10 bagel and shmear tasting is going to provide more food or more variety than a $5 bagel and schmear tasting. But for $10, I could see getting at least 2 bagels, cream cheese, butters, and 30 jams. Is it worth it?

How about a bread, butter, and honey tasting? Maybe only an hour long, but including two dozen different honeys and 12 different breads. If 30 people came to that for $20 each, I could provide quite a spread.

I could have cheese tray tasting that you vote on. You create what's on the cheese tray, based on what you would want to eat on your dream cheese tray of the world's greatest cheeses and salamis. Wouldn't it be great to go to a wedding and see that the cheese tray had everything you liked the best? I can make that happen. But what would someone pay for that? The more you were willing to pay, the more amazing I can make it, including gourmet tunas, smoked salmon, pates, etc.

How much would people pay for a foie gras tasting? How many times does one get a chance to eat foie gras? Especially while it's still legal to eat foie gras. "Poach the foie gras according to the recipe given above in Basic Information. Cool it immediately by shocking in ice water, pat dry, and marinate the liver in good Sauternes wine with a tablespoon of Cognac or brandy at least 24 hours in the refrigerator. Cut the foie gras into thick rounds, and place between sheets of freshly baked puff pastry with generous slices of brandy-sprinkled Comice or D'Anjou pears, cracked black pepper and crumbled Roquefort cheese."

Scones and jam?

Cookies, grilled brownies, and gelato?

Pies & cheese? (Tastes good together, I'll tell you that)

Coffee and chocolate?

Macaroni and cheeses, in which 20 grated cheeses are available to put on small cups of orecchiete pasta and sauce? Oooooh, or even more exciting have 8 small cups of different pastas with 20 different grated cheeses and 8 different sauces.

Let me know. s o l o m o n j @ g m a i l . c o m

how to make couscous

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-couscous

The United Nations as a food resource (manual on cheese making)

I need to investigate this United Nations Agricultural Division site much more. I think I've found one of the best manuals on cheese making I've seen. Also, this.

Why do bananas ripen after they are picked? Avocados, Pineapples? Ugali!

What I do best is research topics, especially topics about food. That and teaching are probably the skills I enjoy using most. Writing is a skill I wish I practiced more.

So, the question came to me, why do avocados and bananas ripen after they are picked? This question led me a few directions, and I'm going to share them.

The first was to find a paper that also tossed pineapples into this group of fruit. As I searched I ran across a paper from the University of California at Davis. It revealed the biochemical workings of the banana and avocado. UCofDavis article.

Still not quite satisfied that the deeper meaning of my why had been answered I went to the source of most of my initial searches, Wikipedia.

This led me to a side-discovery of the existence of banana flour, and now my search had turned into the idea of trying to find the traditional cuisine of the geographic regions of the world that have had bananas at least for the last 200 years so that the banana would be embedded in their cuisine. (and, of course that led to a quick side run into banana juice)

I then went on a fascinating trip to Brazil, since Brazil and India are the top two producing nations of bananas in the world. I started wondering how bananas and cheese were combined. Bananas taste good in yogurt, so I would imagine some cheeses would go especially well with bananas on a cheese plate. I found a cheese called Queijo Minas in Brazil, but I found it on a page from the United Nations... I'm excited because the depth of information is substantive, and I may have found another very useful food research tool.

My last thought on this journey which is not over with this post was sparked by the discovery of ugali, which is a boiled mixture of milk whey and flour (corn flour in Kenya and Tanzania). Boiled water and flour is a method of making couscous, which made me think, "How would cheese and corn couscous be, would they combine those ingredients in cuisines with bananas or plantains in any way?" Then I drifted into wild realms of small balls of couscous surrounding a middle of cheese

Food articles and links of interest

I read so many food links and articles during my day, one might think I'm mildly obsessed. One would be right.

Links of interest:

Food Trends for 2007

Harold McGee on new studies regarding the effect of light on olive oil, butter, and beer

Kitchen Chick's review of the best of her blog in 2006 (includes the Zingerman's Roadhouse Harvest Tomato Dinner!)

As much as three-quarters of the state's [California's] citrus crop withered in the field during the cold snap, but nearly every winter crop, from avocados to fresh-cut flowers, has suffered severely.

Orange Marmalade Mustard with Tuna

The Mustards Tasting is over, which means that the ration of food thoughts in my life can direct more towards the blog again rather than be completely immersed in my tasting. I think the most surprising taste combination for me and one of the combinations that pleased most people at the tasting was the clementine marmalade mustard. It's a very simple combination, about half of a very good marmalade (in this case a San Giuliano Clementine Marmalade) and a good dijon mustard. That taste combination happens to transform the taste of tuna into a new realm, which makes me think it would be not only a surprising addition into a tuna salad but also could quickly be transformed into a glaze or a sauce to serve with a tuna steak.

Following is a recipe for one of the mustard desserts, a spiced chestnut cream, from The Compleat Mustard by Rosamond Man and Robin Weir, which I wouldn't copy so directly if the book didn't happen to be out of print. We didn't taste this dessert at the tasting, I just rearranged the flavors so we could appreciate the combination and I could show everyone what mustard does to chestnuts (makes them taste like chocolate). At the tasting I just pureed candied chestnuts, dijon mustard, and a dash of cocoa powder and whipped it into mascarpone to inspire the cooks at the tasting to go explore (that's part of eating fearlessly), but the original recipe is:

8 oz chestnut puree
4 oz unsalted butter
4 oz sugar
2 teaspoons cacao
1 tablespoon mustard powder
1/4 pint double cream, whipped
6 fl oz cream, chilled, to serve

Heat the puree with the butter and sugar, stirring constantly until melted. Add the cacao and mustard powder and cook for a further 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool for 30 minutes.

Whisk in the whipped cream very thoroughly, then spoon into small bowls...and chill overnight. Serve with chilled cream handed round separately.

This could be altered in such a way as to use prepared mustard instead (I certainly would because I could then create dozens of variations on this by using different mustards). A prepared cognac mustard would do interesting flavor changes to that.

Mustards 101

French Mustards and Vinaigrettes, with Solomon (that's me)
Wednesday, January 24^th, 7-9 pm
Zingerman's Deli-Next Door, $20/person
Call 734-663-3400 to reserve your spot(s)!

I'm obsessed with mustards. I've been studying them for months now, hunting down obscure books to learn more about them. Join me to learn more about mustards than you thought possible and to create/taste some incredibly intriguing and flavorful vinaigrettes.

Here's what the tasting "menu" will include...

a review of how made mustard is created
anchovy mustard
quince mustard
aioli made with avocado or artichoke, anchovy and mustard
a couple of mustard butters
orange marmalade mustard
honey mustards
vinaigrettes
a chestnut, cocoa, mustard and cream dessert
a moustarde violette, mascarpone and honey dessert

We will also use several different vehicles (i.e. apples, pears, cauliflower, broccoli, clementines, bread, salamis) to enjoy the mustards.

If all of the above seems a little strange, remember,

Eat fearlessly!

Cheese Reality TV

I'm mainly a Dry Goods guru, so I don't often speak of cheese, but...

Cheese Reality TV

They say 'good things come to those who wait' – well West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers are so proud of the year it takes for their perfect-tasting cheddar to reach maturity that they have put a single cheese on a
round-the-clock webcam for the whole world to see.

From 1 January 2007 you will be able to log on to http://www.cheddarvision.tv/ and watch one of our handmade-on-the-farm West Country Farmhouse Cheddars maturing, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

The West Country Farmhouse Cheddar featured is one of just 14 UK products to
carry the prestigious Protected Designation of Origin status, ranking it alongside world famous food and drink treasures such as Champagne, Parma Ham and Cognac.
At the site you will be able to examine the delicate intricacies of the mould on our beautiful cheese as it develops and download a bespoke screensaver snapshot of the cheese for your computer.

Internet giant Google's free, gourmet global cuisine powers its workforce while offering chefs and producers a place to shine

Old news, perhaps, but since Google is trickling into Ann Arbor, worth remembering.

Now Google's cooking / Internet giant's free, gourmet global cuisine powers its workforce while offering chefs and producers a place to shine:

With its dedication to providing free and largely healthful, organic and artisan-produced meals three times a day to its employees, Google may well be leading the way in corporate food-service programs in the same way it has set the bar for search engines.

By the sheer numbers of its employees -- Google is mum, but estimates put it at 4,000 and growing -- and its purchasing power, the company will likely affect the survival rate of local, small, organic farms as well as what ingredients appear in local markets and, down the line, how much agricultural land is saved from development.

Besides the impact on the local economy and food producers, Google is creating a new model for how corporate cafeterias serve their employees, both by the wide variety of offerings and the creative freedom allowed its chefs.

Pickled eggs using olive brine

Well. New discoveries are just always available, aren't they?

I ran across this astounding idea (well, astounding to me, at least) while surfing. Quite simply, making pickled eggs using the leftover brine from olives. This of course makes me want to make pickled eggs from other things also: I wonder if I can find enough garum colatura? Or maybe I could use the salt that anchovies are stored in to make pickling brine for eggs.... hmmm.

(hat tip to An Obsession with Food for the link.)

I'm Mad and I Eat: CSI Petaluma:

On the right is one of my favorite discoveries, a repeat of an appetizer Cranky and I carted to a party last night (and it seemed to meet with general approval): eggs in leftover kalamata juice. You know all those jars of olives you go through, and then when the olives are gone, you just throw out the juice? Don't! It makes the most tasty, tan, tender eggs. This one is an immediate classic in the Crankycrumb household. (We'll see whether the addition this time of a clove of garlic is thumbs up or down.)

The Omnivore's Dilemma vs. Whole Foods

Mark your calendars: Whole Foods’ John Mackey to face off with Michael Pollan

This is scheduled for February 27, and I'm hoping will be captured through YouTube or something similar.

via Ethicurean

A beautiful picture of an olive oil bottle

From Kitchenchick. And it just happens to be Pasolivo Nuovo. And I'm mentioned in the post, woo hoo!

What did Santa leave under your tree?

Dessert at my mustard tasting

At my last tasting, I finished with a dessert that was a variation of a dessert that inspired the creation of The Compleat Mustard. In The Compleat Mustard, the dessert which inspired it was 2-3 tablespoons of a quince mostarda (another link with pictures) on top of 2-3 tablespoons of mascarpone, chilled slightly. My last tasting, as with my upcoming tasting, involved French food so an Italian mostarda was out of place, but the dessert intrigued me so that I felt I had to at least give it a nod, especially given how much I'm treasuring my new book.

Thankfully, I have a French mustard which shares that sweet, spicy, fruitiness of the fruit mostardas, and happens to be one of my favorite tastes of all time, moutarde violette. This had its start as a way to use up excess grapes at the end of wine season in Burgundy. Instead of a vinegar or verjuice being used as the base acid in a made mustard, cooked down grapes (or grape must) are used as the base, along with keeping most of the mustard seeds whole or cracked. This mustard is not nearly as sweet as an Italian mostarda, though, so moutarde violette and mascarpone by itself was more of a savory treat than a sweet... which was magically transformed with the addition of some fir tree honey.

The dessert was wonderful and will be one of the features during my tasting on the 24th, though quite probably with chestnut honey this time.

FRENCH MUSTARDS AND VINAIGRETTES TASTING
January 24th, 7-9 pm, $20
Zingerman's Deli
422 Detroit St.
Ann Arbor, MI
Call 734-663-3400 to reserve a spot

Collection of Walnut oil links

In service to one of my coworkers, who was having a hard time finding information about nut oils, I went on a search for artisanal nut oil info. I'm still in the searching process, but this is what I've found so far:

La Tourangelle hazelnut oil
La Tourangelle walnut oil
What's Cooking America
Veg Paradise
SF Gate
The Epicentre
Kitty Keller Imports

2006 Best Food Blogs Award Winners

Wellfed.net just released the results of its annual food blogs awards, and you can see them all here, Well Fed Blog Awards

Be careful food porn lovers (be especially careful if you don't know about food porn), this list will suck you into the depths of culinary excess. For those of you who think that's a positive, the 12-step meeting is held as a potluck on the 3rd Thursday of each month. :)

Artisanal is the enemy of artifice and complexity.

That's a great sentence in an anthropologist's look at the cultural components of the artisanal movement; worthwhile reading for anyone interested in artisanal food. He identifies 10:

1. a preference for things that are human scale.
2. a preference for things that are hand made.
3. a preference for things that are relatively raw and untransformed.
4. a preference for things that are unbranded.
5. a preference for things that are personalized.
6. a preference for a new transparency
7. a preference for things that are "authentic"
8. a preference for things that have been marked by locality
9. a preference for the new connoisseurship
10. a preference for the simplified

PS - Don't expect the author of the article to kneel at the altar of artisanal.