The Price of Oil Just Keeps Going Up!

I have never considered myself to be a “dipper” so my new fascination with oil is a little surprising. In fact, in my epicurean arrogance I’ve always looked at this practice as being a little common - perhaps an outgrowth of the nineties when Provence and Tuscany met the Internet Boom. So when I came across an article recently that suggested that “bread dipping” was in fact an American adoption and not something brought over from the Old Country I was smugly self-satisfied. . . regardless of any truth.

However, I’ve recently decided that if I’m going to do service to the food community in Ottawa, and its food lovers, I have to experiment more often with things that may not, on first blush, be to my tastes. In Chinatown a few weeks ago I felt obligated to pick up a package of Crispy Fish Skin - Garlic Flavour, as part of an entry I’m writing on ethnic snacks (along with cuttlefish crackers); there was that experiment with vegetarian caviar; and then last week, thankfully, the much herald Sea Asparagus.

Walking in to the Byward Fruit Market a couple of weeks back, I was confronted by a man who had set up a table adorned with slices of french bread, small bowls of a dark green oil, a number of slender bottles, and a dip he had made consisting of goat cheese, herb and sun-dried tomato, topped with parsley and cilantro - his secret ingredient was Avocado Oil!

Apparently I was looking at a Pamphlet Wielding Evangelist for Avocado Oil! This isn’t a typical sight in the usually serene vegetable market, so it must have been something that Isaac felt strongly about.

I am a big fan of Avocado’s - the buttery consistency of the perfectly ripe avocado falls brilliantly in line with my penchant for fat. And yet the avocado is a trickster! At one time the avocado was believed to be bad for you due to its high fat content and cholesterol, which can range from 3% to 30% depending upon the variety. However, the fat from the avocado is actually monounsaturated fat and, as such, may raise the levels of HDL - good cholesterol. There are a number of other health benefits attributed to avocado’s, the high vitamin E content popularly viewed as reducing the risk of heart disease, and an important natural anti-oxident (which I, perhaps biastly, interpret as reducing the effects of age)! As an interesting side note - something I will no doubt remember the next time I make guacamole, the name Avocado is derived from the Aztec word Ahuacatl - meaning testicle!

Unlike some of the other patrons I decided not to try what was on offer - I’m not big into sampling (the scene of one of the residents of the Byward Market helping himself to a handful of the sliced sausages, available as samples on the counter in the Sausage Kitchen, has indelibly scarred me!). Nevertheless, transforming into my role as super food sleuth, I added a bottle of the oil to my basket, and tried not to flinch when a few minutes later the $14.99 was added to my bill.

Now, when I bought it I had no idea what I was going to do with it. And when skimming the pamphlet I noticed that the Herb dip was actually from Jamie Oliver’s new cookbook, and there was a reference to a number of other recipes featuring Avocado Oil on. . . wait for it. . . Jamie Oliver’s website, I was pretty suspicious!

I know I run the risk of offending, but as some of you are no doubt aware, I'm not a big fan of the Naked Chef.  He's entertaining enough on TV, and I do admire what he's done for children - most notably his influence in improving the standard of food in the British state schools - but he's first and foremost a celebrity chef - not as bad as "the fuzzy little ewok" aka Emeril, and certainly more honest about it than the Uber Chef, Anthony Bourdain, but with Jamie there's so much show and I always feeling that I’m getting spun on product; perhaps that's his schtick - but come on, what person who cooks regularly, particularly at his level, needs a red dot on the base of a frying pan to know that the pan and oil is hot enough!!

But not to let this deter me, I picked up a good French baguette and headed home. . . to dip my bread!

Avocado Oil is deep dark green, as you might expect, and on pouring it is seemingly much thicker than Olive Oil. The trusty pamphlet describes it as having a mild flavour, and therefore “an alternative to extra virgin olive oil, which some consumers find too strong”. I have never found extra virgin olive oil to be particularly strong. In fact, I’m in pursuit of one that has a more natural olive taste to it because I personally find so many of them too mild. Ironically, I found this avocado oil pleasingly strong - the taste strikingly in line with its deep, complex colour. It had a rich nutty taste, unlike my experience with olive oils.

In addition to its enticing bread-dipping qualities, avocado oil has an extremely high smoke point (the point at which an oil begins to decompose) at 276 degrees C, which is among the highest of all oils. This is advantageous in cooking because once an oil starts to break down in heat it emits a much more harsh flavour (and apparently lets reign some of those rebellious little free radicals that wreak havoc on the body); so the high smoke point of avocado oil enables foods to be seared at extremely high temperatures.

I’m not suggesting that Avocado Oil be used as an everyday cooking oil - particularly for something like an Herb-Goat Cheese-Sun-Dried Tomato dip with Cilantro ala Jamie Oliver; there’s so much flavour happening in there if you could differentiate avocado oil then you have one impressive palate! But as something special to keep around the kitchen - to bring out with a good baguette when some friends come over, to use as the basis of a light salad dressing, to sear some freshly sliced carrots to infuse them with a slightly nutty flavour, or simply as an exotic twist on Olive Oil, I think that used sparingly Avocado Oil should be a mainstay on the kitchen counter.