Oils, new colours, aromas and flavours

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About twenty years ago, I started to experiment with smoothies or vegetable, herb and fruit juices, incorporating them into different types of oils. From the start, and also in later research, the cookery team and I prepared and tested many combinations.

It is undoubtedly common in cookery, above all in the Mediterranean (especially in the most modern cookery – and the author’s), to use these oils in profusion. Aromatic oils increase the taste quality of a dish. They are easy to prepare, in terms of combinations of ingredients, because there are hundreds of them... just unleash the imagination of each cook. Basil or parsley, tarragon or rosemary, with spinach or garlic, with lemon, orange or tangerine peel, passion fruit and other exotic fruits, with oils sweet or spicy. Also with cardamom, green pepper or cinnamon. I recall some dishes that gave almost more attention to these details, and the taste of the aromatic oils in sauces and, especially, in vinaigrettes, that enhanced the raw material of the dish. Base oils: of course, our fantastic extra virgin olive oil but also walnut, peanut, corn, hazelnut or sunflower oil.

Prawns en escabeche, marinated with a striking and equally tasty beetroot oil. Baby squid grilled in corn oil with a sweet corn smoothie, or a squid oil to enhance a mackerel with chive vinaigrette. A unique olive oil with chorizo for cod with ‘kokotxas’ Pil Pil. And for a light dessert, a neutral sunflower oil flavoured with vanilla, escorting a pineapple cooked in rum with hazelnut foam. And so on, to name a few dishes I find hard to forget.

One of our latest offerings is a creamy avocado oil, a subtle touch in a broth of tomato, peach and vinegar, marinating slices of bonito covered with cheese foam.