Pomace

When you buy olive oil you expect it to be well, olive. Not necessarily so.

I was talking to someone recently about "healthy" fats and cholesterol and the dreaded butter. They told me they had replaced the "dreadfully unhealthy butter" (full of natural fat) in their bakery with olive oil. This got me thinking. I'm pretty sure that the olive oil they replaced the butter with is pomace.

Pomace is what is left after the oil is extracted from olives. The sludge that remains after the olives are cold pressed is then treated with a solvent. This low grade extract is pomace oil or "olive oil". It would be considerably cheaper than both butter and EVOO (extra virgin olive oil).

I don't need to stress that pomace is low grade oil. In fact a lot of what's extracted is not suitable for human consumption unless it's blended with virgin olive oil. If it is solely pomace, it is only suitable for cleaning products.

The best quality olive oil "first cold pressed" and "extra virgin" has a strong flavour and is a greenish colour. It is also very viscous and goes cloudy at cold temperatures. It is a waste to cook with it as it denatures (burns) at high temperatures. It has a strong fruity flavour. It is not great in baking or in mayonnaise (in my opinion) due to it's very strong flavour.

When I managed a bakery we used EVOO. Our supplier approached me and told me he could get me a far cheaper "olive" oil that wasn't extra virgin. I did a bit of research and discovered that this far cheaper olive oil was in fact pomace. When I read up on it, I decided that I would rather switch oil than use it. We used a lot of EVOO on our focaccia at the time. We didn't change.

When you buy olive oil in the supermarket unless it says "extra-virgin" and "first cold pressed" the chances are it's pomace.

Fennel and Mushroom Ragout

This is a really tasty recipe which has no meat (perfect for meat free meals) so should probably not really be called a ragout. I made it a few months ago having looked up recipes and sort of half followed one I found. I forgot to bookmark it and when I went to look for it again, couldn't find it.




I have made it several times since and have changed it a bit from the first time.

Fennel and Mushroom Ragout

1 fennel bulb finely sliced
1 large red onion sliced
1 clove of garlic crushed
a few sprigs of fresh thyme (leaves only)
salt and pepper
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 pack of oyster mushrooms or other tasty varieties not just button
100ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 tablespoon of tomato purée
1 glass of red wine (including some for the cook)
half a 250g tub of Marscapone or crème fraiche

To serve I use DeCecco penne. It is worthwhile spending a bit extra on dried pasta as the cheaper brands go from uncooked to a mush incredibly quickly and are almost impossible to cook al dente (see here).

In a large deep pan sauté the onion, fennel, thyme and garlic for a few minutes in some rapeseed oil. Season. When they have begun to soften, add the mushrooms. After a couple of minutes add the chicken stock and the tomato purée and the red wine. Simmer until the liquid begins to reduce. Finally add the marscapone. I like the fennel to still have a bit of bite but cook for longer if you prefer it more well cooked.

Cook the penne in lots of boiling salty water until al dente. Drain and toss the sauce into the pasta. Serve with lots of finely chopped parsley and black pepper. Shavings of Parmesan are lovely with it also.

Beetroot Molasses and Walnut Bread

The problem with not being able to throw away food is that, by using up something in an experiment recipe, it very often doesn't work. Then you end up dumping a lot more than the first ingredient you were trying to save.

Happily, in this instance it didn't happen. I had three small beetroot for ages and decided that even though they had gone a bit soft I'd bake them. Then true to form I put them in the fridge and forgot about them.
I would normally put grated beetroot in chocolate brownies but as I am off sweet stuff I couldn't. So next best thing is use them in a bread. Using spelt flour gives it a low glycemic index.

Beetroot Molasses and Walnut Bread Recipe

2 large mugs (300g) of wholemeal spelt flour (or wholemeal wheat)
1 large mug (150g) of white spelt flour (or plain white)
1 large mug jumbo porridge oats (100g) optional
1 teaspoon of bread soda sieved
3 small beetroot cooked, skinned and grated (125g)
A good big handful of roughly broken walnuts (50g)
1 or 2 tablespoons of molasses (depending on how sweet you like it)
350 ml Buttermilk

Preheat oven to 200 deg fan.
Grease a large loaf tin

Mix the flours, oats and soda well. Add the beetroot, walnuts and make a well in centre. Start to mix in the buttermilk. Add the molasses. Sometimes I find it easier to mix the molasses in if I put it in a cup and add a small amount of boiling water and pour this into the bread mixture. Keep adding buttermilk until you have the consistency of porridge.

Transfer to your loaf tin, sprinkle with a few extra walnuts and bake for 30 minutes. Turn the bread out of the tin and bake at 180 deg until the base sounds hollow when tapped (approx another 15 minutes).

Cool on a wire rack.

It is delicious eaten buttered while still slightly warm.

This bread also goes really well with cheese.

Tip: I find boiling beetroot a palaver as they can take an age to tenderise, so what I do now is boil a few and grate and freeze the rest.