Simple Spanish Food

Spiced Olive Oil (aceite desahumado): a Secret Ingredient to Traditional Spanish Pastries, Cakes, and Desserts

This is an old Spanish technique of spicing olive oil for use in fried pastries (such as pestiños), sweet breads (such as roscón de Reyes), cakes, and other traditional sweets. 

You just quick-fry a bit of citrus zest and  spices in the oil and let the mixture  cool.  This not only removes the flavor of the olive oil (which is unwanted in most desserts) but replaces it with a perfume of lemon and anise, or orange and cloves or cinnamon--whatever best compliments the dessert you're making.

Here's how to do it:

For this post I used orange peel and cloves. Lemon peel and anise is probably more traditional. In the past I have also used cinnamon sticks, cardamon, and even lime zest--not very traditional at all.  Experiment, but keep in mind that whatever you use is going to both perfume and flavor the dessert.

Ingredients:

One half cup of olive oil (any basic olive oil will do)

a few strips of orange zest

two cloves

Heat the oil in a small pan. Add the orange peel. Let it fry for a few seconds.

Remove the pan from the heat. Add two cloves to the oil and let it cool.

When the oil is cool, remove the orange zest and cloves, and it's  ready to use.

Two Great Spanish Olive Oils: picual de Jaén and hojiblanca

Last May, Esperanza, my mother-in-law, bought two olive oils for us to try. One was a picual from Jaén, and the other was an hojiblanca.

As I mention in my post Rafael's Tips on Choosing Spanish Olive Oils, Ana's uncle Rafael, who worked for decades with the Spanish Department of Agriculture, really knows his olive oils. Picual de Jaén is one of his favorites, along with some blends from his native Córdoba.

Picual olive oil from Jaén is spicy, herby,  peppery, and complex--what I think most people expect when they try a fine olive oil, but even better.   This oil makes a fabulous  salad dressing all on its own, as I describe in my recipe for a  Simple Spanish Salad.  My father-in-law Andrés also thought it was a perfect oil to use with pulpo a la Gallega (Galician-style octopus).

Hojibanca olive oil is quite different.  It's smooth, buttery, and subtle.  Hojiblanca is perfect for almond soup (ajo blanco) and it makes a terrific Spanish-style mayonnaise. (Try an hojiblanca mayonnaise with grilled shrimp or steamed lobster or even a homey Spanish "Russian" Salad, ensaladilla rusa).  Salads of delicate greens, such as lamb's lettuce or mâche (canónigos) can be simply dressed with a drizzle of hojiblanca olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt--nothing else.  It's almost like a cream-based salad dressing. 

Both of the olives oils we tried were the Coosur brand--a large company based in Sevilla that sells all sorts of Spanish olive oils.  Coosur  is available in the U.S., but I never see it in our area.  The on-line Spanish food store La Tienda does sell a quality brand of both of these types of oil. Click here to see their aceite picual de Jaén and click here to see their hojiblanca.  See La Tienda's olive oil page for many other olive oils from Spain.

 

 

 

 

Rafael's Tips on Choosing Spanish Olive Oils

Olive oil is nearly as massive a subject as wine, especially in Spain, which is, by far, the largest producer of olive oil in the world, with hundreds of different varieties of olives in cultivation. So choosing the best olive oil can be complicated.

Luckily Ana's uncle Rafael is an expert on the subject. An agricultural engineer recently retired after decades of work with Spain's Department of Agriculture, he has spent much of his life working with olives, olive oil, and the people who produce it. He's also a native of Córdoba, home to some of the best olive oils in the world.

During Ana's recent visit to Spain, Rafael was kind enough to help us with this post.  Here are some of his tips on choosing Spanish olive oils.

First of all, choosing the best olive oil is, of course, a matter of taste. The most important thing is to try different varieties and see which you like best.

While exploring, however,  it helps to keep the following points in mind.

1. Each variety of olive (picual, hojiblanca, etc.) has its own special flavor. The picual olive, for example, can produce  a spicy, peppery oil, while hojiblanca makes an oil valued for its delicacy and is best used in preparations where a subtly flavored oil is best,  such as Spanish-style mayonnaise.

2. The climate and soils will also determine flavor, much as terroir does with wine.  In other words, picual olives grown in Jaén will produce quite a different oil from picual grown in, say, Málaga.

3. Just as older grape vines can produce a finer wine, older olive trees can produce a finer oil. 

4. Finally, how and when the olives are pressed makes a great difference in the quality of the oil produced. In Spain, extra virgin means oil that comes from the first pressing. 

Extra virgin oils are generally the best choice when the oil is to be consumed raw (in salads, gazpacho, dipping bread, etc.). Olive oil not labeled virgin is more refined, less flavorful, and best for cooking, though there is some debate on this subject.

If your local stores don't carry a good selection of Spanish extra virgin olive oils, check out La Tienda's olive oil page. 

Rafael has two all-time favorite olive oils.  He doesn't name brands, but examples of both types are sold by La Tienda.  The first is picual from the Sierra Mágina in Jaén

His other favorite (I don't believe he listed these in order of preference)  is extra virgin olive oil from Baena in his native Córdoba

 

Though each is distinct, both of these oils are full flavored, intense, and peppery--so much so that they make an outstanding salad dressing on their own.  In my post on A Simple Spanish Salad, I raved about a salad Rafael served to us years ago that was nothing but baby romaine, a little coarse salt, and the best olive oil I've ever had in my life, which was an extra virgin from a tiny press in Baena.  These oils are special and best used in such simple raw preparations that allow for the full appreciation of their complex flavors.

Rafael says that Carbonell, a large producer based in Córdoba, has good general purpose olive oils.   Many U.S. supermarkets carry Carbonell products.  La Tienda also sells both Carbonell extra virgin

and regular Carbonell for cooking and frying.

We use mainly Carbonell oils here in Central Florida and find them superior to any others sold in our supermarkets.

Finally, keep in mind that Spaniards tend to use a wide, wide range of olive oils, with different styles serving different purposes and different tastes.  For example, Andrés, my father-in-law, always believed that pulpo a la Gallega (Galician-style octopus) is best dressed with strong, fruity olive oil. But you probably wouldn't want to use such an oil for  almond soup (ajo blanco). A mild flavored olive oil would best.