On the left is (an expensive) small bottle of hand made organic extra virgin olive oil from a medieval village in Tuscany.
On the right is a domestic extra virgin olive oil (gasp!) from California.
In a blind taste test, straight up, using a baguette, my hands down favorite was the domestic oil from California Olive Ranch.
By the way, it's also interesting to note that I couldn't tell which was which by looking at them.
The shocking part is not that I liked the less expensive product. That's happened before. For many years Colavita was my favorite daily use olive oil. Then one day when I had several bottles of olive oil around I did a blind taste test and, much to my surprise, my favorite was Berio. I've been using Berio up until a year or so ago when I took a liking to Greek olive oils.
I've also found that I'm just as likely to prefer a $6 bottle of wine to a $60 bottle of wine.
I highly recommend doing your own blind taste tests!
But no, the shocking thing is I preferred a domestic olive oil! Who ever would have thought!
It was rich. It was pungent and flavorful. It was spicy. I like strong, bold flavors. Maybe the Volpaia was just too subtle for me. It's a premium product and it's made using a cutting process rather than a pressing process and its highlights include exceptional purity and notably low acidity.
The Volpaia oil, by the way, is roughly 14 times the price of the California Olive Ranch oil. California Olive Ranch boasts a very high level of automation to reduce its costs while claiming to be a superior product.
The California Olive Ranch extra virgin olive oil at my local supermarket is dirt cheap. The first time I looked at it I thought someone had made a mistake. And the first time I tasted it I wished I'd bought a case.
Yes, I'm raving about the product. Try it!
Easy Marinated Mushrooms. Restraint is the secret here!
I don't know how long I worked on this recipe. A very long time and it turned out to be more about technique than ingredients. I needed an unusually light hand (for me) with the herbs to finally make it work.
Clean 8 ounces of button mushrooms. White or crimini. Cut the bigger ones in half. Sometimes I take the stems out and cut them up.
Finely chop 2 or 3 cloves of garlic.
Bring to a boil:
- 3 tablespoons champagne vinegar
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 tablespoon honey
- pinch of salt
While the mushrooms are boiling put a half teaspoon of dried thyme and a tablespoon of finely chopped red onion in a bowl with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. I like to put a couple of dried chilis in there too. That's optional.
Now here's the technique I accidentally found one night that made them just right: After the mushrooms have cooled for a couple of minutes spoon them into the bowl with the olive oil using a slotted spoon. Toss to coat them with olive oil and herbs.
You can optionally add a tablespoon of the vinegar mixture to the bowl and toss again to emphasize the flavor.
Refrigerate the mushrooms overnight and let them come to room temperature for serving.
These are so easy to fix - I often fix them when I'm just hanging around the kitchen doing other things.
I've used cut mushrooms in a pinch and they're just as good as whole button mushrooms. But they're not as pretty.
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