Earlier this week I took a trip to a farm in the Cotswolds, near Broadway, accompanied by my friends from the BBC. Every spring and summer our local landscape, from the Chilterns through to the Cotswolds, is punctuated by patches of vivid chrome yellow fields of rape. Some of you may worry about allergic reactions to rapeseed; however, rapeseed blossom is so nectar rich that an army of bees removes most of the pollen from the crop. (Indeed rapeseed honey is light and peppery, so strong that it is usually blended with other honey; but its abundance makes a problem for the beekeeper, as it needs to be extracted quickly to keep it from granulating in the comb.) Whether you love or hate the aesthetic effect, their product of these fields, rapeseed oil, is very interesting.
We were filming at East Lodge Farm, where two young brothers, Charlie and Lawrence Beldam, who have recently graduated from Cirencester Agricultural College, have started a micro-industry on their family farm, making and selling cold-pressed, extra virgin rapeseed oil. (We filmed them for our programme on raw vegetable foods, which will be part of the BBC2 Kitchen Secrets series, with the new book to be published in February by Bloomsbury.) They call their wonderful new product Cotswold Gold.
Of course we all love very expensive extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), but there are some dishes and some cooking processes for which it is not merely too expensive, but unsuitable, with EVOO beginning to degrade at 191˚C (and very high quality, low acidity EVOO at 207˚C). Try for yourself: taste your best olive oil after it has reached 191˚C: it is thin, acrid (and carcinogenic). That's why you should reserve your best EVOO for dressings and warm dishes.
For a long time now I've preferred rapeseed or safflower oil to EVOO because their smoke points are so much higher. (Refined safflower oil smokes at 266˚C.) Refined rapeseed smokes at 240˚C and untreated rapeseed oil at about the same, 242˚C. The higher smoke point means that rapeseed oil doesn't denature physically or chemically, or in terms of taste when it cools to room temperature. As its cost is so much lower, it makes good sense to use it for all frying; and as it doesn't denature at frying temperatures, it can be used more than once.
On tasting Cotswold Gold I found it almost neutral in taste, but with an attractive nuttiness. This makes it wonderful for mayonnaise - unless you're the sort of cook who really likes the strong, distinctive flavour of EVOO mayonnaise. The rapeseed oil mayonnaise also has a beautiful, rich gold colour.
As an added bonus, rapeseed oil has a wonderful nutritional profile, low in cholesterol, saturated fat, high in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, and terrific levels of omega-3,-6, and -9, with very low transfats. In fact it has 9 times more omega-3 than EVOO. You can see the profile of Cotswold Gold at their website, http://www.cotswoldgold.co.uk/health.html.
But what I like most is that for us at Le Manoir it is near enough to count as local, which means low food miles for a product that is 100% British, and GM free.
It used to be a speciality crop in Canada, where it was renamed Canola ("Canada" + oil) to overcome squeamish market resistance to the homophone "rape," which actually comes from the Latin "rapum," turnip - indicating simply that it is a member of the genius Brassica. (Related to kale and bok choy, the leaves and stems of some varieties of rapeseed are eaten in China, Japan, Southeast Asia India and Nepal.)
You have to applaud Charlie and Lawrence's efforts, one of thousands of great initiatives being taken by young, environmentally-conscious farmers, whose products show us a way to reconnect gastronomy with the soil and with the places we live. They practise what I would call intelligent farming - not organic, but with total care and responsibility for the environment - with regular crop rotation and minimum use of fertiliser Though Cotswold Gold uses only one per cent of their rapeseed oil production, this is a brilliant way for them to add value to this small fraction of their crop. Best of all, the product is excellent, a delicious addition to the ingredients store of any home cook and all chefs. Their marketing approach emphasises the local aspect of Cotswold Gold: they have placed it with several local retailers - and it is available online at www.cotswoldgold.co.uk. I will be using Cotswold Gold oil in sauces for my new TV programme on raw food. So watch out for it.
Next week RB renews his friendship with Bruno Loubet at the stove.
As an added bonus, rapeseed oil has a wonderful nutritional profile, low in cholesterol, saturated fat, high in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, and terrific levels of omega-3,-6, and -9, with very low transfats. In fact it has 9 times more omega-3 than EVOO. You can see the profile of Cotswold Gold at their website, http://www.cotswoldgold.co.uk/health.html.
But what I like most is that for us at Le Manoir it is near enough to count as local, which means low food miles for a product that is 100% British, and GM free.
It used to be a speciality crop in Canada, where it was renamed Canola ("Canada" + oil) to overcome squeamish market resistance to the homophone "rape," which actually comes from the Latin "rapum," turnip - indicating simply that it is a member of the genius Brassica. (Related to kale and bok choy, the leaves and stems of some varieties of rapeseed are eaten in China, Japan, Southeast Asia India and Nepal.)
You have to applaud Charlie and Lawrence's efforts, one of thousands of great initiatives being taken by young, environmentally-conscious farmers, whose products show us a way to reconnect gastronomy with the soil and with the places we live. They practise what I would call intelligent farming - not organic, but with total care and responsibility for the environment - with regular crop rotation and minimum use of fertiliser Though Cotswold Gold uses only one per cent of their rapeseed oil production, this is a brilliant way for them to add value to this small fraction of their crop. Best of all, the product is excellent, a delicious addition to the ingredients store of any home cook and all chefs. Their marketing approach emphasises the local aspect of Cotswold Gold: they have placed it with several local retailers - and it is available online at www.cotswoldgold.co.uk. I will be using Cotswold Gold oil in sauces for my new TV programme on raw food. So watch out for it.Next week RB renews his friendship with Bruno Loubet at the stove.
