`New Cookbook Celebrates Spanish Olive Oil in Global Cuisines - Olive Oil Times

New Cookbook Celebrates Spanish Olive Oil in Global Cuisines

By Naomi Tupper
Dec. 1, 2012 17:03 UTC

The Interprofesional del Aceite de Oliva Español has released a new cook­book designed to pro­mote the use of Spanish olive oils in cook­ing around the globe.

The new book, which is avail­able in both elec­tronic and paper for­mats, fea­tures thirty recipes from nine dif­fer­ent coun­tries includ­ing Belgium, Brazil, China, Cuba, Ethiopia, India, Japan, Mexico and Peru. The idea behind this mul­ti­cul­tural col­lec­tion is to high­light the fact that Spanish olive oils can no longer be con­sid­ered to be con­sumed only locally or in the Mediterranean region, but in kitchens around the world.

Los Aceites de Oliva de España en las Cocinas del Mundo fea­tures the cre­ations of ten chefs who have mod­i­fied tra­di­tional recipes from their dis­tinct cul­tures in order to allow olive oils from Spain to play a key role.

Chinese rep­re­sen­ta­tive Chef Kim Hing Lui, who cre­ated olive oil ver­sions of tra­di­tional favorites Peking dumplings and caramelized gin­ger duck, said the intro­duc­tion of olive oil to Chinese cook­ing was one of the best things to hap­pen in area recent years adding that, while prices in China were high, the health ben­e­fits of olive oil were worth it.

Fellow Chinese chef Hung Fai Chui Chi also praised the sta­bil­ity of Spanish olive oils and their great poten­tial for fry­ing, an impor­tant tech­nique in Chinese cui­sine. Mexican con­trib­u­tor María del Carmen Hernandez was of the same opin­ion, stat­ing that extra vir­gin oil was key to the crisp golden fry­ing of the chicken flau­tas fea­tured in the new book.


Carlos Valenti

Other inter­na­tional dishes pre­sented in the col­lec­tion include Japanese tem­pura aspara­gus, Cuban chicken and plan­tain cro­quettes, Belgian fruit salad with choco­late and mint, as well as pop­u­lar Indian favorites chicken tikka, byr­i­ani, and spinach porakas. All recipes are accom­pa­nied with a color pho­to­graph, as well as small biogra­phies on the fea­tured chefs and how they came to use extra vir­gin olive oil in their cook­ing.

Spanish olive oil exports con­tinue to rise, par­tic­u­larly in coun­tries includ­ing the USA, Japan and China, where sales have increased by at least a third this September com­pared to the same period last year. Olive oil is now find­ing its way into many cuisines where it is not con­sid­ered tra­di­tional, with the result­ing dishes often a great suc­cess. Chefs from all over the world are tout­ing olive oil as a key ingre­di­ent in their kitchens, result­ing in inno­v­a­tive dishes based on clas­sics and health­ier ver­sions of tra­di­tional foods.

The elec­tronic ver­sion of the cook­book (110 MB zipped flash file) is free and can be down­loaded here:

Download Cookbook



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