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The Olive Oil Hunter News #105

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Clam Cakes Remoulade Recipe, Spotlight on Canned Clams and Clam Juice, the Importance of Short Breaks and Physical Function

Clambake season may be over, but clam cakes are always on the menu. In fact, wild clams are available year-round. And they’re so easy to make with my easy-peasy recipe. I’m just as excited to share the results of research that shows the value of taking regular breaks from tasks—just 10 minutes for a refresh. Plus, with a nod to preventive care, another study found that there’s no time like the present to work on your “physical function.” Simply put, it’s the ease (or difficulty) with which you move in everyday ways. When physical function is poor in later years, it increases not only your risk for falling, but also for life-threatening heart events.

Clam Cakes Remoulade

  • Clam Cakes Remoulade Clam Cakes Remoulade

    These clam cakes come together in minutes. The remoulade sauce is a delicious garnish—use any leftovers as a flavorful sandwich spread. 

    Ingredients

    For the remoulade:

    • 1 cup high-quality mayonnaise
    • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
    • 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
    • 1 tablespoon hot sauce, such as Cholula or Sriracha
    • 1 teaspoon seafood seasoning, such as Obrycki’s or Old Bay
    • 1 large pickle spear, finely diced
    • 1 tablespoon pickle juice
    • 1 teaspoon sweet paprika

    For the clam cakes:

    • 6 ounces of clams, freshly steamed or canned and drained
    • 1 small onion, peeled and quartered
    • 1 small red bell pepper, seeded and quartered
    • 1 stalk celery, trimmed and cut into chunks
    • 12 spicy corn tortilla chips, such as Garden of Eatin’ Red Hot Blues 
    • 1 cup white whole wheat flour, divided
    • 1/2 cup high-quality mayonnaise
    • 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
    • 1 1/2 teaspoons hot sauce, such as Cholula or Sriracha
    • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

    Directions

    Step 1

    For the remoulade: Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Refrigerate until needed.

    Step 2

    For the clam cakes: If you’re steaming fresh clams, reserve the juice they release for another recipe. If you’re using large cherrystones, use kitchen shears to cut them into pieces for easier processing. Pulse the clams, vegetables, and chips in a food processor until you get a fine dice. Transfer to a large bowl and fold in half the flour, the mayo, hot sauce, and parsley. Form into about 10 small or 6 large patties. 

    Step 3

    Place the rest of the flour in a pie plate. Heat a heavy skillet and then add the olive oil. Very lightly dip both sides of each patty into the flour, shake off any excess, and place in skillet. Cook until a light crust develops, about 5 to 8 minutes. Flip and cook for another 5 minutes.

    Step 4

    Transfer the clam cakes to a serving dish or individual plates. Top with dollops of the remoulade and pass more on the side. 

    Yields 3-4 servings

Food Pairings: The Power of Purple Potatoes

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Canned clams step in for fresh

You probably have cans of high-quality tuna in your pantry, but what about clams? Flavorful and sweet, canned clams deserve a place there too. For recipes from clam cakes to linguine with clam sauce, they’re a great alternative to fresh, and always having them on hand means you can pull together a meal in short order. Read labels and choose brands that state product of the US.

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: Sweet spices for savory dishes

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Get these juices flowing

Fresh clam juice is a world apart from the bottled variety. So, whenever you steam fresh clams, save the liquid in your pot. Strain it through fine cheesecloth to move any grains of sand, and use within a few days or freeze in freezer-safe containers labeled with the date (use within a year). Clam juice works very well in seafood recipes that call for fish broth, from soups to stews to poached fish. Keep in mind that clam juice is naturally salty, thanks to the clam’s native habitat—the ocean. So, be sure to taste often when using it in a recipe; you can probably cut down on the amount of salt called for. 

Healthy Kitchen Nugget: The Truth About Nondairy Milks

For Your Best Health

Take 10…often

Are you bogged down by endless tasks at work? Taking short breaks rather than staying glued to your desk until the day’s done could give you a boost and lessen fatigue. That was the main finding of a research review done at the West University of Timisoara in Romania. Patricia Albulescu, PhD, and colleagues looked at 22 recent studies investigating the potential benefits of taking micro-breaks from assigned tasks. 

The tasks varied from one study to another and so did the types of breaks—physical breaks, relaxing activities, and more engaging activities, such as watching videos. Nonetheless, the scientists found an overall link between micro-breaks, higher levels of vigor, and lower fatigue in participants, suggesting that these work pauses may contribute to well-being. They also found that longer breaks tended to be linked to better performance, especially for creative or clerical tasks, though less so for more cognitively demanding tasks—longer breaks may be needed for recovery from them. The review was published in the journal PLOS One on August 31, 2022.

Healthy Kitchen Nugget: The Value of Variety

Fitness Flash

Physical function, not just fitness

Different from physical fitness (though definitely linked to it), physical function relates to mobility, assessing your walking speed, leg strength, speed of rising from a chair without using your hands, and balance. Research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that having lower physical function was independently associated with a greater risk of developing heart attack, heart failure, and stroke in people over age 65. 

“While traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, or diabetes are closely linked to cardiovascular disease, particularly in middle-aged people, we also know these factors may not be as predictive in older adults, so we need to identify nontraditional predictors for older adults,” says study senior author Kunihiro Matsushita, MD, PhD, an associate professor in the department of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Division of Cardiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. “We found that physical function in older adults predicts future cardiovascular disease beyond traditional heart disease risk factors, regardless of whether an individual has a history of cardiovascular disease.”

The researchers analyzed health data from 5,570 adults over an eight-year period. Using participants’ scores on the Short Physical Performance Battery, a test that measures various aspects of physical function, they were categorized as having low, intermediate, or high physical function. Here’s what they found:

  • Compared to adults with high physical function scores, those with low scores were 47 percent more likely to experience at least one cardiovascular disease event, and those with intermediate physical function scores had a 25 percent higher risk of having at least one cardiovascular disease event.
  • The association between physical function and cardiovascular disease remained after taking into account traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors such as age, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes.
  • The physical function score contributed to the risk prediction of cardiovascular disease outcomes beyond traditional cardiovascular risk factors, regardless of whether individuals had a history of cardiovascular disease or were healthy.

“Our findings highlight the value of assessing the physical function level of older adults in clinical practice,” says study lead author Xiao Hu, MHS, a research data coordinator in the department of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “In addition to heart health, older adults are at higher risk for falls and disability. The assessment of physical function may also inform the risk of these concerning conditions in older adults.”

With falls being a major health threat in later years, what prevention steps are helpful? A 2022 American Heart Association scientific statement titles “Preventing and managing falls in adults with cardiovascular disease” advises medication adjustments, reassessing treatment plans, considering non-drug treatment options, and properly managing heart rhythm disorders. 

It’s never too soon (or too late) to start working on physical function. Talk to your doctor about balance exercises, yoga, tai chi, and other approaches that can help.

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #104

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Cuban Chicken with Mango Salsa and Olive Oil Lemon Curd Recipes, Spotlight on Calamansi Vinegar and Vinegar as Home Remedy

Vinegar Essentials, Part IV: Calamansi Vinegar

My goals in introducing you to craft vinegars are to elevate your cooking and delight your palate.  This newsletter’s featured vinegar is also one that will completely surprise you: calamansi vinegar. You may never have heard of it, much less experienced it, but the bouquet and taste are exquisite. And you may find yourself reaching for it whenever lemon is called for. To show you just how versatile it is, enjoy these two recipes, the first a main dish and the second a dessert!

Cuban Chicken with Mango Salsa

  • Cuban Chicken with Mango Salsa Mojo Chicken With Avocado & Mango Salsa

    The following recipe features a marinade of mojo, the Cuban classic built on a base of olive oil, citrus, and garlic. I like to double the salsa ingredients to have some as a dip for chips or for another dish the next day.

    Ingredients

    For the marinade:

    • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
    • 4 garlic cloves, crushed
    • 1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
    • 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
    • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
    • 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
    • 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
    • 2 tablespoons gourmet vinegar
    • 3 pounds skinless chicken thighs

    For the salsa:

    • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
    • 2 tablespoons gourmet vinegar
    • 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
    • 2 teaspoons orange zest
    • 2 teaspoons lime zest
    • 1 teaspoon honey
    • 1 teaspoon soy sauce
    • 4 tablespoons butter, cubed
    • 2 ripe mangos, peeled, pitted, and diced
    • 2 ripe avocados, peeled, pitted, and diced
    • 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

    Directions

    Step 1

    Marinate the chicken: In a food processor, pulse the cumin, garlic, jalapeño, and salt into a paste, and then drizzle in the olive oil, the juices, and vinegar. Place the chicken in a large bowl, pour in the marinade, rotate it to distribute the marinade, and cover. Refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.

    Step 2

    An hour before you’re ready to grill the chicken, prepare the salsa. In a medium saucepan, whisk the oil, vinegar, juice, zests, honey, and soy sauce and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until reduced by half. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter. Place the mangos and avocados in a bowl and drizzle with the reduced sauce. Gently fold to coat the fruits, and then sprinkle with the cilantro; set aside.

    Step 3

    Grill the chicken until it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. Transfer to a platter and spoon on half the salsa, serving the rest on the side.

    Yields 4-6 servings.

Olive Oil Lemon Curd

  • Olive Oil Lemon Curd Olive Oil Lemon Curd

    Extra virgin olive oil gives classic lemon curd all the silkiness of butter without the saturated fat. It’s delicious spooned over Greek yogurt and topped with berries—serve it in a champagne glass for an indulgent yet good-for-you dessert. You can also use it to make a lemon tart—fill a baked and cooled 8″ tart shell with the chilled curd, and top with dollops of whipped cream.

    Ingredients

    • 3 large or 5 small lemons
    • 2 large eggs, plus 1 yolk
    • 10 tablespoons sugar 
    • 2 tablespoons cornstarch 
    • ½ teaspoon vanilla paste
    • Pinch of sea salt
    • 2 tablespoons mild extra virgin olive oil 

    Directions

    Step 1

    Rinse the lemons, dry them thoroughly, and then zest them with a microplane grater. You should have a generous tablespoon of zest. Juice the lemons. You should have a generous cup of juice. Some pulp is fine to include, but remove any seeds.

    Step 2

    In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, use a silicone whisk to blend the eggs thoroughly, and then whisk in one ingredient at a time in this order: sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and zest, vanilla, and salt—this will give you the silkiest results without needing to strain the mixture after cooking.

    Step 3

    Place the pan over medium heat and continue to whisk as you bring the mixture to a very low boil. Cook for two minutes (this activates the cornstarch), lowering the heat if necessary to prevent a rapid boil. The curd should be thick enough to coat the whisk.

    Step 4

    Off the heat, slowly whisk in the olive oil until it’s completely blended in. Pour the curd into a glass pitcher or jar and allow it to come to room temperature before covering and placing it in the fridge to thicken further.

    Yields 1-¾ cups.

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: The finest vinegar comes from the finest grapes

Spotlight on Calamansi Vinegar

A taste sensation unlike any other

Just what is a calamansi? It’s a citrus fruit often described as a cross between a kumquat and a mandarin orange, though its taste makes me think of exotic yuzu enhanced with a blend of traditional citrus—orange, lemon, and lime. Which of these fruits a calamansi’s skin color most resembles is an indication of ripeness: Green is underripe, yellow is ripe, and orange is overripe. Also called a calamondin or Philippine lime (where it’s now primarily grown), the calamansi is native to many countries in Southeast and East Asia, such as Indonesia and (southern) China, and it’s a staple of many cuisines in these regions. 

If you’ve never even heard of calamansi the fruit, much less tasted calamansi the vinegar, get ready to experience an explosion of flavor in your mouth! It’s fresh, dynamic, and versatile, and made with the same passion that guides master vinegar vintners. The recipe for the calamansi vinegar in my collection blends fruit pulp with brandy vinegar and pure cane sugar, which both preserve and further enhance the fruit’s intense and unique flavor while imparting just the right note of sweetness. The fruit is sourced through a partner program in the Philippines that ensures a fair price for small farmers and also supports various school projects for children. The cane sugar is also Fair Trade. 

Food Pairings: Enjoying red wine vinegar

Food Pairings

Enjoying calamansi vinegar

Use it in sweet or savory recipes and in Asian and other ethnic dishes. Drizzle it over seafood dishes, like ceviche and tuna tataki; crudo; vegetable and grain salads; greens (raw or cooked); and roasted vegetables. It’s excellent in a marinade for fish and as a finish for chicken piccata and other recipes with a lemon sauce. Swap it for lemon juice in aioli and homemade mayo and for lime juice in guacamole and salsas. It enhances citrus-based desserts, from a granita to a curd-filled tart, and alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks—try a cooler of crushed ice, raspberry purée, and sparkling water or wine. Add it to your favorite caramel recipe, and mix it with honey before drizzling over pound cake or ginger ice cream. 

Healthy Kitchen Nugget: Versatile vinegar

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

What’s old is new again

With the current popularity of vinegar, it’s easy to forget that it has been around for 10,000 years, not only as a condiment but also as a means of pickling and preserving other foods. Another way it was used back then, as it is now, is as a home remedy—recognized by none other than Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine.” Over the centuries, vinegar has served as a digestif (often in the form of a drink diluted with water) and was thought to protect liver health, heal wounds, and combat sore throats, fever, and even hair loss. It took the great microbiologist Louis Pasteur to fully unravel the mystery of acetic fermentation and identify key microbes so that vinegar could be crafted safely as well as deliciously! Recently, vinegar has become a popular ingredient in craft cocktails—what a fun way to tap into its potential healthful properties.

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #103

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Very Berry Muffins Recipe, and The Power of a Polyphenol: Exciting Developments Show Extra Virgin Olive Oil’s Role as a Functional Food

As your Olive Oil Hunter, I travel the globe to find the most flavorful extra virgin olive oils, often described as one-, two-, or even three-cough oils because of the reaction elicited by their pepperiness. Turns out this pepperiness isn’t just an indicator of great taste—it’s also a sign that you’ll get all the benefits of the olive oil. The cough is caused by the oil’s special polyphenols, and those polyphenols are exactly where most of its benefits come from. Want a delicious way to get your fill? Try these scrumptious muffins—so good they can double as dessert—and then read about the one polyphenol in particular that’s getting researchers’ attention.

Very Berry Muffins

  • Very BlueBerry Muffins Very Berry Muffins

    These extra-moist muffins provide a blueberry explosion in every bite. You won’t have to hunt for the fruit because tossing the berries in a small amount of flour keeps them from sinking to the bottom.

    Ingredients

    • 3 heaping cups blueberries, rinsed and patted dry
    • ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon white whole wheat flour
    • 1 cup all-purpose or pastry flour
    • 2-½ teaspoons baking powder 
    • 1 teaspoon baking soda
    • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
    • 3/4 cup cottage cheese
    • 1/4 cup sour cream
    • 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
    • 3 large eggs
    • 1 scant cup sugar  
    • 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
    • 1 tablespoon vanilla paste or extract 

    Directions

    Step 1

    Preheat your oven to 350°F. Lightly coat a 12-muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray or a small amount of olive oil. 

    Step 2

    Toss the blueberries with the tablespoon of white whole wheat flour and set aside. Mix the rest of the dry ingredients in a bowl. 

    Step 3

    In a second, larger bowl, whisk the cottage cheese, sour cream, and yogurt until smooth, then whisk in the eggs and sugar and, when blended, the oil and vanilla. 

    Step 4

    Fold in the flour mixture and then the blueberries. Use a large ice cream scoop to fill the muffin cups, mounding the batter in the center. (The batter will completely fill the cups.)

    Step 5

    Bake for about 45 minutes, until the tip of a knife inserted in the center of two or three muffins doesn’t show any raw batter—there may be some blueberry on it. Let the muffins cool for about 15 minutes before eating.

    Yields 12 large muffins

The Power of a Polyphenol ​

For Your Best Health

The Power of a Polyphenol ​

Extra virgin olive oil gets high marks for its healthy fats called monounsaturated fatty acids, or MUFAs. But research is showing that one of EVOO’s greatest gifts to health is likely a polyphenol that most of us would have a hard time nailing at a spelling bee: oleocanthal. Olive oil contains about 36 different healthful phenolic compounds in all, yet together with other secondary plant metabolites, these make up just 2 percent of its total weight—another example of good things coming in small packages!

Though people have been enjoying olive oil for thousands of years, oleocanthal wasn’t identified as a phenolic compound in EVOO until the early ’90s when it went by the even-harder-to-spell decarboxymethyl ligstroside aglycone, according to a review of its beneficial effects on inflammatory disease published in 2014 in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. And it wasn’t until the ’00s that a group of scientists pinpointed it as the sole source of the peppery sensation you get from high-quality EVOO. They appropriately renamed it oleocanthal—oleo for olive, canth for sting, and al for aldehyde. 

You already know that hundreds of studies have been done on the Mediterranean diet with olive oil as its heart. A new review, “The Mediterranean Diet: An Update of the Clinical Trials,” which was published in 2022 in the journal Nutrients, summed up the main findings very well: A detailed analysis of 32 observational studies revealed that olive oil consumption “decreased the risk of stroke, CHD, and diabetes and improved some metabolic and inflammatory biomarkers.” What the report also detailed is that EVOO’s phenolic compounds help fight disease by fighting inflammation and boosting the immune system. 

Recently, more and more studies have been looking at the benefits of olive oil derived from oleocanthal in particular because, as the Nutrients’ report states, it helps inhibit the activity of COX1 and 2, key enzymes that drive the inflammatory process. With inflammation being the starting point of many health conditions, limiting levels in the body is important.

Here are some of the clinical trials the report homed in on to show oleocanthal’s potential:

One small study looked at whether following a high-quality extra virgin olive oil or HQ-EVOO- enriched MedDiet could lower inflammation in overweight or obese people—excess weight is an inflammatory condition that stresses the body. The researchers put two groups of people, one overweight or obese and the other of normal weight, on the diet for three months. Interestingly, both groups showed benefits at the end of the study—lower inflammation and oxidative stress and better gut microbiota composition “mainly related to the diet’s anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.” This finding opens the door to doing larger studies to pinpoint diet-related interventions to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress in people above a healthy weight. The report also concluded that, based on this and similar clinical trials, “strict and long-lasting adherence to a MedDiet seems to be essential for its interventional improvements.”

Other clinical trials hint at a better understanding of oleocanthal’s potential anti-cancer properties and the role it could play, within the larger context of nutrition, in terms of both preventing and managing cancer. One small study involving people with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL, a blood cancer, found evidence of the beneficial effects of EVOO with high levels of oleocanthal (OL) and another polyphenol, oleacein (OC). As the report stated, “The authors specified that this was a pilot study mainly focused on the tolerability of the intervention with high OC/OL EVOO,” meaning simply whether people with CLL could follow such a diet without ill effects. What the researchers found went beyond that: Their preliminary “data revealed a beneficial effect of high OC/OL EVOO on hematological [blood] and biochemical markers.” 

Small clinical trials like these are very promising, but the report’s authors caution that, as with all small trials, they need to be repeated with much larger groups of people to confirm findings. Still, these are exciting developments that show extra virgin olive oil’s role as a functional food in addition to its wonderful taste.

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The Olive Oil Hunter News #102

Posted on by The Olive Oil Hunter

Vinaigre de Banyuls Red Wine & Olive Oil Vinaigrette and Easy Chimichurri Aioli Recipes, Spotlight on Red Wine Vinegar and My Two Favorite Ways to Cook with Red Wine Vinegar

Vinegar Essentials, Part III: Red Wine Vinegar

From the moment I introduced my Fresh-Pressed Olive Oils, I was asked about the right vinegar to pair them with. I believe in having a full collection of vinegars, from sweet to tart, because this enables you to match the right one to a recipe. One of my favorites is red wine vinegar, and vinaigrette is just the tip of the culinary iceberg when it comes to dishes that it will enhance. To show you what I mean, I’m sharing two very different recipes along with red wine vinegar’s intriguing history.

Red Wine & Olive Oil Vinaigrette

  • Red Wine Vinaigrette Red Wine Vinaigrette

    Simple and superb! This sweet and tangy sauce is great on ribs as well as roast chicken—and it makes a terrific topping for your favorite style of burger!

    Ingredients

    • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar, such as Vinaigre de Banyuls
    • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
    • 1 teaspoon honey
    • 1/8 teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to taste
    • 1/2 small garlic clove, peeled and minced  
    • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
    • Freshly ground black pepper to taste

    Directions

    Step 1

    In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, honey, the 1/8 teaspoon of salt, and garlic.

    Step 2

    Gradually whisk in the olive oil until the dressing is emulsified. Season to taste with black pepper and more salt.

    Yields about 1/3 cup

Easy Chimichurri Aioli

  • Chimichurri Aioli Chimichurri Aioli

    This olive-oil based recipe turns chimichurri into an aioli, a highly flavored, garlicky mayonnaise. It’s great as a veggie dip, a condiment, and even a dressing for cold pasta salad.

    Ingredients

    • 1/4 cup best quality prepared mayonnaise
    • 1 clove garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
    • 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves
    • 2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
    • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar, such as Vinaigre de Banyuls, plus more to taste 
    • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 
    • 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 
    • 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt, or more to taste
    • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
    • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 

    Directions

    Step 1

    Combine everything except the olive oil in the bowl of a food processor and process until the garlic and herbs are finely chopped. 

    Step 2

    With the motor running, slowly drizzle the oil through the feed tube until the mixture is smooth. 

    Step 3

    Taste, adding more vinegar or salt as needed. If the mixture is too thick, add a few drops of water and process for a few seconds. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. 

    Yields about a 1/2 cup 

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight: The finest vinegar comes from the finest grapes

Spotlight on Red Wine Vinegar

The finest vinegar comes from the finest grapes

The history of red wine vinegar dates back to Roman times, but it was arguably the French who made it a culinary staple when, as legend has it, wine abandoned in the area of Orléans turned to vinegar on its own. The city became the de facto vinegar capital of France, and the Orléans method of barrel-aging was adopted around the world. But the story did not stop there.

Travel about 475 miles south to Banyuls-sur-Mer, one the western side of the Mediterranean, the birthplace of spectacular red wines and of the spectacular red wine vinegar called Vinaigre de Banyuls. This is where the Pyrénées mountain range meets the sea, where groves are planted in terraces on slopes, going from the seaside inland to the base of valleys. This approach maximizes what little rain the region gets. Even more awe-inspiring, these vineyards have existed for more than 2,600 years, from the time of the Phoenicians. Over the course of centuries, the Greeks, the Celts, and the Romans added their knowhow to the way the grapes were cultivated, passing down their secrets from generation to generation. In the 13th century, the Knights Templar arrived and introduced outdoor barrel aging to the wine-making process to impart even greater aromatic richness. It’s the combination of long aging outdoors and then indoors that helps give character to Banyuls wines and, in turn, to their vinegars. 

Similar to the Italian designation accorded to Modena, this region has been granted the French certification of appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) or controlled designation of origin. Growers must follow set standards designed to ensure their grapes will have certain unique characteristics based on terroir, the French term that comes from the word terre, or land. It’s used to describe the impact on a crop—most often grapes—of the climate and temperature, the soil and topography, other environmental conditions, and farming techniques. For wine in general, these elements all greatly, and often uniquely, impact aroma and flavor. For Banyuls in particular, both the wine and the vinegar made from it, the terroir imparts a distinctive sweetness. 

To create the Vinaigre de Banyuls included in my new vinegar collection, naturally sweet Banyuls wine is first slowly aged under the hot Mediterranean sun for three years in barrels the French call demi-muids. Then comes the acetification process—when the mother is added to the wine to turn it into vinegar. The resulting vinegar is then aged for two more years in small French oak barrels in the vinegar cellar to achieve its perfect aromatic palette. 

Food Pairings: Enjoying red wine vinegar

Food Pairings

Enjoying red wine vinegar

Red wine vinegar enhances seasonal mixed greens and salads with fruits or with Roquefort and other blue cheeses; warm potato salad; grilled vegetables; cooked greens like kale; and assorted melons. Use it in a vinaigrette to dress antipasto to balance the fattiness of the meats, salade Niçoise, and a Lyonnaise-inspired salad with lardons, frisée, and eggs. It also brightens braises and stews, and is great for quick pickled onions or other vegetables. 

Healthy Kitchen Nugget: Versatile vinegar

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Versatile vinegar

Vinegar is exceptional in so much more than salads. Here are two of my favorite ways to cook with red wine vinegar:

Deglazing. Use vinegar instead of (or even in addition to) wine to deglaze a pan and turn the fond—those dark, flavorful bits that collect on the bottom—into a rich and quick sauce.

Marinating. Because vinegar is acidic, it helps break down and tenderize protein fibers for juicier grilled meat.

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