Saturday 6 November 2010

Rapeseed Oil

I was recently recommended rapeseed oil which I have never tried before. To be honest I am a creature of habit when I do my supermarket shopping and I always buy a sunflower oil and an olive oil. However, despite my habitual shopping, I do like to try new things, so I thought I would give it a go.

Rapeseed oil comes from those lovely yellow plants that carpet fields with eye catching brightness and which apparently belong to the Brassica family of plants. Also, according to the HGCA website, linseed oil and rapeseed oil are the only oils produced in the UK, a fact which I was totally unaware of and one which makes rapeseed oil a very appealing option to me. It is also apparently a very healthy option so I added a bottle to my supermarket order this week and I have been trying out some of the recipes on the HGCA website.

We have all enjoyed the Chicken and Tomato crumble and the Leek and Bread pudding and I even made a salad dressing with it for lunch today. I would usually only use olive oil for a salad dressing put I was pleased with the taste of the salad dressing so I will be happy to use rapeseed oil in the future. I like to support UK farmers and this seems to be a great way of doing this at no extra cost to myself so if you also like to buy local, then consider rapeseed oil as an option.

5 comments:

  1. I did read about rapeseed oil a few months ago. But forgot about it. Thank you for reminding me.

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  2. oohh have never thought about rapeseed oil before, will keep an eye out for it next time i shop.

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  3. AKA Canola Oil- renamed by the Canadian Rapeseed Industry to make the name a bit more palatable to the general public!

    When I was in the UK in 1996 I remember the bright yellow fields, and a local telling me that there was a campaign against them as they were too bright and thus "un-English"! At the time they it was a hugely popular crop with farmers as there were huge EU subsidies for them, I believe.

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  4. Rapeseed is Canola Oil? I bought once,the oil is bright red in colour so I was wondering what fruit or plant that produce that kind of colour or is it only artificial colouring to make it more attractive..

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  5. p3c: Hmmm... the only bright red oils I know are chilli oil and palm oil!
    Our canola/rapeseed oil is yellow- like sunflower. I use it in recipes like cakes where you don't want the extra tastes in olive oil (or the extra cost).

    GM- Your post got me thinking- and reading- and I uncovered two things that might be of supplemental interest:
    1. Canola and British Rapeseed Oils, while produced from the same plant, may differ as canola seems to usually be extracte by different (larger scale) methods (hence why rapeseed oil seems to be promoted as a more gourmet product rather than your standard chip-fryer oil!
    2. There are actually a few other British-produced oils, as this website (http://www.bacpop.org.uk/) promotes: "British farmers [produce] cold pressed oils including rapeseed; hemp; flax; strawberry seed; borage and others which go into everything from mayonnaise to face creams." Not sure which are edible. Is there no British Walnut Oil industry? There are certainly "English Walnut Oil" producers in California http://www.libertyvegetableoil.com/engwalnut.html (and France...).

    OK, time for me to stop! Sorry for hijacking your post- it was very interesting to read- thanks!

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