CANOLA OIL
Block 275 is a non GMO canola oil that is produced in Western Australia. I came across it a little while back in my local deli in Margaret River and haven’t looked back since starting to use it. The heavily industrialised production of vegetable oils in general means what I have always thought of them as tasteless oils with limited if any health benefit used solely for deep frying. The experience of this canola oil has taught me that - when treated beautifully - there is so much texture and aroma in oils that we routinely treat as kitchen rubbish. It’s got me thinking about just how beautiful a sunflower oil would be if it was cold pressed and treated with the same care as this canola oil.
If you can get your hands on a bottle of this canola oil then I highly advise giving it a try. I use it in the base of all of my Kashmiri lamb dishes when browning them heavily with yoghurt because of the canola oil’s delicious contribution of corn, hazelnut, and toasted bran aromas, as well as its incredible viscosity and generous heating point.
CANOLA OIL USES:
Block 275 canola oil is particularly viscose, so I add a little of a thinner vegetable oil to the kadai when browning and deep frying in order to reduce the uptake of the weight of oil into the vegetable or meat protein.
This canola oil adds an aromatic and textured quality to browned lamb, chicken and beef. Use it with black cardamom, yoghurt, a pinch of asafoetida and a little salt during the browning process to build flavour into the base of the meat.
Use this canola oil to form the base of marinades that feature heavy use of lemon juice and garlic - the mix of the oil’s aromatics with the acidic and astringent qualities of lemon and garlic results in a very beautiful complexity.