Everything You Need to Know About Olive Oil (With 3 New Recipes) | Andy Baraghani | Cooking 101

Get even more olive oil wisdom from Andy here: https://nyti.ms/47y5taX

Get the free (!) recipe for Andy’s Olive Oil and Honey-Miso Dressing: https://nyti.ms/3HN1T22
Andy’s Olive Oil and Chile-Fried Eggs is here: https://nyti.ms/4lKqL8A
And his Olive Oil-Poached Tuna With Garlic Aioli: https://nyti.ms/45SffBY

For Andy Baraghani, olive oil is the ingredient he uses more than anything else (after salt). It’s what he reaches for first and it’s often the last ingredient he uses to finish a dish. Andy joined us in the NYT Cooking Studio Kitchen to talk about how to shop for olive oil and to share three new recipes that showcase how versatile an ingredient it can be.

First up, Andy shows us his recipe for an olive oil and honey-miso dressing that works just as well on a salad as it does as a marinade. Then he shares tips for making perfect fried eggs in a chile-infused olive oil. Last but not least, he makes an olive-oil poached tuna and uses the leftover oil to make a garlic aioli to serve alongside it.

This video is part of Cooking 101, our series on kitchen fundamentals. Each episode covers a different technique, tool or ingredient, and each host shares the tips and recipes they believe will set you up for success, no matter where you are in your cooking journey.

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[SLURPS] “It’s really delicious. Yeah, that one’s really good!” [MUSIC PLAYING] “I’m Andy Baraghani, a
human cook and food writer. I want people to have a better
understanding of how olive oil is processed, how
it’s harvested. It is the ingredient
that I use more than any other ingredient,
after salt. It is the thing that I reach for first. And it’s usually the last
thing that I finish with on a plate. This is ‘Cooking 101,’
Olive Oil edition. Before we get into
everything about olive oil, we first have to talk
about how it is processed. First, it’s harvested. It’s ground to a paste,
and then pressed. And the oil is extracted. There’s a lot of different
factors that can go into it, the variety of olives,
where it’s produced, how it’s packaged. These are all factors on
how it will look and taste. You’re not able to make
extra virgin olive oil with the olives that you’re buying
in brine or oil already. And if you ever are able to
try, which I don’t recommend, an olive that is used
for olive oil production, you would make a
face like that.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “There’s many different words
that might pop up on a label, virgin, pure. But always look for
extra virgin olive oil. That’s the good stuff. Think of it as
the purest form. It’s not mixed with anything. It’s cold-pressed. And you’re getting
this wonderful flavor, whether it is more
spicy, fruity. It can range in color, too. But it’s olives in
their purest form. Refined means that it’s
being processed differently. That means heat can
be applied to it. It can be mixed with
different types of oils, canola, vegetable, grapeseed. And again, that’s kind of
taking away that flavor that you’re looking for. These are the tips
that I have when you are looking to
buy extra virgin olive oil, what you should
be looking for, how to read the label. It’s very easy to
get confused by this. I certainly have
gotten confused many, many times in the past. Olive oil is produced
in many different places around the world. Spain produces the most
amount of olive oil. Italy tends to get
all the credit. Greece doesn’t
get enough credit. There are different
varieties of olives that do better in
certain climates, in certain countries. And that will give a different
kind of flavor and color. And that doesn’t necessarily
mean olive oils from certain countries are
better than others. When it comes to
single origin — and that just means the olives
are coming from one place. That doesn’t mean it
makes it a better product. The other thing is that
it could be a blend. And blends are equally
sometimes more delicious. And sometimes you go for
a blend, like you would with wine, that is finding
the kind of balance. First thing I see
is harvest date, when the olives were
harvested and picked. Olive oil should be
consumed within two years of that harvest date. Bottle date, in terms
of harvest and bottle, there really should be
a short amount of time. Just after looking
at this bottle, they said within hours. When you see the bottle date,
pretty much within the two year mark, it
should be consumed. Expiration date, that’s
pretty straightforward. If you see an olive oil that
is close to its expiration date, if you think you’re
going to use it within the next few weeks or
month, that’s great. Just know that you want to
have as much time away from the expiration date
because olive oil, as soon as it’s bottled,
it’s just going to continue to gradually lose its flavor
and become less potent. You really want to look
for extra virgin olive oil that has been bottled
in tin or dark glass. That’s so that it won’t allow
too much sun to come through. The more sun, the more light
that hits the olive oil, the quicker it’ll break down. It loses its viscosity. It’ll affect its flavor. So, generally try
to avoid that. So I generally have my
olive oil stored in a dry, dark cabinet, if you’re
lucky to have windows — we’re New Yorkers over here. So that’s tricky. In your kitchen, you probably
don’t want to be leaving a bottle of olive oil. It’s getting light. It’s getting heat. And you really don’t want
to be putting your bottle of olive oil next to your
stove where you are cooking, because that’s only going
to be heating that product. And so, it’ll likely
affect the flavor.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “When you’re thinking
of finishing oils, think of what kind of flavor
you’re going for, peppery, assertive, if it’s something
that’s more kind of smoky, more fruity. Hummus is just the
very beginning. You can use this on a yogurt
dip, labneh, finishing pasta, a stir fry,
blanched vegetables, or even on top of really
good vanilla or chocolate ice cream.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “We are now making a dressing,
an olive oil and honey miso dressing. Think of this dressing as
an all-purpose dressing. Even, I would say, a
really delicious marinade. The olive oil here is doing
a few different things. It is obviously providing
a richness to it. It adds additional fat. It is adding a kind of
peppery, fruity, slightly bitter note. It depends on the extra
virgin you’re going for. So we have two lemons here. And we are just going
to finely zest them. I like the micro-plane. This is what happens. You grate garlic
over a micro-plane. And it just instantly
becomes a paste. And when you do
that with garlic, you get its most
concentrated flavor. O.K., next, we have
some white miso. I’m just going to loosen
it up in the lemon juice. Dijon mustard is kind
of the secret ingredient here, acidity, a
really unique tang. And then we have honey. It makes the dressing
glossy, which I love. Now we stream in — go for an
extra virgin olive oil that you’re spending a little
bit more money on. This is not your everyday
cooking extra virgin olive oil. You can see, it has this
incredible texture already. It’s so silky and velvety. Pepper, you can always
add more if you like. It’s really in your face. It pulls you in, so sharp,
so salty, so tangy, so fatty. It’s very concentrated
right now, which is why we
need some water. I said that mustard
was a secret weapon. But actually, the water is the
secret weapon in this dish. That mustard and pepper
actually come through more. It allows you to
taste everything now. It actually feels more
fully thought out. Now that we have the olive oil
and honey miso dressing made, I’m just going to show
you how versatile it is. We have some
blanched broccolini. Any kind of sturdy
green vegetable would be really delicious. Now we have some soft tofu. I love the gentle
texture it has. And I think, this
creamy dressing, it really has an
assertive flavor that goes well with the tofu. Now with this dressing, I’m
just going to add a little bit to the bowl. I can always add more later. This is kind of a tutorial
on not just how to make the dressing, the
world of olive oil, but how to toss a salad.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “And just scoop and toss. And I kind of just look to
see the dressing, to coat. Let’s add more. And again, a gentle
toss because you want the texture of the greens. You want them to
retain their shape.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “We are making
chile-fried eggs, a super easy way to make fried
eggs the way I love making fried eggs, where you get the
whites really nicely frizzled and browned all
over the edges. But the yolk is still
beautiful and runny. Here, we’re using extra virgin
olive oil to do a few things, to create that nice textural
contrast between the egg whites and the egg yolks,
and then to also use the oil as a cooking medium to
carry the other flavors. First, just do a
little bit of prep. We have some garlic. This is a little bit
of a bigger chili. This is a Fresno chili. Feel free to use whatever
fresh chile you have. O.K., so, since we are
cooking with this olive oil, I would use something more
in the more affordable price range. We are taking this to
a medium high heat. Olive oil has anywhere
from a 375 to a 410 degrees smoking point. It will lose some
of its color. It’ll lose some
of its viscosity. You’ll see once
it’s heated up, it’ll start to become
loose, become more glossy. And it’ll also lose
some of its flavor.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “We’re going to season this
with a little bit of salt before the whites set. And you’re going to
see the eggs splatter. You can give them a little
bit of a shake, just so the hot oil kind of
touches the whites. They’ll start to puff up. We’re almost there. You’re seeing the whites
starting to get browned. I turn off the heat. You have the edges. I’m just going
to remove it off. And I’m going to add
my garlic and chiles. And you just want to bloom
the garlic and the chiles. And then you also will
add your paprika here now. Give that another shake. And you’ll see how the oil
just immediately starts to infuse and become
this beautiful red color. You see this great
well-browned underneath.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “You can see how the oil
is wonderfully stained from the paprika. The whites are nicely browned. The yolk is still quite soft. You have the chilies. You have the garlic. It’s always amazing to see
what olive oil can do here. And it is creating
this wonderful texture from the egg. But it’s also extracting
the flavor from the chiles, the garlic, and the paprika. It just makes
something really, really delicious into
something I would eat for any meal of the day, breakfast,
lunch, or dinner.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “It says tuna. But you could use
swordfish here. You could use halibut. And you want one big piece. We’re using 1 and 1/2 pounds
of boneless, skinless, a piece of tuna here, a really
beautiful piece of tuna. The extra virgin
olive oil here, we are using copious amounts. We’re using a little
over two cups worth. It’s going to be the
medium to cook the fish. And then we’re using some
of that leftover oil to make the aioli. First, we’re just going to
season this tuna with a little bit of salt all
over, 10 minutes, 10, 15 minutes ahead of time, just
so the salt can really absorb. We’re going to start by
infusing extra virgin olive oil with these ingredients. These are just some
of the ingredients that I like to flavor the oil,
an onion, garlic, Bay leaves, thyme. I’m just crushing this a
little bit to get those oils going. Chile, I’ll just
split in half. And then a citrus peel. We’re just doing wide strips. So I’m just going to
pour the oil here. We’re going to save this oil. We’re going to use
some of it for aioli. You can save the rest to saute
greens, saute vegetables. So it will not be wasted. I promise. This does not need to be the
strongest, most assertive, your fruitiest or pepperiest. This should be just good olive
oil that you would cook with. And this is really important. There’s a reason why I’m not
adding to the fish right now. We need this to heat
up, pool the oils from the different things,
pool the flavorings from all the different stuff, the
oils from the citrus, from the herbs, the chiles. Let the onions
and garlic soften. And then we’ll
slip the fish in. And then they can take
those flavors off. The redness from the onion has
kind of faded a little bit. The herbs are not as
green as they used to. Things are just slowly
starting to cook and soften. And we’re going to lower the
heat and then slip the fish in and let that cook. If the tuna isn’t fully
submerged, that is O.K. We can just add a
little bit more oil. And then we’ll just let
this gradually cook. The fish will
become more opaque. You could obviously
pull it out and test it. It really depends on
how you like it done, whether it’s medium-rare,
medium, medium-well. You cook it however
you prefer.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “All right. We have one yolk,
some Dijon mustard. We just break the yolk
and start to whisk this. We take a deep breath. It’s been 20 years,
I’ve been making aioli. I don’t have a fear. I’m not scared. But it’s like, I hope
it doesn’t break. Slow and steady, look at it. Check in. Worship it. Tell it silently that
it’s better than you. My rule of thumb is
usually, with one egg yolk, you’re using 3/4
to one cup of fat. Here, we’re using one cup. I think, any more than that,
it’s really hard on the egg yolk. And I’m not even
trying to be funny. It’s really hard for the egg
yolk to take up more fat. Well, now it’s becoming
similar to a mayonnaise. You can see bigger
streaks, tighter streaks. And there’s a certain point
where you want to make sure it doesn’t get too, too tight,
because then it can break. So we have our 1/2 a
cup already streamed in of the infused
leftover oil. And now we have 1/2
a cup of neutral oil. And we’re using that neutral
oil to provide balance. If you use just
leftover oil, the aioli would just taste too
strong, too strong of a condiment for the fish. We are going to add
four cloves of garlic. You could smash it
before you go in. I just take my whisk. And I just go around
like this, gently. I love this just as it is. That infused oil is doing
so much of the work here. Let’s put it on.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “We just looked for the
fish to become opaque, cooking it to done-ness of
your preference, medium, medium-rare, medium-well. Because it’s submerged
in all that fat, it’s actually very forgiving. So even if you were to cook it
maybe a little bit past what you prefer, it’s still going
to taste really delicious.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “It tastes so fancy. That’s the thing. Like, I eat so much tuna. I eat so much canned
tuna, to be specific. But this, you can’t even
compare it because it is so rich. It’s so decadent.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “If there’s one big takeaway,
it’s that extra virgin olive oil isn’t just a
cooking ingredient. But it is a seasoning. It’s a texture. And it can really change
the way you’re cooking. It can make it more
alive, and more delicious, and really just make
a dish stand out. So keep trying
different olive oils, and find the one
that you love. You can find all these
recipes at nytcooking, and in the link below.” [MUSIC PLAYING]