Adventures in olive oil

Sandra Gunn wanted some good olive oil, like the kind that her Sicilian grandmother kept in her kitchen when Gunn was growing up. She couldn’t find it. Anywhere.

That started to change a few years ago when Gunn and her husband, Brad, were living in Temecula, Calif., an hour north of San Diego. Some people they knew were getting into the olive-growing business.

“My husband and I started talking to people and learning more,” said Gunn, who moved to Coeur d’Alene four years ago. “I was working, he was working and we were thinking, ‘Let’s try something different. An adventure. A change in business.’ “

That’s how they got into olive oil. Now she can find the high-quality oil she remembers from her youth in her own shop, Coeur d’Alene Olive Oil Co., 117 S. Fourth St. The downtown store, which opened in June, sells extra virgin olive oil in a variety of flavors, in addition to balsamic vinegar, stuffed olives, tapenades and other specialty foods. There’s even a line of salt scrubs and bath soaps, all made from the Gunns’ olive oil.

Rather than buy olive oil from a producer and rebottle it, the Gunns decided to produce the oil themselves. They teamed with a grower in Corning, Calif., to buy his crop of Mission olives. Then they purchased the equipment needed to press oil from the olives and hired someone to manage the operation in California. The facility produces 5,000 gallons of oil a year from two different harvests, one in spring and one in fall.

The couple got things rolling with a Web site – www.cdaoliveoil.com – and selling the oil at private parties. Last summer, the Gunns set up a booth at the Kootenai County Farmers’ Market.

“The farmers’ market really took off. We sat there just kind of going, ‘Wow.’ After the farmers’ market closed, we would do shows and things like that,” she said. They also opened a cottage on their property and opened the doors for Saturday tastings. “That was only going to work for so long. The time was right and that’s how this store came to be.”

Additionally, the Gunns’ products are available at Pilgrim’s Market in Coeur d’Alene, Hutton’s General Store in Harrison, Idaho, Eclectic Gifts in Liberty Lake and McGlades Treemendous Fruit and Cider in Green Bluff.

For the past couple of months, the Gunns’ products have been in use at the Beachouse Ribs and Crab Shack at the Silver Beach Marina on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

The Gunns’ oil and vinegar dipping blend is featured on the tables and is a hit with the restaurant’s customers, said executive chef Troy Chandler.

“They love it,” he said. “The bottles seem to fall into people’s purses.”

Back in the kitchen, the chefs use the garlic oil in salad dressings and as a finishing oil, a final accent to a dish before it hits a customer’s table.

“First time I tried it, I was like, ‘Man, this stuff rocks,’ ” Chandler said.

Some flavored oils, Chandler said, have an artificial taste. Not this one.

“This actually tastes of what it is. It’s infused. It’s integrated,” he said. “I just like the natural flavor, rather than the Red Dye No. 12 flavor.”

The Gunns’ products are all domestic, except the balsamic vinegar. It’s imported, but is enhanced with vanilla and fig flavor stateside to make it “one of a kind,” Gunn said. The stuffed olives are Sevillanos from California. The oil comes from the Mission olive.

“It just creates the best olive oil. I tried probably 20 or 30 different varietals. We imported some, tried them, and it was the best,” she said. “It’s a very light and buttery oil.”

That buttery flavor is a plus for people with health concerns such as heart disease, diabetes or high cholesterol, she said. “Say for example you’re scrambling an egg,” Gunn said. “You throw a dollop of my Mission oil in there and it tastes like you cooked your egg in butter.”

The overall health benefits of olive oil have been well documented. Recent studies suggest that olive oil can help decrease a person’s LDL cholesterol – that’s the bad stuff. It’s rich in monounsaturated fats and has a healthy dose of vitamin E, an antioxidant. The January 2005 issue of the Annals of Oncology theorizes that olive oil may reduce breast cancer risk when consumed as part of a Mediterranean diet – one rich in fruit, vegetables, bread and cereal, potatoes, nuts and olive oil, with moderate consumption of dairy, fish and poultry and very little red meat.

The Gunns’ oil is extra virgin, meaning it comes from the first pressing of the olives and is renowned for having the most delicate flavor. Large oil producers often apply heat when pressing their olives, a process that Gunn said results in more oil of a lesser quality. The Gunns’ oil is cold pressed, a process that generates less oil of a higher quality, she added.

Beyond the company’s Mission olive oil, the Gunns also offer flavored oils, with some unusual choices. The garlic, rosemary and basil oils will seem like obvious choices to most consumers. Lemon-flavored oil is available at some grocery stores. But the lime and blood orange options might strike some customers as rather exotic.

Blood orange in particular might seem puzzling, but Gunn said it’s an infusion that’s not unheard of. Several California oil producers make a blood orange oil.

Gunn actually finds the blood orange, along with the garlic, to be the most universal of the flavors.

“It’s a hard infusion to do but once you start cooking with the orange flavoring, it’s kind of timeless,” she said. “You can do everything.

“I love it with chicken. I use it on all my fish. I drizzle it on this cold shrimp salad. You just slice up some shrimp with some tomato and capers and throw some orange oil in there and toss it. It’s delicious.”

As for the lime? Fish, chicken and vegetables are obvious choices, although Gunn said she knows one customer who marinated veal in it. Try it with fajitas, or other Latin-flavored dishes, she suggested, or go Thai with lime oil, lemongrass, chilies and fish sauce.

Lois McDonald of Post Falls has become a recent fan of the oil. She discovered the store earlier this summer and returned for the shop’s recent grand opening.

“A friend told me about it and brought me over. I really love the product. I always get too much when I come here,” she said. “I bought the lime and orange olive oil. I use it to make fish and chicken and some salad dressings. It’s good on that, also.

“I like orange roughy with the lime olive oil,” she added. “That’s probably my favorite. It’s real easy. I just put a line of oil on the fish and bake it.”

Martha Kildow of Coeur d’Alene is a longtime fan of the Gunns’ oil. She drizzles it over her homemade grilled pizza.

“I never miss the farmers’ market. I’ve been buying the olive oil for a couple years now,” she said. “I love the garlic. It really has a garlic punch to it. It’s just wonderful olive oil. And I love their tapanades. They’re really tasty.”

If none of these flavors suits you, there are other options. You can create your own dipping blend.

The store’s house dipping blend is a mixture of extra virgin olive oil, dark balsamic vinegar, garlic, parsley, chili flakes, black pepper and salt. The Gunns plan to bottle other blends, including one created by their middle child, 8-year-old Bella. Bella’s Blend will consist of the blood orange, garlic and Mission oils along with the dark balsamic vinegar.

Making your blend will be as simple as a little experimentation. At the store, the various oils and the white and dark balsamic vinegars are stored in fustinos, large metal tanks used throughout Italy to store olive oil. All you have to do is grab an empty bottle and get mixing.

“When we did our dipping blend, customers would say, ‘Oh gosh, I have this great recipe for a dipping blend.’ And I’m like, ‘Why don’t you blend your own?’ “

Whichever oil you choose and however you use it, Gunn advises customers to use the oil sparingly. This is not the stuff to deep fry with, but you can cook with it over moderate heat. Rather than putting out big bowls of oil for dipping with bread, Gunn suggests slicing a baguette, coating the slices with a bit of your favorite oil, adding a little parmesan and maybe some sliced tomato and putting it under the broiler for a few minutes.

“I would use this sparingly. A little bit goes a long way,” she said recently to a new customer. “If I see you back here in a week, you’re not using it properly.”

At $15 for a 250-milliliter bottle and $23 for a 500-milliliter bottle, the oil is not inexpensive. But, Gunn said, their experience so far has shown that there is a market for high-end, quality olive oil.

“There are a lot of chefs here. When you’re in the winter and you’re stuck in your house, you’re going to learn to cook,” she said. “It’s something that’s soothing, it’s therapeutic, it’s something you can do with your family.”

Longtime customer Kildow put it this way: “I think it’s just fabulous that we have an olive oil company here in Coeur d’Alene. … We no longer have to go to California for stuff like this.”

Customers often ask Gunn for recipes using the oil. Here are a few of her favorites:

Oven-Baked Rosemary Beef Rib Roast and Potatoes

1 3/4 pounds small red potatoes, peeled and carved

Water, to cover

1 tablespoon vinegar

2 tablespoons rosemary extra virgin olive oil

4 pounds beef rib roast, with 3 rib bones, fat and silver skin removed

Salt

Black pepper

3 sage sprigs

1/2 cup dry white wine

2 shallots, peeled and sliced

12 fresh mushrooms, sliced or dried mushrooms, soaked and squeezed

5 ounces cream

1 cup vegetable stock

1 tablespoon minced Italian parsley

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the vinegar and blanch the potatoes, about 5 minutes. In a skillet, heat the olive oil and brown the meat, turning on all sides. Transfer to an oven-to-table baking pan, season with salt and pepper; add the sage and the prepared potatoes. Bake for 40 minutes, basting with the wine.

Remove from the oven; reserve the meat and the potatoes and return the cooking juices to the stovetop. Add the shallots, mushrooms, cream and vegetable stock, and cook until thickened and syrupy. Add the parsley. Return the meat and potatoes to the baking pan, drizzle with the sauce, and serve.

Yield: 6 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 570 calories, 28 grams fat (12 grams saturated, 45 percent fat calories), 43 grams protein, 31 grams carbohydrate, 130 milligrams cholesterol, 3 grams dietary fiber, 481 milligrams sodium.

Aromatic New Potatoes

1/2 tablespoon butter

1 pound peeled new potatoes

1 shallot, minced

Water

2 ounces leek, white part only

3 sprigs Italian parsley

3 sage leaves

1 rosemary sprig, leaves only

1 tablespoon rosemary extra virgin olive oil

Salt

Black pepper

1 small tomato, seeded and diced

Butter a microwave-proof pan and add the potatoes, sprinkle with the minced shallots, and add 1 to 2 cups of water. Cover with microwave-proof plastic film and transfer to the microwave; cook on full power for 8 minutes. Meanwhile, mince the leeks, parsley, rosemary and sage and combine. In a nonstick skillet, heat the rosemary olive oil, add the potatoes and cook until just lightly browned. Add the minced leek and herb mixture and sauté briefly over high heat; season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir in the diced tomato and serve immediately.

Yield: 4 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 127 calories, 5 grams fat (1 gram saturated, 35 percent fat calories), 3 grams protein, 17 grams carbohydrate, 4 milligrams cholesterol, 2.5 grams dietary fiber, 167 milligrams sodium.

Foil-Baked Scallops and Sugar Snap Peas

1 1/2 pounds sugar snap peas, cleaned

Water

2 pounds bay or sea scallops

Sea salt

Fresh ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest

1/4 cup lime olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Boil sugar snap peas in salted water about one minute until bright green.

Cut out six 12-inch squares of aluminum foil. Spread foil in a single layer on your work surface. Divide scallops and sugar snap peas evenly among foil pieces, placing the mixture in the center of the squares. Season the scallops and peas with salt, pepper and zest.

Bring the outer edges of the foil up as if you were going to fold it in half. This should help make a pouch so the contents don’t pour out. Drizzle the lime olive oil over the scallops. Fold the top edges of the foil over to enclose the top and the fold the side edges and crease tightly so that it forms a tight seal.

Place the packets in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Bake 7 to 10 minutes. Remove packets and place on individual plates. Be careful when you open the packets, steam will be hot. Serve with white or brown rice.

Yield: 6 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 218 calories, 11 grams fat (2 grams saturated, 49 percent fat calories), 15 grams protein, 12 grams carbohydrate, 24 milligrams cholesterol, 4 grams dietary fiber, 312 milligrams sodium.