Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil - How?

After some real interest in my ranting on how important it is to use locally produced Rapeseed Oil and how much better it is for you than Olive Oil (I do still love Olive Oil, but used in the correct way) - I thought you might be interested in how it is produced.

Our wonderful partners at Quex Park have given me some information for me to share with you!

Here goes, Quex Rapeseed Oil is cold pressed, simply pressed, filtered and bottled...delicious. They just squeeze the seed and the pure oil comes out, with all the natural nutrients still fully intact & unaffected, natural colour and of course fantastic flavour.

Industrial oil extraction, pre-heat the seeds and use chemicals - although this produces a larger yield of oil per seed it seriously lowers the quality and nutritional value of the oil.

Quex only press the seed once to give only the very best oil - know as Extra Virgin Oil, it is not refined - simply pressed, filtered and bottled.

So now about the real benefits of this oil. Cold pressed rapeseed oil has been shown to help reduce high cholesterol. with a high burning point, it is ideal for roasting, stir-frying or sauteing (we use in our Pure Flavour ready meals) - unlike olive oil which denatures at high temperatures. This means that the anti-oxidant properties of rapeseed oil are maintained at a higher cooking temperature.

Cold pressed rapeseed oil contain a natural balance of omega 3, 6, and 9 oils, making it a great source of these essential fatty acids. It also contains natural Vitamin E, a powerful anti-oxidant, used by the body to fight against the effects of free radicals (ageing toxins), keeping us fresh, and full of energy (maybe for those of us without young kids!).

When pressing rapeseed oil the 'cake' left as a residue is used as a highly nutritional protein feed for the Quex Cattle! We love this so no waste either and local, therefore significantly reducing the carbon footprint usually associated with oil production.

Hope you have found this interesting - please take it upon yourselves to search out for UK rapeseed oil or local rapeseed oil. At Pure Flavour, we are passionate about sourcing as much as possible locally!

Quex Foods

This month at Pure Flavour, we are looking forward to sharing information on Quex Foods. We use their delicious Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil in our ready made meals.

We love all our local producers and hope that you will enjoy finding out more about them too!

So most importantly let's introduce you to the people! The Farm on the Quex Park Estate is fun by Farm Manager Alistair Walmesley-Cotham together with his experienced team: Terry Endicott (here he is mending some machinery in the field!), Paul Gamlen and Adam.

They grow 3,000 tonnes of potatoes - now that sounds like an incredible amount of tats! Ensuring that it is all kept local they grade and pack the potatoes at a local pack house, run by St Nicholas Court Farm (SNCF), just 3 miles up the road from Quex Park. Along side other local potato producers they sell their Kent potatoes to Kent Tesco stores - now that is fantastic. The response from customers has been extremely positive, having genuine local products grown, packed and sold in Kent is definitely a winner!

More relevant to our delicious home-made ready meals are their cereals grown. With wheat grown for the bread market and Oilseed Rape (seen flowering in this picture) and Sunflowers (a Quex Park sunflower field - so pretty) for the cold pressed oils. Sheila and Terry Bellis and Margot Walmesley-Cotham are the ones who create the highly nutritious Cold pressed Oils in their processing unit - more about how they actually manage to create the oil next week!

And finally not forgetting Angie Curwin and Karen Botha who run all the marketing and operational sides of Quex park - they are certainly very busy people!

If you are interested in finding out more info and would like to comment please do let us know!

Seasonal Vegetable Curry

A Seasonal Veg Curry that I rustled up tonight!
(if you do not have time have a look at our Kent Lamb Nirah Masala with Seasonal Vegetable curry which we sell online!)

I opened the fridge & realised that there was very little to be creative with and then bingo - veg curry.
All our veg in the fridge came from our Brede Farmers Market (East Sussex) last Friday where Charlie the veg man always gives me his special Veg! We love charlie. I thought that the Quex Park Rapeseed Oil infused with Jalapeno peppers would add a little va va voom. You can of course use any seasonal vegetables that you have in your fridge. By the way use the main part of the broccoli if you like, but the kids love the broccoli trees, so I like to saved the tops for them & I think the trunk is delicious.
If you like a mild curry use a mild curry powder or use less for less kick - this really was very hot & I can still feel my mouth slightly burning!
I have used Millet Flour - I love using lots of different Gluten free flours to thicken sauces, this worked really well. Apparently Millet flour is an ancient grain consumed by over 1/3 or the world's population. Typically it is used in African countries for making porridge or flat bread. It is considered to be one of the least allergenic and most digestible grains. It is highly nutritious with nearly 15% protein, contains high amounts of fiber, B-complex vitamins including niacin, thiamin, and riboflavin, the essential amino acid methionine, lecithin and some vitamin E. Particularly high in minerals iron, magnesium, phosphorous and potassium. Well to me Millet sounds pretty darn good!

Ingredients - feeds 2 with leftovers
Splash of Quex Park Rapeseed oil infused with Jalapeno peppers
Medium Onion
2 sticks of celery
1 bit of garlic
2 carrots
1/2 butternut squash
trunk of broccoli
1 tbsp Vindaloo curry powder (if you can take it!)
2 tbsp Millet flour (or another flour if you do not have the very nutritious millet flour!)
Stock
Seasoning

Accompaniment
Brown Rice (should be 50g per person - we do 100g & then have some spare for lunch the next day!)
Water
Stock bouillon

Boil the water with stock & add the rice - cook until done.

Chop finely onions & celery, heat Rapeseed oil in large saucepan & cook onions & celery over medium heat until softened. Add garlic, (squashed & finely chopped with a big knife) & fry for a few minutes. Then add curry powder & flour, & mix well - make sure enough oil to absorb the powders - if not just add a bit more oil. Let cook for a few minutes & then add your hot stock (or I add water & a few spoonfuls of stock powder!) & all veg - add enough stock so that it covers the veg, but add slowly stirring all the time.
Let simmer for 20 minutes or until veg are cooked - remember to keep slowly adding stock as it reduces. End curry should be saucy & delicious

The great thing is that you should have a bit left over, I usually add this into a bowls worth of water & a spoonful of miso paste heated up for lunch - delicious!

Cold pressed Rapeseed Oil Information

Pure Flavour is really excited to say 'hello' from our new Blog! We hope to let you get to know our team and what we are passionate about, but more importantly we want to let you know about our fantastic local producers and local shops selling our delicious Pure Flavour products.

For the next few weeks we will be sharing the life of Quex Park Estate, we use their delicious Rapeseed Oil. Wowee, have you tried it? So fantastic, an Extra Virgin Kentish Cold Pressed Oil just full of the food stuff.

Ideal for roasting, stir fries, marinades and dressings, with a good source of Vitamin E. High in monounsaturated fats (good fats). Lower in saturated fats (bad fats) than Olive Oil.

I am still shocked in magazines such as Good Food, that they still rarely use Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil, let's persuade them to change! I use it all the time, we use Olive oil occasionally, but the health benefits and the fact that it was grown up the road is hugely important to me. The whole family love it.

We Rapeseed oil being produced all over the UK and even being stocked in our supermarkets - I see no reason why everyone is not using is, especially when it is no more expensive than a good quality Olive Oil.

For our delicious Pure Flavour home-made ready meals, we use Quex Foods, Extra Virgin Rapeseed Oil, Nicci (our wonderful Roux Brothers trained chef), said "I have been thrilled with Quex Foods Rapeseed Oil, the quality is fantastic and it tastes delicious - it really makes such a fabulous addition to our wonderful range of locally produced ingredients for our Pure Flavour ready meals"

So a little bit more information about the good stuff and why we should choose a delicious oil grown and cold pressed locally: Omega 3,6 & 9 - cold pressed rapeseed oil contains a natural balance of Omega 3,6 and 9 oils, making it a great source for these essential fatty acids. 'Good Oils' are essential in bodily functions, including aiding cholesterol reduction, and maintaining a healthy heart. Vitamin E - cold pressed rapeseed contains natural Vitamin E, which is a powerful antioxidant. This is used by the body to fight against the effects of free radicals (ageing toxins), keeping us fresh and full of energy.

So there you go!! Go out and get your locally grown Rapeseed Oil and support your local community