Jottage from Lancaster - rapeseed oil

When you get home with HDW's weighty tome River Cottage Everyday the first thing you encounter, apart from the lively pictures and somewhat quirky drawings, is a reference to rapeseed oil on almost every page. As a cook who tends to slosh in Tesco generic 'vegetable oil' which may well be refined engine oil as far as I know, and who thinks that olive oil is the height of gastronomic chic, this needed a little searching out at our local Booth's supermarket.


My well-used bottle of rapeseed oil...

I was actually quite excited about going off to buy this very exotic ingredient and rather hoped that the good people of Carnforth may well be deeply impressed - but of course no one noticed - and why indeed would they?

Rape flowers

Rapeseed oil is apparently very good for you - even more so than olive oil. It's deeply yellow, being derived from those unbelievable fields of rape that scatter the English countryside in early summer. Just as an aside, the word 'rape' derives from the Latin word 'rapum' meaning turnip, but the Americans, with their characteristic prudishness, call it canola oil.


So I return home clutching my bottle of bright yellow oil as happy as I might be if I had a fancy bottle of wine. It's now about 6 weeks since that day but every time I slosh some into the pan I love to see its buttercup yellow colour, I love the way it colours everything with a pale wash of saffron and into the bargain it's supposed to be good for me. Even though the bottle was nearly 4 quid I reckon that's a bargain!




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