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From women’s health
Sure, I may be biased, but personally I believe that Indians are the best cooks in the world. Nothing compares to the depth of flavors, variety of spices, and variety of cooking styles that you can find in dozens of states across the country.
My mom, aunts, and grandparents always made the dishes coming out of the kitchen look seamless and simple, which is why I had a rude awakening when I started learning to cook myself. What I learned very quickly (and by carefully observing the talented women in my family) was that cooking a truly tasty dish is a true art, achieved with careful balance and a wide variety of seasonings.
While my Indian roots drag me to evenings perfecting my mother’s masala recipes, the millennial in me lacks the patience it takes to be that particular type of artist. Unfortunately, eating shortcuts often make it difficult to be healthy too, which is why I love to come across high-quality brands like Brightland.
Founder Aishwarya Iyer launched her selection of California-grown olive oils and vinegars as a tribute to South Indian origins and a desire to restore honesty to food production. In particular, their ardor chilli olive oil ($ 40, Brightland) has become a staple for me.
It’s extremely flavourful, versatile, and changes every dish I add it to. Here’s everything you need to know about how I use it and why I put it on everything in my kitchen:
It goes with everything – literally.
Ok, I wouldn’t recommend replacing chocolate syrup on your sundae with this one, but I’ve used this chili oil on everything from salads to avocado toast to curries and pasta. The easiest way to use it is to just let it replace the oil that you use in your daily cooking, e.g. B. To fry onions and garlic as a base for your dishes.
In my opinion, if you want to have a little more fun, the most noticeable taste is when I pour some chili oil over my dishes. For example, if I’ve made pasta, I’ll round off each individual plate with a quick splash.
The story goes on
My favorite method is to transform my simple avocado toast. I’ll just top my bread with avocado and some sliced tomato and then drizzle it over it. I’ve had this for breakfast almost every day for months. I’m not tired of it yet and don’t see myself tired that easily.
It has the perfect amount of seasoning.
You know how sometimes the food is so hot that you can’t taste any other taste than the chilli? It’s not like that at all. While I have a pretty high tolerance for spicy foods (thanks, genetics), I don’t like overwhelmingly spicy foods where you can’t really taste the other flavors in what I eat.
Of course, you need to be careful how much you add because just a tablespoon is enough. But when I add a teaspoon or a tablespoon to a full pan of pasta to my toast, the peppery taste really shines.
It has a depth of flavors.
You could argue that some chilli oils on the market make it easy to recreate these yourself at home. This would not be the case with this particular oil. The perfect blend of jalapeño, red chilli, and chipotle peppers with olive oil and peppers is nothing more than adding red chilli flakes to your pizza.
The flavors come out in such a way that you can actually taste every single pepper and add a touch of spice to any dish. It’s a great way to pretend cooking-like skills whether you’re a newbie to the kitchen or with no plans to ever own a spice rack.
The packaging is both beautiful and functional.
Call me superficial, but I’m a big jerk for beautiful packaging. When it comes to my little New York apartment, I love being able to display beautiful things to distract from how small the kitchen is. The minimalist designs were created in collaboration with the New York based artist Marleigh Culver and are an absolute feast for the eyes.
My only concern when trying out Brightlands oils was that they could be spilled or damaged by heat during the delivery process as I had previously only bought my oils direct from a grocery store. However, I realized that I know exactly where these bottles are coming from and how they will be shipped to me in UV coated bottles straight from California, while I have no idea where most of the other mass market oils that I buy from the supermarket come from really off.
I recommend it to everyone, whether it’s the chefs in my family or just cooking as a lockdown hobby.
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