Dinner in 5 minutes or less, redux

Faux gourmet lesson du jour: Shell out for a yummy ingredient today, make an amazing meal in 5 minutes tomorrow.

Taste & See:Tonight I received an invitation to an event at the last minute. Fortunately the event itself was a mere five minute walk from my apartment, but I still had only an hour to make my 30 minute commute, eat, change, and walk over. Problem?

If so, you clearly haven't read my faux gourmet entry about seared tuna steak. Luckily I'm just enough of a Superwoman to have thrown the other half of the frozen tuna pack from Trader Joe's in the fridge to thaw this morning [to see what I did with the first half, re-read the entry on seared tuna steak.] It took all of 5 minutes to whip up a quick spice rub while the pan got nice & hot, then sear it ever so briefly. I took in a few bites in between transforming from Friday scrub dress to all dolled up and made it to my event with time to spare.

I bring it up not merely to convince you that it truly is that easy, but because the spice rub was surprisingly tasty. No, it was incredible. Genius. Perfection itself. However, I owe this feat in no small part to one of my brilliant discoveries from Food & Wine Weekend: Apres Vin Grape-Seed Oil.



This new home-grown company from my beloved hometown makes the oil with grape seeds left over from all those wineries. The oils take on subtle hints of the different grape varietals' seeds [Chardonnay, Merlot, Reisling] from which they are pressed. As this chart, a photo I will no doubt reuse, illustrates, wine by itself occupies an enormous range of flavors:


To the natural flavors inherent in the seeds are added a variety of other flavors to make some amazing combinations: Lime Reisling, Roasted Garlic Chardonnay, Chipotle Merlot, etc. According to the label, they're separated, dried & cold-pressed with European expeller presses. As a side note, I love the fact that we Americans tend to oooh and aaah over anything with the word 'European,' as if that added an automatic chic/class bonus. In any case, regardless of whether it comes from anything European, these oils are phenomenal. A few interesting facts:

• Grape-seed oil has high amounts [relatively] of the good fat (polyunsaturated) & half the saturated fat of olive oil. It's also high in anti-oxidants.
  
  
• You can use them as you would an olive oil, but they have a higher smoke point [485 degrees], making them more versatile for hot cooking.
  
  
• The oils are made from what would otherwise be waste. And the 'waste' from the pressed grape seeds? Made into pure Merlot or Chardonnay flour.
  
  
• Other products made from wine-waste by this company: wood stove pellets, paper & ink, and Chardonnay bio-diesel fuel.

For more, see NPR's recent report. You might not believe me, but I know you believe NPR. The company's website also supplies recipes for their oils, in the unlikely event you run out of ways to experiment yourself. I had the opportunity to sample these oils at one of the many wineries visited during Food & Wine Weekend.


Now, normally I would just take my free sample and run but these oils had something special. I was blown away by the potency of just a few drops of oil on a bread cube. My palate isn't the most refined, so I usually roll my eyes at the bougie olive oils samples at street markets and in fine food stores, but for once the oils actually came through with an undeniable burst of flavor. I happily used the fact that I probably consumed 10 oz. of the oils in free samples as an excuse to shell out for a holiday pack, five 10 oz bottles in flavors of my choosing in a lovely wooden crate:

Which brings me full circle to that tuna. In case you forgot, I already raved about the tuna at approx. $4/lb. I used half a serving tonight, so $2 for the tuna. I rolled it in a mix of whole fennel seeds [I just bought a new bottle & was eager to use them!], white pepper, a splash of seasoning salt, a hint of red chili flakes and a bit of dried parsley. The total amount of spices was about 2 tbsps. Even though I just through it together at random, the mix complemented itself, and the tuna, perfectly. The red & green added a nice bit of colour to the tuna, while the fennel seeds provided a nutty undertone with the chili kicking in a nice lingering bite.

To that I added the crowning glory, 1 tbsp ApresVin Merlot Fume' grape-seed oil, which provided a disproportionately delicious smokiness and kept the tuna moist. A $10 10 oz bottle contains 25 tbsps, so my splurge was a mere forty cent investment in this meal. And what a worthwhile investment it was!