I purchased a bottle of Trader Joe’s dolmas yesterday (so yummy, btw, and if Indygrrl is reading, low in calories unless you’re eating eleventy) and they come packed in olive oil. It seems like it’s decent quality oil, too, since it’s very green…although that could just be the green of the grape leaves leaching into the oil.
It seems a shame to waste it…can the remaining oil be used for cooking? I thought I might be able to put some in hummus till I remembered that I live by myself and wouldn’t be able to finish it off and I don’t like letting stuff sit in the fridge and rot. Could I use it to marinate fish or grill chicken or should the oil be tossed?
It might contain some water, so not be much good for cooking. The idea of using it in hummus is a good one, and hummus will keep a few days in the refrigerator, so eating it on your own shouldn’t be a problem. You might also be able to use it with lemon juice to make your own salad dressing.
Other obvious idea is Salad Dressing, any flavour from the dolmas should go well with mixed leaves. Maybe go a greek salad. I doubt the oil is really very good quality though unless the dolmas were very expensive, is it listed in the ingredients as virgin olive oil?
I guess hummus/salad dressing it is. I can pawn some of it off on my boyfriend as an appetizer when he comes home later this week.
Incidentally, I just checked and it’s not extra-virgin, just “olive oil” which means the green colouring is from the grape leaves. Also, there’s a lemon slice at the bottom. Finally, the second to last ingredient is listed as “sunflower” oil which means it’s not even pure olive oil (because I doubt the sunflower oil is in the dolmas themselves). Still, I’m sure the dolma bath has a lovely flavour that will go well in the hummus.