14 Jan

Foccacia with olives

It is Sunday morning, and my time to recover some energy after a busy week. I have several ways to recover.
Terje, Marta and cousin Mathilde are out cross country skiing, yes we’ve finally got enough snow for that.
I could have gone with them, but decided to use the opportunity to enjoy a quiet house. I have an opera playing, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, I am making a cream cake for a party in the afternoon, and I have just taken a foccacia with olives out of the oven.
The nice smell is filling the house.For the foccacia I used the same recipe as I gave you a few days ago, Foccacia Dolca con Mandorle, but instead of sprinkling the dough with sugar before baking, I used a small glass of marinated olives.
A rich foccacia doesn’t need anything else, but taste the best eaten plain, still hot from the oven.

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14 Jan

Pesto and Olives

I knew there was going to be a dinner – but had given no thought as to what it was going to be. I still knew that there was going to be a dinner because there is always a dinner.

There was a knock. It was at the door. The dog barked. He does that when there is knocking at the door. It was the neighbor from beyond the camellia hedge, bearing gifts of pesto and olives. Ah, I said ‘Pesto and olives, thank you’. I said a lot of other things too – but not relevant to the pesto and olives. The previous evening the neighbor from behind the camellia hedge and his wife had hosted our regular neighborhood catch up – always an excuse to open a few bottles of wine and share food with friends and neighbors. The pesto and olives were left unconsumed – and I was the lucky benefactor!

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14 Jan

Parsley salad with olives, capers and mint

By Skye Gyngell,

Serves 4

  • 2 generous handfuls flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 medium bunch of mint
  • 30ml/1fl oz extra-virgin olive oil
  • 10ml/1/2fl oz red-wine vinegar
  • 50g/2oz good-quality capers (preferably preserved in salt)
  • 60g/21/2oz good-quality black olives such as Ligurian or Niçoise

Rinse the capers well in several changes of water, chop and set aside. Chop the olives and set aside. Rinse the parsley and mint and dry.

Make the dressing by placing the vinegar in a bowl, season and whisk in the olive oil. To serve, place the parsley and mint in a bowl, scatter over the olives and capers, pour over the dressing and toss.

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14 Jan

Drum fish with Syrian olives

ingredients:
4 fillets of drum fish
salt and freshly ground black pepper
oil for frying

coating:
1 cup Syrian green olives pitted and crushed
2 thick bread slices without crust
1/3 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic crushed

Season fish. In a heavy skillet heat oil well and fry fish very briefly, skin side first and turn over to fry other side. Combine all coating ingredients in food processor. Use pulses to leave it coarse. Put fish, skin side down, in a baking dish greased with olive oil. Coat with olive mixture. Bake 10 minutes at medium heat in a preheated oven. Serve with lemon quarters.

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13 Jan

All about olive oil

What is olive oil?
Fruity, peppery oil made from crushed olives. The first pressing, called extra virgin, is generally the most expensive; pure is the next, less pricey oil. Light or extra light is filtered to produce a milder flavor, but the fat and calories remain the same.

Why it’s healthy?
Full of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats. 10 grams per tablespoon, which lower “bad” LDL cholesterol and raise “good” HDL cholesterol, and polyphenol antioxidants, which fight cancer and heart disease.

How to buy?
Choose a size you’ll use within two months. As the container empties, it fills with oxygen; the oil starts to oxidize, or deteriorate, and eventually tastes stale. Opt for dark glass; it protects the oil from light, another source of flavor-sapping oxidation.

Insider advice: Store opened bottles in a dark, cool place, such as the back of a pantry or your fridge. Though oil stored in your refrigerator may cloud, it will clear at room temperature.

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