Category: olives

Categories
food olives

what’s new in june?

The answer to the question you never asked: what have I been up to lately? Well let me tell you…

On the bounce, here’s three good meals out I’ve had lately:

For the second year running I attended the Olive it! young chef competition. Catering students compete to win kitchen equipment and a stage in Omar Alibhoy’s restaurant. The catch is all courses must feature olives. I was on the table of Westminster Kingsway college’s pupil, 18 year old Kieran.

olive it uk 2015

It was a stunning menu of venison tartare & olives with sharp apple sauce, roast monkfish with olive reduction, and a candied olive cake with bitter chocolate sorbet. I was blown away with the taste, presentation and invention and blow me down if he didn’t win the whole thing. There’s a bright future ahead for this one.

I also had the pleaseure of dining at Hakkasan on Hanway place. It’s a modern Cantonese restaurant surprisingly set up by the same guy that dreamed up Wagamama. You descend from just off Tottenham Court Road into a darkened basement with moody lighting. Here’s some of the things we ate:

We ate loads: from sticky dim sum to spicy cod, but my favourite was the black pepper and merlot stir fry rib eye which was brilliant. It’s expensive but an excellent meal for a treat.

Just one more decent meal was Sticks ‘n Sushi. I work in Canary Wharf and recently they’ve opened the Crossrail Place. It’s Japan via Denmark, specialising in sushi platters and grilled kebabs. I had the “Mixed Emotions” which showcases it perfectly: nigiri, yakitori and more besides, rounded out with edamame and rice. I’d go back for the tsukune chicken meatballs alone!

Image copyright Barbers1833.co.uk

I’ve been sampling some Barber 1833 Vintage Reserve Cheddar. It’s a poky cheese with lots of character. The texture is smooth but there’s the odd crisp flake that’s really satisfying. I’ve been using it plain grated in a sandwich or jacket potato, and also melting it through cheese scones and breads. It’s a very tasty cheese and one I’ll keep a lookout for.

I’ve been enjoying the recipes on this Buzzfeed list by Christine Byrne and Teri Tsang Barrett. It has the kernel of an idea I’m a fan of: creating a shopping list that expands across multiple dishes in the repertoire. I’ve made a few of them already and not only is it a canny way to shop but the recipes themselves are really tasty – try the Asian chicken salad!

I’ve never had much success with fudge. That is until I tried Ren Behan’s recipe over on JamieOliver.com.

This is the one! Crumbly and buttery, with flecks of vanilla and salt throughout. It’s outstanding, go and try it out and watch a whole plate of fudge disappear in minutes.

Finally, I’ve really been enjoying the return of Ainsley Harriott to our telly screens. His new show, Ainsley’s Street Food, follows him around the world sniffing in markets and bothering back streets in search of local treats. He covers Turkey, the Caribbean and more. It’s so much fun to have him back on TV, as ever bursting with enthusiasm, honesty and good humour. Check it out!

Categories
bread food olives pesto salami

pesto, salami and black olive tear and share bread

Somewhat inspired by recent challenges on Great British Bake Off, I thought about making some tear and share bread. When left to my own devices things often take a Mediterranean direction. I’d not tried tear and share (or pull-apart to my American friends) before so started with a basic bread recipe and moved out from there.

I was off round a friend’s so though about taking some nice savoury bread with me. (As it turned out he cancelled so poor old me, I had to eat the whole thing myself.)

I started with a standard yeast dough, no surprises here.

Left to rise until doubled…

Folded in my deli ingredients and shaped. I made the swirls first (just a sausage shape wrapped around itself – I’ve been making my daughter’s hair into a bun lately so it kinda reminded me of shaping that). The leftover dough was left as a round roll in the centre.

And whaddya know, it turned out great.

I’ll definitely be making variations on this tear and share recipe again. PS. I was making mine ready for about 8 people so made a fairly large one (about 30 cm across!), so do scale up / down your ingredients as required.

Print

pesto, salami and black olive tear and share bread

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 750 g bread flour
  • 2 x 7 g sachets yeast
  • 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
  • 5 slices salami diced
  • 12 black olives halved
  • 100 g green pesto I like Sacla'

Instructions

  • In x warm water add the yeast and sugar, whisk lightly to combine and leave while you get the dried stuff ready.
  • Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Make a well and add half the yeasty water. Combine well then keep adding water until everything in the bowl comes together. Turn out on a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes into a smooth, pliable dough. Cover and leave in a warm place to rise for about 45 minutes.
  • After this time, knock it back and incorporate the herbs, salami and olives. Divide the dough into 6 pieces. Take one piece and roll it into a sausage shape. Spread this on one side with some of the pesto (like toast), then twist the dough into a spiral shape. Repeat for 4 more of the pieces, and leave the sixth as a smooth ball. Arrange on your baking tray and leave to prove for an hour.
  • Preheat the oven to 180C. Bake for 25 - 35 minutes, until the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Because the bread is an irregular shape, you should check all over the bread, and it's probably a good idea to rotate the loaf 180 degrees mid-bake to keep it even.

Want more bread recipes?

Try my tiger bread

Or for a special occasion, Heston-inspired mushroom parfait and walnut bread

My Custard Pie’s courgette loaf looks like a right treat

Something sweeter? Try Utterlyscrummy’s cinnamon pull-apart bread

Perhaps a more recognisable deli-topped bread? Check out Greedy Gourmet’s artichoke and sun-dried tomato pizza

Categories
chilli dates food olives orange pine nuts

olives with dates, orange and chilli

When someone says “can you do something with these olives?” I don’ t need asking twice. Their bittersweet bite and salty character give me lots to work with, and I’ll happily eat them every day of the week. Olives from Spain have asked me to come up with a marinade or two, and this is my favourite creation.

The filling is inspired by ma’amoul, a date-filled cookie from the middle east. It is heavy with dates and nuts, although I went for pine nuts here as opposed to the standard walnuts. Just to make sure we knew we’re on savoury territory, red wine vinegar and chilli keep it on track. It’s sweet, spicy, savoury, and surprising.

The quantities below will make a portion of the marinade base. You can then blend a part of it with olive oil to make a loose drizzle. The rest can make further olive mix, or be spread over white meats before grilling or roasting.

Olives with dates, orange and chilli:

4 Medjool dates, stoned

A large pinch of chilli flakes

1 teaspoon pine nuts

Zest of half an orange

Maldon sea salt

Red wine vinegar

Spanish extra virgin olive oil

Spanish green olives

  1. Put the dates, chilli, pine nuts, orange and a pinch of sea salt in a food processor and whizz to a paste. Add a squirt of orange juice, a big splash of olive oil and a dash of red wine vinegar. Mix a little more and then taste. You will have to find a good balance of spicy, sharp and sweet with the chilli, vinegar and orange.
  2. To make the marinade, put a tablespoon of the mixture into a small bowl and blend with a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the olives and macerate uncovered for an hour before eating. Garnish with fresh pine nuts.
Categories
food lemon olives pork

lemon and black pepper olive pork

My family can’t get enough of olives. So when Olives from Spain sent me a bunch of ingredients to try to create a marinade for olives I set to it right away. There was an almost embarrassing selection of things to try, but I kept going back to, of all things, the lemon. Paired with it’s old friend, black pepper and just a hint of clove to reinforce the spice this works lovely with fatty pork. If you try it, make sure the sugar is on hand to help round out the flavours.

Lemon and black pepper pork steaks (serves 2):

Zest and juice of ½ a lemon

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

Pinch of sugar

About 10 Spanish black olives, halved

1 clove

2 pork shoulder steaks

  1. Put the lemon, sugar and peppercorns in a pestle and mortar and crush lightly so the peppercorns are coarse. Mix well with the olives and clove and taste – depending on your olives you may need a pinch of salt and / or sugar to balance it out. Add a dash of olive oil and leave to stand for an hour uncovered.
  2. Heat a griddle pan to pretty darn hot and the oven on to 200°C. Lay your pork steaks on a chopping board and slice most of the way through horizontally, so you have a meaty book. Discarding the clove, stuff the pork with the olive mix, press down firmly with your hand and add a pinch of salt to the surface of the pork. Put on to the hot griddle.
  3. After 4 minutes one side should be cooked, so turn over and put into the oven. After 8 minutes turn the oven off and leave for a further 5 minutes, then serve. Great with potato gratin and some greens.
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