Olive Harvest

My friend,Cathryn has an olive tree in her backyard and a damn fine one. So when she invited me to strip the tree bare-with the help of her gorgeous 18 month son Ned- I was there in a minute.

I brought those babies home,cleaned them and packed them in salt. Two months later here they are;

It was a long wait but definatly worth it. They taste salty and buttery.

Aerial view of beautiful black olives..

Here they are doused in Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Will add garlic and chilli then store in jars to give to friends.

Green Olives,Black Olives and Harissa

I've been a busy girl with the above noted items.  A while ago, I blogged about my black olive adventure. After a month or so of those babies being cured in nothing but rock salt, they are done.  I have marinated them in extra virgin olive oil, garlic and chilli.

My green olives, which I cured in brine, were ready last week. They too were marinated in oil,garlic and chilli and are all gone. By God, they were magnificent. I have a pile of green olives at home ready to be transformed and this will happen tonight.

Here's the first batch of green babies-they were deeelicious! All gone now.

I also made some harissa, that magical red,hot sauce that is loved by the Moroccans. It is so fiery that I forgot I had chilli on my fingers and touched my nose. I was in so much pain I thought I'd end up like Ike Turner.*  This will be used sparingly with tagines and other meat dishes. Hot hot hot but good good good!

My goal is to have a stock pile of condiments and tapas-like items ready for use. The basil is coming to an end so I think I'll be stripping every last leaf and making a big batch of pesto for our use- if it lasts that long.

Have been watching Masterchef. There is  no way I could be part of that show as the stress would kill me. I could never cook that way which is why I could never become a chef. I like to noony noo around the kitchen not burn around it like Fernando Alonso. I'm definatly a fan of the slow food movement!


*It is alleged that Ike Turner tooted so much cocaine in his life that his septum eroded. Tried to find a picture but couldn't. I would imagine it would look hideous and I wouldn't want to put you off all this delicious food.

Prez-erved Olives

Okay, I know I said I'd make something for Lester 'Prez' Young but I couldn't help the cheesy pun title. Forgiven?

On Saturday afternoon, I cycled around the corner to an olive tree that Sarah had discovered and told me was 'laden' with fruit. I took my back pack, a large plastic shopping bag and a regular supermarket plastic bag. Either her version of laden is a few olives or someone got there first. Thankfully, there were two trees and it got me about 1.5 kilos of black olives. I took those babies home and preserved them.

Here's how things went:

First, wash your olives under cold water and drain.

Look how purdy these babies are. Organic too!

You'll need some rock salt - I used a 2 kilo bag

 Cover your olives well. Try to do it in layers

The salt will break down the bitter juice in the olives. Make sure you

have a bowl under your strainer (you can also use a cane basket) to catch the juices.

Cover the olives with a clean cloth or tea towel and store in an out of the way place. I have a walk-in pantry and they are living on the bottom shelf. Give your olives a shake at least twice a week and drain out any of the run off from them. In about four to six weeks, they should be ready.  Watch this space for part two when I make the olive oil/chilli/garlic marinade in which to store them in.

Cost thus far; $3.00 for the salt. Olives were a donation from Mother Nature.... hmmm.