PICKLING OLIVES

(Keywords: pickling olives, olive garden nutrition, olive garden salad dressing, olive oil benefit, olive pate)

I could teach pickling olives to a kindergarten child! SLOW FOOD MADE FAST. The only difficulty arises if you want to bottle them for some distant day - say, for example, if you are growing them, and have half a ton of olives to pickle. For you and me, eating a tin of olives regularly, it takes no more than maybe fifteen minutes from start to finish.

"The flavour of olives is older than that of meat, older than wine; a taste that is old as that of cold water."

- Gerald Durrell.

Olives don't keep indefinitely. Even those preserved in brine, once the can has been exposed to air will become mouldy within a couple weeks. The key is to pickle them in vinegar and olive oil. Different traditions will add different herbs and spices, fruits and vegetables...

An old Italian recipe

This is a potje of Pickling Olives I made this week and hummus, an old perennial favourite of ours. Also known as Chickpea Garbanzo Bean dip. CHICKPEA GARBANZO BEAN DIP ...

INGREDIENTS

1. 500g black olives (with pits, of course, Italians would utterly turn up their noses at pitted olives!).

2. Paprika, 1 green and 1 red, sliced (Bell peppers).

3. A slither or two of chili (some like it hot, include the pips!).

4. A couple sticks of celery, sliced.

5. A half to one clove of garlic, thinly sliced. Tip: Olives have a subtle flavour, easily drowned out by too much garlic.

6. 100ml vinegar.

7. 100ml olive oil (enough to cover the olives).

8. A couple twists of black pepper from your pepper grinder.

9. A pinch of oregano.

PREPARATION

• Drain the olives, thoroughly wash off the brine, we can all do without extra salt, and tip them into a large glass bottle.

• Add the other ingredients.

• Stir, because the olive oil floats on the vinegar. That's it! Child's play.

BOTTLE

"Eet smakelijk" Enjoy!

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TIP

Wash more olives, chop more of the vegetables, and add to the bottle. Top up with more Olive oil and vinegar.

Provided you get all the olives into the Olive oil / vinegar mixture within two weeks all will be well.

An old Greek recipe

INGREDIENTS

1. 1kg (say) black olives

2. Good quality brown Vinegar

3. Olive oil

4. Slices of lemon

5. Slices of celery

PREPARATION

• Carefully wash all the brine off the olives. Be thorough.

• Pour them into a bottle

• Add the lemon and celery

• Let your fancy run wild: Dill, peppers, pickling onions, carrot, garlic (not too much), chili...

• Cover for two days with vinegar. (The longer the more vinegary they are)

• Strain off the vinegar (and immediately start another batch from your large tin using the same vinegar).

• Add enough olive oil to cover the olives.

• Best refrigerate, unless you go through the sterilising bottles routine which I couldn't be bothered with. You can start eating in a few days. We've usually finished the whole 6lbs within a month. Delic.

The Moroccans use orange instead of lemon, all worth trying.

MARK UP @ PICKLING OLIVES

This way they are dirt cheap, I eat at least 20 olives almost every day.

Get started! You may not have a Turkish shop around your corner, like I have in Zuid Rotterdam, where you can buy olives in bulk, but where there's a will there's a way. It's all about good, healthy SLOW FOOD, MADE FAST. Delic, and cheap, so you pig out. Olives contain the healthy MUFAs, Mono Unsaturated Fatty Acids, that are Sooo Gooood for your heart and nerves. Your brain too, it's 60% fat you know. Don't get Alzheimers, think rather olive oil benefits, and eat pickling olives! OLIVE OIL BENEFITS ...

OLIVE PATE