Tapenade

To eat an olive is to taste the very essence of Spain. As the world’s largest producer of olives and olive oil, Spain’s culinary contribution to the world is unrivalled, a fact borne out over again whenever the leading chefs of the world are mentioned. There’s no denying it: Spanish cuisine is on trend.

But here in Australia, I’m thinking of how we can adapt Spanish recipes and produce to our table and to our lifestyle. We love great produce but we want ease of preparation. With the summer entertaining season fast approaching, we want to stay out of a hot kitchen and celebrate with brilliant produce, simply served.

It would be impossible to ignore small dishes of marinated and baked olives, served with cool drinks on a warm afternoon. Unless of course, you want to amp up the flavours and provide it all on a bed of crunchy toasts. Tapenade, a piquant blend of olives, olive oil, garlic and herbs, does the job brilliantly.

Makes 2 cups of tapenade

INGREDIENTS

One loaf everyday home-style bread such as sourdough, pane di casa, or ciabatta, un-sliced; ½ cup extra virgin olive oil from Spain; 4 large cloves garlic, peeled.

Olive Tapenade: 2 cups (350g) pitted olives from Spain (I used marinated and baked olives); 6-8 anchovy fillets, drained on some kitchen towel, coarsely chopped; 2 tbsp drained capers; 1 large garlic clove, finely chopped; ½ cup (125 ml) olive oil from Spain, plus a little extra to serve; 2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped, to serve

METHOD

Toasts:

Pre-heat oven to 200ºC.

Slice bread loaf into 2cm thick slices, giving about 16 slices of bread. Lay the bread on a clean bench top and brush olive oil over the bread with a pastry brush. Lay the bread slices in a single layer on a large baking sheet.

Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes and remove them when the tops are golden. Flip the breads over, brush with remaining olive oil and toast in the hot oven for another 5 minutes.

Remove the hot toasts from the oven. Slice the garlic cloves in half, lengthways. Rub one side of the toasts with the cut surface of the garlic and place on a platter. Continue as fast as you can while the toasts are still warm, using up the garlic clove halves as you need them. Discard garlic.

Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C

Tapenade: Place olives, anchovies and capers in the bowl of a small food processor and pulse briefly with an additional 1-2 tbsp of olive oil until blended. With the motor running, gradually pour the remaining olive oil in a thin stream until the paste is smooth and spreadable, about the same thickness as herb pesto.

Spread the tapenade over the hot toasts and place briefly in the oven, until the paste is sizzling. Top with a sprinkling of chopped flat-leaf parsley before serving.

Place the tapenade in a sterilised jar, cover with a spoonful of olive oil to prevent oxidisation, and store in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Chocolate and Olive Oil Mousse

At first glance, this striking combination – chocolate and olive oil from Spain – seems to come straight from the kitchen of a nueva cocina Spanish chef, and yet nothing could be further from the truth. This recipe has its roots firmly in Catalan households when severe food restrictions following the war compelled inventive home cooks to use what they had – a philosophy that speaks straight to my heart.

According to the author of The New Spanish Table, Anya von Bremzen, the story goes that Catalans would melt a small piece of dark chocolate – then prohibitively rationed – spread it on some toast, then sprinkle olive oil from Spain and a pinch of salt for a delicious treat.

A natural extension of this unusual food pairing, this mousse is as pragmatic as it is utterly delicious. Less reliant on dairy, it’s perfect for those who may be lactose-intolerant. The result is an intense eyelid-fluttering flavour, cut perfectly by a judicious sprinkling of sea salt over the top of the silken mousse. Just as in those times of restriction, a little goes a long way and now, presented in pretty glass bowls, makes for a memorable finish to a great meal.

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS

150g dark chocolate with at least 70% cocoa, roughly chopped; 3 eggs, separated; ^2/3 cup icing sugar, sifted; ¼ cup espresso coffee, cooled to room temperature; ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil from Spain; 1 tbsp sea salt flakes, to serve

METHOD

Place the chocolate in a small bowl and heat over a small saucepan of barely simmering water or in a microwave and melt it until smooth. Let it cool for 5 minutes.

Place the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl and beat with electric beaters until you have a smooth paste. Add the coffee mix just to combine, then stir in the melted chocolate. Add the olive oil and mix well. The mixture will be glossy and smooth.

In another large bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff but still a little wet, leaving soft peaks. Using a balloon whisk, gently fold one-third of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and whisk until patches of white disappear. You don’t have to be too careful at this stage, it’s simply to loosen the mixture.

Add the remaining egg whites into the chocolate mixture, but this time, muse a large metal spoon to carefully and gently fold in the mixture until all the patches of egg white disappear.

Gently spoon the mousse into a pretty bowl or individual dessert dishes and refrigerate for at least two hours, until set.

To serve, sprinkle the mousse with a small pinch of sea salt and serve at once before the salt melts into the chocolate.

Thanks to Sandra Reynolds, author of $120 Food Challenge for this week’s guest post making the delights of Spanish cuisine accessible for every home cook. http://120dollarsfoodchallenge.com

Thinking of food in Spain conjures up memories of tapas, cold drinks to quench my thirst from spending hours sightseeing and shopping in the Spanish sun, jamon (Spanish ham) hanging in store windows and exciting food markets. On my last trip to Spain, my hubby and I spent hours tasting delightful traditional tapas which we’d find in a little tapas bar near our hostel or a modern, slick restaurant near La Rambla in Barcelona. I also vividly remember the delicious rotisserie chicken eaten on the balcony of the accommodation we stayed in Tossa de Mar.

I would love to go back to Spain and spend a month or so sampling the diverse range that is Spanish cuisine: from north to south to east to west… A girl can always dream

Thankfully, as consumer palates have evolved, I’m happy to report that back home here in Auckland, there are some great places to enjoy the real flavours of Spain as well as purchase some of their delicious produce.

My blog So D’lish talks about the great food and drink that can be found in New Zealand and I love to try my hand at some of the food that I have tried in my travels overseas. My local European goods store were kind enough to walk me through their selection and share some of their recipes with me. This recipe of Olives and chorizo empanadas is theirs and despite sounding a bit intimidating, it’s very quick and easy to make.

The olives from Spain that I chose, were stuffed with chorizo, which I thought would complement the dish nicely.

Simply put, this recipe just calls for you to cook up some chorizo, chop it up along with some olives, pimientos and put it into some rolled out pastry.

I have some serious holes in my kitchen equipment list – a decent range of cookie and pastry cutters included. I don’t have an 8cm cutter that this recipe calls for, so I went old school and flattened it out by hand. They didn’t turn out perfectly round, but I had fun rolling little balls of pastry, flattening them with my palm then coercing them out into thin circles on my floured bench.

Olives and chorizo empanadas

Makes approx 20

Ingredients

150g chorizo, dry fried and finely chopped
25 stuffed olives (I used chorizo-stuffed olives from Spain), finely chopped
3 tbs roasted, bottled pimiento (or roasted capsicum), finely chopped
400g savoury shortcrust pastry
1 egg, beaten

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 250ºC

2) In a bowl, mix the chorizo, olives and pimientos together

3) Roll out the pastry to about 2mm thick and cut into 8cm rounds. Or as I did, pinch off large marble sized lumps (about 20g), roll into a ball, then flatten with your hand or rolling pin into a circular shape

4) Place 1-2 tsp of the mixture into the middle of each pastry circle. Fold the pastry in half, pressing down firmly around the filling

5) Fold and crimp the edges of the empanadas and rest in the fridge for 15 minutes

6) Place the chilled empanadas on a lightly greased baking tray and brush with the beaten egg

7) Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve immediately with your favourite tomato chutney – preferably one that contains paprika.

ABOUT D’LISH

Andrea Wong runs the food blog So D’lish, which is out to uncover the best of New Zealand’s food and drink and share it with others. She has a passion for discovering what’s new and tasty, and capturing some of its flavour through mouth-watering photos. Andrea is always thinking about food and this is evident by her regular activity on the So D’lish website, Twitter and the Facebook page.

We sat at long benches making deep, guttural slurping noises.

It sounded like a room full of year 10 boys baiting their teacher but our group was much older and hopefully wiser, plus the noises were perfectly correct for tasting olive oil.

You’ve done it for wine, wondering at the complex aromas and the lines of colour as the liquid swirls around the glass.  Now try it with olive oil from Spain, adding a breath while taking the viscous liquid into your mouth to aerate it, release its terroir and explore the variety, climate and region of where it was grown – a little holiday in Spain without the jet lag.

My first experience of olive oil tasting was at a Fine Food Australia exhibition in Sydney courtesy of FIAB (Spanish Federation of Food & Beverage Industries).

Plates filled with wafer thin slices of flavour-filled jamon were passed around the room as we gazed on photos of sunny Spanish hillsides, coated in rich green grass and studded with oak trees.  The happy piggies, almost smiling for the camera, were in blissful ignorance of their role in the production of this exceptional ham as they foraged for acorns.

Then it was onto tasting the superb range of olive oils from Spain, noting the flavour and fragrance, ranging from fruity or apple aromas to peppery notes or the smell of freshly mown grass.

With small cups of olive oil accompanied by small pieces of white bread, we examined the colour of our quarry. It seems that the factors that influence the oil’s colour are the olive variety and its maturity at harvest. The dark, greener oil comes from early-picked olives while riper olives produce oil that is lighter and more yellow. In any case, the colour of the oil is not directly related to its quality. This is why professional tasting glasses are dark blue – it prevents the expert from seeing the colour and hence prevents them being influenced by the colour of the oil.

Our instructions were pause, sniff, and take in the fragrance. The best olive oils have the fresh, fruity aroma of the olive.

Lastly, taste the olive oil, either by dipping a piece of white bread into the oil, or by drawing a teaspoonful of oil quickly into the mouth, mixing it with air with a generous slurp. Between olive oils, refresh the palate with a slice of crisp apple.

My mission is now clear – rather than hoping on a plane, I’m tasting my way through Spain’s regions, olive by olive, oil by oil.

From Andalucía, I’ve been seeking the fruity olive oil that comes from the Picual olive variety with its pleasant grassy, hay-like bitterness. The perfect companion to thick, white-fleshed fish.

Fruity and fresh is the flavour of the Arbequina olives grown in Catalonia, Spain. This olive oil has a pleasant piquancy and the nutty nuances of almonds. It’s just the thing for vegetable or meat marinades where flavours are more subtle.

Grown near Toledo, Cornicabra olives produce a rustic oil, with the flavour-filled tones of fresh, ripe fruit.

Finally south to Córdoba, for Hojiblanca olives and yellow oil tinged with a green and violet, ranging between intense and fruity, and smooth and sweet.

I firmly believe that the rules for food and wine matching also apply to olive oil. You need to find an oil flavour that both appeals to your palate and matches the food. Try your favourite fruity olive oil from Spain in this potato dish and enjoy the flavour with a little Spanish jaunt as an extra bonus – magnífico!

Mashed Potatoes with Extra-Virgin Olive Oil from Spain

The flavours of olive oil from Spain are so wonderfully delightful; you do not need to make an overly complicated dish to allow the flavours to dance on the palate. Keeping it simple allows for the olive oil from Spain to be the hero of the dish!

Makes 8 servings

Fluffy potatoes and fruity olive oil from the Andalucía region is a perfect match. The better the olive oil, the better the flavour.

Ingredients

6 large baking potatoes (2 kilos), peeled, cut crosswise into thirds – choose Coliban, Dutch Creams, King Edward varieties, but any good mashing variety will do.
6 tbs extra-virgin olive oil from Spain
1 extra tbs extra-virgin olive oil from Spain
Chopped fresh parsley to garnish

Method

Put your potatoes in a heavy large pot and cover with cold water. Boil over medium-high heat until potatoes are tender when pierced with fork. This should take about 40 minutes, but keep an eye on the pot to make sure it doesn’t boil dry. Drain and reserve 1 1/2 cups potato cooking liquid, then return the potatoes to the dry pot. Stir over medium heat until any excess liquid evaporates. Add 6 tablespoons of olive oil and mash until smooth. Mix in enough potato cooking liquid as needed to moisten and beat until light and fluffy using a wooden spoon. Season to taste with salt and white pepper if you have it.

You can make this recipe 2 hours ahead and let it stand at room temperature. Rewarm over medium heat, adding more reserved cooking water as needed to moisten.

Transfer potatoes to large bowl. Drizzle with remaining tablespoon olive oil from Spain and serve sprinkled with the parsley.

The flavour of the olive oil will come through in this recipe so make sure choose a good quality olive oil from Spain with a fresh, fruity flavour.

Options: Add 2-3 large cloves of garlic to the water when boiling. For a mellow flavour, remove before mashing. For a stronger garlic flavour, mash with the potatoes.

Brisbane Readers: Hooked by the flavour and aroma of olive oil from Spain?  Immerse yourself in the essence of Spain at Brisbane’s top Spanish restaurants – Ortiga, Moda, Peasant and Ole. Located in Fortitude Valley, Ortiga was nominated as having Australia’s best wine list and was the top Queensland entry in the 2011Australian Gourmet Traveller Awards 100 best restaurants list. Moda in the CBD offers food based on chef/owner Javier Codina’s Catalan roots while Peasant on Petrie Terrace has a strong following for its modern Spanish cuisine. Newest kid on the block, Ole at South Brisbane, offers an excellent selection of tapas.

Thanks to Kerry Heaney, author of Eat, Drink + Be Kerry for this week’s guest post taking you on a delicious tour of Spain without leaving your seat. http://eatdrinkandbekerry.blogspot.com/

Thanks to Anna Fedeles, author of Morsels & Musings, for this week’s guest post featuring delicious stuffed fried olives. www.morselsandmusings.com

Last year I spent a few weeks touring the north of Spain, eating my way through Galicia, the Basque country, Aragon and Catalonia. Despite the unique languages, distinct cultures and proud cuisines of each region, it was clear they all had one thing in common: olives and olive oil.

It’s hard to imagine Spanish food without olives and olive oil, but I was even more surprised when I considered a modern Australian kitchen without them.

These days, no matter what country our relatives came from originally, most of us have incorporated elements of the Mediterranean diet into our daily lives, the most common being olive oil. Drizzled over vegetables, sprinkled on bread or used for frying, olive oil has become an Aussie kitchen essential.

And what of the wonderful fruits that produce the oil? The olive! These wondrous little baubles come in all shapes, sizes and colours. Sweet or bitter flesh, stuffed or brined – I love them!

In the Basque region they used a lot of green olives in their pintxos (snacks) and in the dusty summer landscape of Aragon I lapped up robust sauces made from local black olives.

A trip to Barcelona isn’t complete without wandering through the produce markets, and it’s here the full array of Spain’s olive varieties becomes startlingly apparent. Grazing through stalls of sparkling yellow, green and black jewels, I tried to taste as many types as I could and still barely made a dent.

Now that I’m home, I try to cook dishes that make the memories of that holiday come alive.

A bowl of olives is a great snack to offer visiting pals, but if you’ve got a little time and you want to make something  easy that knocks their socks off, this is the recipe for you.

It’s actually a tapa, which translates to “cover” but actually describes a snack or appetiser (similar to Basque pintxos). The word originates from the piece of bread or meat offered to customers as a cover to keep bugs out of their drinks, but as competition grew and these bites became more elaborate, the wonderful Spanish tradition of tapas was born.  These days there’s an amazing array of tapas to try, and olives feature regularly.

My favourite thing about tapas is that you can drink all night and never get drunk. The constant grazing lines your stomach and allows you to enjoy a myriad of delicacies and drinks without regretting anything the next day. It’s a wonderful invention!

This particular tapa is great in cooler weather, but it’s good enough to eat any time of year.

Just take your preferred variety of stuffed olives (anchovies, cheese, tomatoes, capsicum) cover in a cheesy, spicy batter and fry until crispy.

There’s a dash of beer in the batter, but that’s just a convenient excuse to finish off a cold one while you cook. The chef’s privilege!

Serves these snacks with a crisp white wine, an ice cold beer or a tangy cider, all Spanish of course!

Aceitunas Rellenas Fritas

Anna’s very own recipe. Serves  4 as tapa / appetiser.

Ingredients: 200g large green olives from Spain (I prefer stuffed varieties without pips)

Ingredients:

200g large green olives from Spain (I prefer stuffed varieties without pips)
1½ cups panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
1 tablespoon (20ml) beer
1 tablespoon (20ml) chilli sauce
4 tablespoons (about 50g) grated manchego cheese
2 eggs, beaten
Salt and pepper, to taste
Olive oil from Spain, for deep frying

Method:

1) Mix together the manchego cheese, chilli sauce, eggs and beer. Add salt and pepper.

2) Add 1 cup panko crumbs to the liquid and mix roughly into a paste.

3) Wipe the olives with kitchen paper so their surface is dry, then coat them with the batter paste, forming balls. Set aside to rest.

4) Heat the olive oil until a sprinkle of panko browns in a few seconds.

5) Roll the olive balls in the remaining panko to create a crispy exterior then drop into oil and fry until golden brown.

6) Dust with a smattering of salt and serve hot.

Enjoy!