Monday, March 11, 2013

Curado de olivas y sus aceites

Curing olives
Green ripe olives:

Lye treated green olives - This recipe courtesy U.C. Davis publications
A. Lye treatment - lye can be purchased at hardware stores. Don't use an aluminum pot or it will leach out the zinc
- Soak 12 hours in lye solution - 4 tablespoons lye in 1 gallon cold water. (Solution should not be over 64 to 70 F before adding olives.) stir occasionally.
- Drain, and soak 12 more hours in fresh lye solution. Cut into a large olive - lye will change the flesh to a yellow-green, penetrating to the pit.
- If the lye has not penetrated to the pit, soak an additional 12 hours in a fresh lye solution.
B. Rinse
- Rinse in cold water
- Soak 6 hours in fresh, cold water.
- Change the water and soak 6 hours in fresh cold water, repeating four times a day for 4-8 days, until there is no lye taste
C. Preservation
To keep up to 2 weeks:
Brine cure l. Cover with salt brine - 6 tablespoons salt per gallon of water. Let stand 2 days. Refrigerate and use within 2 weeks.
To keep longer than 2 weeks:
Brine cure ll.
Step 1. Cover with salt brine - 13 tablespoons salt per gallon of water. Store 1 week.
Step 2. Cover with fresh salt brine - 1 pound or 1 2/3 cups salt per gallon of water. Store in a cool place, preferably a refrigerator. Use    within 2-4 months. Before eating, soak olives overnight to remove excess salt. Use with 3 days after soaking.
Pickling. Prepare a vinegar-water solution - equal parts vinegar and water. Add salt to the vinegar-water solution: ½ to 1-cup salt per gallon - do not omit salt as it prevents bacterial growth. Add garlic an spices if desired. Cover tightly and store at room temperature. Good for 4-5 months at room temperature or 10-12 months in the refrigerator.
Stan's Green Olives (and half ripe ones)
Any variety - Collect olives by hand in a clean plastic bucket to
prevent bruising.
Day 1 Wash in running water. Add boiling hot water and allow to soak for 24 hours.
Day 2 Pour off cold water add more boiling water
Day 3 Pour off cold water add more boiling water
Day 4 Pour off cold water. Place the olives into clean jars. add a mixture of brine and white (or any other type) vinegar in the proportions of 3 to 1 by volume

Brine = 10%w/v salt in water that is 100grams/litre of final solution

Fill jars well and add a layer of olive oil.

We eat the olives by both methods after one week. When the olives are at
their most tastiest they have all gone!

courtesy Prof Stan Kailis, University of Western Australia, Perth WA

Some web sites with green olive recipes:
bullethttp://www.volcano.net/~dkglomski/olive1.html

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Oil Cured Greek Style Olives

This is one of several recipes from U.C. Davis publication 2758 - Home Pickling of Olives.  Go to "Books" for ordering information
It is usually best to prepare Greek-style olives from mature olives that are dark-red to black. Mission olives are commonly used, but any variety will do. Use smaller olives because larger ones get soft. The olives will become shriveled since they are salt cured. These olives are salty and slightly bitter, and you may have to acquire a taste for them.
How To Prepare
Cover the bottom of a wooden box with burlap. Weigh out 1 pound of salt for each 2 pounds of olives. Mix the salt and olives well in the box to prevent mold from developing. Pour a layer of salt over the olives to a depth of 1 inch. CAUTION Place the box outdoors so that the brine formed will not ruin the floor.
After 1 week, pour olives and salt into another box, then back into the first box to mix them. Repeat this mixing process once every 3 days until the olives are cured and edible. This usually takes about 30 to 35 days.
Sift out most of the salt through a screen. Dip the olives momentarily in boiling water. Drain. Let them dry overnight.
Add 1 pound of salt to each 10 pounds of olives. Mix and put the olives in a cool place. Use within 1 month, or store in a refrigerator or home freezer until used. Just before using, coat the olives with olive oil. Do not use oil if you plan to use the olives for cooking. To coat with oil, put them in a large pan or box and sprinkle a little olive oil over them. Work the olives with your hands to coat them with oil. This type of olive is useful for flavoring stews, tamale pie, spaghetti, and as a relish eaten out-of-hand.
Stan's Black Olives
Day 1 Wash in running water. Place in flat trays (large surface area)
or plastic ice cream containers. Add boiling hot water and allow to soak for 24 hours.
Day 2 Remove cold water and add dry salt
Day 3 Onwards - mix well and keep adding dry salt
After about a week water comes out of the olives - pour off
Total salt = about 15% OF THE OLIVE WEIGHT IE 150 To 200 grams
Test - wash salt off olive and taste. When the salt has penetrate into the olive, wash off salt and add olive oil.
Prof Stan Kailis, University of Western Australia, Perth WA

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Flavored Oils
Our friend Tony Pennisi at Big Paw Grub makes some excellent infused oils using dried wild herbs. He says that the intensity of the flavor varies with the season, whether the herbs are wild or domestic, how the local growing conditions have been, etc. etc. It takes a lot of trial and error. Its more art than science and the people who are good at it are reluctant to share their trade secrets. The oil will pick up the flavor fairly quickly, in the first few weeks, and then slowly intensify. Its OK to leave the herbs in for a long time, eventually all the flavor leaves the herbs and the oil flavor stabilizes. Most oil sellers keep it simple and use one herb at a time. I have seen smoke flavoring added to an herb or peppers added to any one of the herbs. When mixing herbs, think salad dressing. Look at some recipes for dressing and substitute the dried herbs for any fresh herbs called for in the recipe. A dipping blend is like an Italian dressing with much more oil than vinegar.
Flavored olive oils and dressings make great gifts but watch out; there are safe and unsafe ways to make flavored olive oil.  The unsafe way is to put anything in the oil that contains water.  That would include garlic, lemon peel, fresh peppers, fresh herbs and spices.  The oil will not support bacterial growth but the water containing herbs will.  Botulism bacteria can grow in this type of environment. There are several ways to get around this
1. Mix all the ingredients, refrigerate them and use them within a weekThis is the best way if you are using fresh ingredients such as fresh basil, fresh rosemary or garlic.
Garlic: ideal for adding to pasta dishes, then top with a little grated dry cheese. Fill a decorative 1-litre bottle with extra virgin olive oil. Add a clean head of garlic (whole if desired), and leave to marinade for a few days.
2. Preserve the added ingredients:
Maybe you have seen garlic or herbs mixed with oil.  The way it is done commercially is to first preserve the water-containing garlic, herb, etc.  with a strong brine or vinegar solution, then put it in the oil.  The vinegar solutions used commercially are up to 4 times stronger than the vinegars you find in the supermarket. You can find them at commercial food supply outlets. Many of the herb mixes have both salt and vinegar which both prevent bacterial growth.  You could use one of the olive pickling solutions listed above. Commercial vinaigrettes and sauces also have chemical preservatives not usually available to the home cook.
3.  Dry the herbs to remove all water, leaving the essential oils:
This can be done with a food dehydrator or just by leaving in the sun.  Then add the spices and herbs.  Whole sprigs of thyme, rosemary, dried peppers, etc. can decorate the inside of the bottle this way. 
4.  Press the olives with the spices
Putting lemon, garlic, etc. in the olive press with the olives is the safest way to flavor oil.  You must have your own olive press (See First Press), or take it to a commercial press.  The oils from the added ingredients mingle with the olive oil and the watery part of the spices are removed along with the olive water.  You could add essential spice oils to the olive oil to achieve the same effect. 
Check out our bottle selection for home cooks who want beautiful containers for their gift oil,  dressing or vinegar.   We also sell bulk oil for your private labeling
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Baking with Olive Oil
Recipe Links

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