winosandfoodies

How to Cure Olives The Easy Way

I've had a few emails asking how I cure my olives. So here is my easy method.

Pick olives from tree.
Poke each olives with a metal skewer a couple of times. This helps release the bitter juices.
Place olives in container, toss in a handful of rock salt and cover with water. Place a plate on top to hold olives under water. The amount of salt will depend on the amount of olives and the size of your hand.  I  average about a cup of  salt to  5 litres of water.
Change water daily and rinse olives returning to a fresh salt and water bath.
Start tasting olives after about two weeks to check on bitterness. When you are happy with the taste of the olives drain the salt water, rinse, shaking of excess water.
Place olives in a clean and sterilised jar.
Tuck in some sprigs of rosemary and lemon peel and cover with olive oil.
Store in a cool dark cupboard until ready to use.
These are great eaten on the own with a nice glass of wine or added to casseroles.

Olives - Free To a Good Home

I have a couple of olive trees laden with olives  ready for harvesting but I lack the energy this year to do it myself .  If you live in Auckland and would like them send me a private email at pinotgrisATgmailDOTcom and they're yours. I can tell you how to cure them if you don't know. 

Truffles - All you want to Know

On my first trip to Paris I came home with four souvenirs. An  Hermés  scarf, a tiny jar of confits from breakfast at the Hotel Negresco  in Nice, a wrapped sugar cube from Musée d'Orsay  restaurant and this tiny tin of truffle pieces.  Despite buying the truffles at great expense I decided not to open them. They would be well past their use by date now.

After reading  The Truffle Book  this week I decided to check the small print on my tin to see if they were the real thing.  Sadly it doesn't list their type. 

The Truffle Book by Gareth Renowden who lives in the South Island of New Zealand has given me an insight into the world of truffles.  Fungi truffles that is, not chocolate truffles. Which incidentally were named after the fungal variety due to their shape.

Who knew there were so many different varieties and they grow in other parts of the world, not just France and Italy?  Even the Chinese are flooding the world with home grown truffles. They are  not up to the standard of the French grown truffle though so be wary.

By the time I was half way into the book I was planning my own little truffle farm, or the correct term truffière.  And not for the money that can be made, although that would be nice. I'd just like to have access to truffles to enjoy when the mood strikes.

On a trip to Paris  we were fortunate to be treated to dinner at La Grande Cascade  by a business contact. I ordered an entrée of white truffle which came stuffed into a pasta parcel and served with a cream sauce.  That was ten years ago and I can still remember how fabulous it tasted.

The Truffle Book is well worth the read if you want to know anything and everything about truffles. It covers everything from the history of the truffle to  how to grow your own. Being a book about food it even includes a few recipes. I particularly enjoyed Gareth's chapter on the fungal feast he enjoyed at restaurant Il Coccio in Italy as part of his research for the book.

Check it out here .

Happy Easter

This cute little angel has been made with beads sent to me by Judy in Adelaide. Thanks Jude.

I hope you all have a Happy Easter and enjoy lots of feasting over the holidays. And may all your Easter egg hunts be successful.

World's Top Restaurants

Restaurant Magazine  have released the list of  what they consider to be the the world's top restaurants.  Read the Sydney Morning Herald article here.  I'm happy to say my beloved Tetsuya's  came in fifth.

Taste on line

The Taste magazine article on food blogs is now on line. Check it out HERE :

The April issue has some terrific recipes so check them out while you are there.