Tag: Cracked olives

VARIOUS WAYS TO PICKLE OLIVES

I always know when it is picking olive season by the number of people looking at the posts on my blog about pickling olives.

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Yesterday there were 162 people looking at How To Pickle Olives, the day before there were 188; I can only assume that these readers are living in the southern parts of Australia and some maybe from New Zealand where olives are in season.

I have written about olives in a number of posts but this one seems to remain the most popular. Rather than write about olives again I will have links to other posts about olives and include a few photos of  how I am processing olives at the moment.

In the photo below the olives in the jar are from my tree on the balcony – slim pickings this year. These small olives have been placed in vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and salt.

In the colanders below are olives that my friend collected from her tree. I have separated them into green olives (unripe) and violet olives.

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I  am making the green olives into cracked olives (Olive Schiacciate).

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The photos explain how it is done. In this process the stone must be removed. Some suggest using a rolling pin. My father used to use a stone or a wooden mallet.  I have placed the olives on my pastry mat and then folded it over. You will need to apply quite a bit of pressure.

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I usually use a meat tenderizer . On this occasion I used a rolling pin and then finished them off with a meat tenderizer – take no prisoners!

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Olives can be very beautiful.

I place the cracked olives in a large jar and cover them with plastic netting to keep the olives submerged.

I will keep on changing the water for about 7 days. The water is quite cloudy and I wonder how much goodness will be left in the water.

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After 7 days the olives are ready. There are not many there.

 

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You can see that I am soaking the black olives in water. I will change the water daily for about 10 days and then place them in brine.

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For  the conventional way to pickle olives, see: HOW TO PICKLE OLIVES

It is also worth reading some of the comments from readers on HOW TO PICKLE OLIVES.

 

It is obvious I like olives. Other posts about olives are:

 SICILIAN GREEN OLIVES, OLIVE SALAD (ULIVI CUNZATE,INSALATA DI OLIVE)

MARINADED OLIVES, OLIVE SALADS, MOROCCAN FLAVOURS

PICKLING SICILIAN OLIVES USING WOOD ASH

CHEAT FOOD (Olive Schacciate Made with Commercially Prepared Olives)

OLIVE FRITTE (LIGHTLY FRIED FRESH BLACK OLIVES)

OLIVE NERE FRITTE (FRIED BLACK PICKLED OLIVES)

TAPENADE

OLIVE PASTES AND OLIVE JAMS

PICKLING OLIVES- More About

 

 

OLIVE SCHIACCIATE (Fresh Cracked Olives)

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I love olives, especially those that still taste slightly bitter.

Many Sicilian recipes also include olives as an ingredient. Whenever a recipe calls for olives I try to include good quality ones, and usually these are not the type of olives sold pickled in jars. And sold at a cheap price. In Australia we seem to have many good quality, black olives, but I often have difficulties purchasing good tasting green olives. Some olives often taste too synthetic and can spoil the taste of the dish.

I am always excited when I find good quality produce and recently I purchased some excellent crushed green olives.

As you can see in the picture, the label does not include much information. The web site listed is Sunraysia Olive Oil Company. Unfortunately this web site is not there and any attempt to find information through google will be about Mildura and environs.

Schiacciate means crushed in Italian. Crushing the olives allows greater penetration of the brine and the olives will be ready to eat in a shorter time. These green kalamata olives that I purchased called Olive King Olives have been processed like schiacciate (not that this information is included on the label), are 100% Australian grown and owned.  The olives are indeed grown and processed in Mildura: they have an excellent texture, are totally free of chemicals and taste amazing. Certainly as good, if not better than the few olives my father used to pickle in this way.

When my father was alive and when my children were very young, my dad used to get them both to help him hit the green olives gently with a brick (or meat mallet or a hammer) without crushing them completely – this was tricky.

Once the olives have been crushed, the olive stones can also be removed – this will hasten the pickling process even more so. The olives need to be placed in salted water for about 10 days (that water needs to be changed twice a day). This process will remove most of the bitterness from the olives; they will still taste slightly bitter, but this is one of their appealing qualities. The olives are then either ready to eat. They need to be drained and dressed with salt, garlic, crushed fennel seeds (or some wild fennel leaves), oregano, olive oil , fresh chilli and a dash of vinegar (optional).  If you wish to keep them for longer, place the olives in clean jars, cover with oil and keep them refrigerated. My father never made sufficient quantities to do this.

I rang the phone numbers included on the label to congratulate them. At this stage it is just a small family business. I wish them well.