Sunday, June 19, 2011

Smashed fresh olives: fresh olive tapenade

Last year Italian Safari on TV showed an Adelaide Olive grower making a fresh olive tapenade, so here is my version from the last year of experimenting. Pick your olives, choose red and black with a small quantity of green olives. Spread the olives out on a board, and smash them one by one with the base of a bottle. This splits the olive and you can easily remove the stone.

This is a messy job and great if you have someone to help. You can use an olive pitter - I prefer the smash method.

Toss all the smashed olives into a bowl, rinse them and cover with cold water. Change the water twice a day for 3 - 4 days or until the olives are no longer bitter. Drain the water and squeeze the remaining water from the olives. I do this in either a lettuce spinner or a jam bag, turning the topof the bag until the liquid ceases to run. If you skip this stage, the tapenade is too watery.

Now, toss the dryish olives in olive oil, sprinkle in some maldon salt, and then herbs to taste. Fresh thyme, salt and pepper or what ever takes your fancy - , chopped rosemary, lemon, orange peel, garlic, flavour to your taste, and store in the fridge in glass jar with a lid. Take the tapenade out 30 ins before serving to bring the oil back to room temperature.