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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2017 16:48:59 GMT -5
Balsamic-dressed cucumber with olives  serves 6 Balsamic-dressed cucumber with olives Ingredients 2 cucumbers 10 black olives , stone in OR PITTED 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 3 spring onions extra virgin olive oil ½ a lemon freshly ground black pepper 5 or 6 sprigs of fresh mint OPTIONAL: ½ a fresh red chilli Method 1. Run a fork down the length of the cucumber until it’s stripy all over. 2. On a chopping board, use a knife to chop off the ends. 3. Carefully cut them in half across the middle, then in half lengthways. 4. Use a teaspoon to gently scoop out and discard the seeds. 5. Chop the cucumber up into 1cm chunks and place in a mixing bowl. 6. Place the olives on a chopping board, squash them with the heel of your hand, pull out and discard the stones, then roughly chop them and add them to the bowl. 7. Trim and finely slice the spring onions and add them to the bowl. 8. Add the balsamic vinegar and 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. 9. Squeeze in the juice of ½ a lemon, using your fingers to catch any pips. 10. Sprinkle over a pinch of black pepper. 11. Pick and tear over the mint leaves, toss everything together, then serve www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/balsamic-dressed-cucumber-with-olives/He has some great ideas |
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Post by Clipper on Feb 10, 2017 10:45:01 GMT -5
I tried it last night Alan. It was delish. I don't care for mint so I eliminated the mint, but I loved the rest of the salad. I used Kalamata olives. They are my favorite. I used them almost daily in salads. I miss being able to buy a wide variety of olives in bulk at Price Chopper. We are very limited here and the only olives we find are the canned black olives, jarred green olives with pimento or garlic stuffed, and the Kalamata olives in a jar. I love olives so I added a few extra to the mix. I just happened to have some very nice, flavorful EVOO that I recently purchased at a store in Johnson City Tn that is dedicated specifically to all sorts of imported olive oils. It wasn't the most expensive oil in the store, but it cost $12 for a pint of it, and it is very tasty compared to the usual supermarket olive oil that is usually adulterated and cut with other oils. I don't use the $12 oil for cooking. Thus far I have used it exclusively for salads or drizzled on bread. What a difference between that oil and the run of the mill supermarket oil. The flavor really pops and adds to the flavor of the salad. My next investment may be to spend a few more bucks and buy a quality, truly aged, balsamic vinegar, rather than the moderately priced, higher end supermarket selections. I was browsing in a gourmet food store in an outlet mall in Charlotte NC a few years back, and they had balsamic vinegar that was up into the hundreds for a pint bottle. I would consider spending 15 or 20 bucks a pint to be a reasonable price, and would hope to find the vinegar to be a step up from the supermarket variety.
Do you use a high quality, imported balsamic vinegar Alan? I know that you have good olive oil available in that area and East Coast Olive Oil company located right their local. We have a limited availability of such things in this area. Gourmet cooking here seems to be using high quality locally ground cornmeal to make your cornbread to accompany a pot of beans cooked with a smoked ham hock, lol.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2017 10:48:09 GMT -5
I'm not a huge liker of balsamic vinegar but I buy the bottle at Walmart for $1.97!
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Post by Clipper on Feb 10, 2017 11:30:26 GMT -5
That is pretty much the norm for most people. I also use that sort of balsamic most of the time. I guess it is not really aged, and the color is provided by a caramel base. I would love to simply taste a REAL high quality, long aged, product just once. Maybe we can purchase some of the cheap stuff, put it in a wooden cask and set it aside for 25 or 50 years. Do you have room for the cask in your bedroom closet? I will split the cost of the barrel and the vinegar with ya, hahaha. The only factor that makes that rather impossible to accomplish is that neither you nor I are likely to still be around to taste the product after 50 yrs. Heck, in 25 yrs we may not be here and if we are, we may not remember what the hell we put in that barrel in your closet.  |
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Post by kit on Feb 10, 2017 13:01:00 GMT -5
California Olive Ranch has several varieties of very good olive oils, and they post the 'harvest date' on each bottle. Arbequina is a very nice EVOO. Some of the imported olive oils are just blends of inferior oils from various countries and are often old from hanging around waiting to be sold. Give the California Olive Ranch brand a try. Remember, you get what you pay for.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2017 17:25:00 GMT -5
California Olive Ranch has several varieties of very good olive oils, and they post the 'harvest date' on each bottle. Arbequina is a very nice EVOO. Some of the imported olive oils are just blends of inferior oils from various countries and are often old from hanging around waiting to be sold. Give the California Olive Ranch brand a try. Remember, you get what you pay for. I use that brand. But I cannot find one labeled Arbequina . |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2017 17:28:56 GMT -5
That is pretty much the norm for most people. I also use that sort of balsamic most of the time. I guess it is not really aged, and the color is provided by a caramel base. I would love to simply taste a REAL high quality, long aged, product just once. Maybe we can purchase some of the cheap stuff, put it in a wooden cask and set it aside for 25 or 50 years. Do you have room for the cask in your bedroom closet? I will split the cost of the barrel and the vinegar with ya, hahaha. The only factor that makes that rather impossible to accomplish is that neither you nor I are likely to still be around to taste the product after 50 yrs. Heck, in 25 yrs we may not be here and if we are, we may not remember what the hell we put in that barrel in your closet. I brew my own wine in the bedroom. I have tasted the high quality balsamic ever strawberries and it is delicious. I watched a cooking program on TV a while back and you can gently heat a bottle of a lower quality balsamic until it gets very syrupy. |
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Post by kit on Feb 11, 2017 7:16:46 GMT -5
'Arbequina' isn't a brand. It's one of the types of EVOO in the California Olive Ranch line. They have several oils that are slightly different. Arbequina is available at both Price Chopper and Hannaford. I'm currently using their 'Rich and Robust' oil for both cooking and in salads which I like very much.
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Post by Clipper on Feb 11, 2017 9:35:58 GMT -5
I presently have a bottle of an oil labeled "Olivio" that is bottled and distributed by a company in Boston. That is the bottle I was using before I purchased the higher grade oil from the olive oil specialty store. We are using the remainder of that oil for cooking and saving the good oil for salads and "drizzling." Unfortunately I no longer have the bottle for the higher grade oil because Kathy poured the remaining quantity into a cruet that sits on our kitchen counter beside it's matching cruet of Cora brand, run of the mill, red wine vinegar.
Last night for dinner, we halved some fresh Brussels sprouts, drizzled a little of the good olive oil on them, sprinkled them with a bit of dried rosemary, and roasted them at 400 degrees until they were brown and getting crispy around the edges. ( think she roasted them for about a half hour or so) When they were done, she immediately sprinkled them with freshly grated Parmesan before putting them on the table. I sprinkled just a few drops of balsamic on them on my plate.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2017 10:17:46 GMT -5
'Arbequina' isn't a brand. It's one of the types of EVOO in the California Olive Ranch line. They have several oils that are slightly different. Arbequina is available at both Price Chopper and Hannaford. I'm currently using their 'Rich and Robust' oil for both cooking and in salads which I like very much. LOL. Thanks. That is what I have been using too. |
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