Olives (Continued)

Harvesting is fun, it is the reward for you that you have been looking after the plant very well.   This year the olive tree has a lot of fruits.

Rayner was picking up the olives by hands last week, he made sure to pick the dark colour olives, as they are ready to be harvested.  He's delighted that he could fill the basket with 3 kg of olives or more.  There are more green olives on the tree which need more time to turn blackish.
Ideally, it should be finished to harvest before midwinter, we may have to let them go, as the frosting won't be any good for the olives

It has been a good harvest, and I will be busy to preserve the olives, it needs time, and it is also a long process, but at the end, we could enjoy all this lovely home preserved olives.  I could cook fried olives in batter, just like if you have them in Provence, and also marinade olives with herbs and olive oil.  A lot of good cooking and eating to look forward to.

The Kalamata Olives

In previous posts about olives, I baked olive bread and pizza using the preserved olives that I made from the last harvest.
Once you have the basic dough, you could bake the pizza with any topping.  Pizza with olive and anchovies was the pizza that I cooked, and it was good.

Pizza with home preserved olives and anchovies

The olive bread was good too, crusty on the outside and soft in the middle.  By using good strong flour for bread making, it gives you a better result.  I like to knead the dough by hand, I enjoy doing it, it is almost therapeutic and fun, releasing all the tensions that you may have.  But, of course, by all means, do it with an electric mixer or use the bread machine.

Pitted homemade preserved olives, dressed with fresh herbs and olive oil

Olive Bread

Susy's own recipe

Using OO flour, you can get it from any Supermarket
2 cups full OO flour, 2 teaspoons dry yeast, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup warm water and 1 tablespoon olive oil

Mix all ingredients, gather around to make a soft dough

Transfer onto a floured board, knead the dough about 8 minutes
until the dough is elastic, very soft, and shiny.

Put the dough back in the clean bowl, keep it in a warm place
until the dough rises onto doubled in bulk, about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

The dough has risen to double in bulk, it is ready for
the shaping of the bread.

Transfer to the floured board, punch it down and shape for the
olive bread.

Knead lightly, form to a long shape, put some olives and herb
oregano and rosemary.

Roll the dough over, so the olives are underneath the dough, and
add some more olives and herbs.

Roll the dough once more to cover all the olives completely.
Shape the dough for olive bread as you like.

I twist the dough to make the olive bread and keep it in
a warm place to prove for the second round for about
25 minutes.

Now you can organise the oven, get the baking stone ready.  Heat the oven up to 200 degrees C for a fan forced, place the baking stone on a rack, in the middle of the oven.  When the oven is hot reaching up to the heat, put the ready olive bread dough in, and bake for 20 minutes, then reduce to 175 degrees C, and continue cooking for 15 minutes.

Freshly baked olive bread

I put a tray of hot water in the oven as well, so the steam can make the bread to have a better crust.  I think the bread had a good crust, and I was happy enough.

The Olive Bread

It sliced well, we enjoyed the fresh bread as it was, and we sliced more and grilled them for the next day and served with cheese.

Have fun and happy baking.

OLIVES     AND     OLIVES

Thanks For Visiting
Until Next Post
Susy

Roti Kukus

A Childhood Favourite
At last, I have succeeded to cook this 'goodie', roti kukus - steamed sponge cake, one of my childhood favourites.  My mother used to get the cakes from a shop, they were pink, green and chocolate.
It's so delicious, soft and sweet, there are no butter, cream or jam on it, it is a perfect sweet for a tropical place.

Roti Kukus Coklat

I have succeeded, I said: well, it was almost.  No, I don't think I will share the recipe yet, but one day I will.

Steaming the Roti Kukus

Maybe the grandkids will like it as it is sweet and looks beautiful, the pink one is as pretty as a flower. 

Have a Great Week

Until Next Post

Thanks For Stopping By

Susy

Olives

Kalamata Olive. 
Rayner's kalamata olive tree is doing very well this year, and it is almost harvest time.  He cut a few branches of the tree, as they are disturbing the neighbouring plants. I think there are more than five hundred grams of olives on the branches.

After the full harvest, I will do the preserving, and Rayner will tidy up the tree.  He is going to prune and also make the tree into a better shape.

Cooking with olives is something that I don't often do, but I do pizza with olives topping, olive bread, and I like to put some olives on my mixed salads.  I have cooked moist chicken with olives, it is a braised chicken with little fresh tomato and some olives based on Italian dish Polo Umido.  It was very delicious.

Leafy Salad with Ricotta and Olives, it is one of my composed salads, the dressing is effortless, what you need is good olive oil, a dash of lemon juice, and salt to taste.

Leafy Salad with Ricotta Cheese and Kalamata Olives

A good day for baking when outside was so cold and wet, we were happy enough staying in and enjoy the comfortable, warm place.  Ricotta Muffins with Olives were my baking for our hot lunch that day.  I can share the recipe with you.

Savoury Muffins with Ricotta and Olives

The Muffins Recipe

Muffins with Ricotta and Olives

Susy’s Recipe

Makes 6

Ingredients

200 g self-rising- flour

50 g ricotta cheese

¼ cup olive oil

2 eggs

fresh oregano

200 mil milk

2 tablespoons chopped olives

2 sundried tomato, chopped

a pinch of salt

Extra

100 g extra ricotta cheese

Method

1. Prepare 6 muffin tins, buttered and lined.
2. Heat the oven up to 200 degrees C for a fan forced
   
3. Place the main ingredients in a large bowl, and mix them gently but quickly (do not over mix)
4. Spoon onto the muffin tins, a spoon for each tin, take some ricotta of the extra cheese and place a scoop in the middle
5. Add another spoon of the muffin mixture on top to cover the ricotta.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 18 minutes
7. Rest in the tins for five minutes before turning out to cool on a cooling tray

Enjoy

June 2013

In The Backyard
In the vegetable patch, there are lamb lettuce, French sorrel which is doing great, and some herbs which are ready to have a rest.

The potted carrots are growing well and also perpetual lettuce. I did mention it before that this is my first time to plant carrots.  I am curious how it is going to be,  good or not.

Indeed I am pleased with the olive tree, we made the best of the home preserved olives, for my cooking, baking and we are eating from the previous year's harvest.

I baked olive bread from the preserved olive, I will share the recipe as well, stay tuned.

Olive Bread

Have A Good Weekend!


Until Next Post
Thanks For Visiting My Blog
Susy

Nasturtiums

Leafy Nasturtium Plants

In my garden, the nasturtiums are growing beautifully, so lush and green.  They have mixed flowers, yellow, orange, red and also variegated.

Some of the leaves are so broad, very large that make me think to do something interesting in my cooking.

I use the young leaves and flowers to add into my salad, and also for garnishes.

The fresh-raw and young leaves, the taste is rather strong/hot and pungent.  I picked a few of the large leaves, and I poached them to find out if the flavour is the same.  No,  the taste is entirely different,  it becomes mild, almost tasteless.  I thought I could use the leaves for further cooking.

I decided to stuff the leaves as I would do with vine grape leaves.  I believed that my idea was going to work.  The filling was meat, rice and middle eastern spices: cumin, garlic, mint and rosemary.

Stuffed Nasturtium Leaf Rolls.

I made eight stuffed nasturtium leaves.  It's a somewhat fiddly process, the leaves are so delicate to handle, you need patience and time.

A Single Large Nasturtium Leaf 

Beautiful Nasturtium Flowers for Mixed Herbs in A Vase

Nasturtium Flowers as Garnish

Stuffed Nasturtium Leaves

to make 8

Pick sixteen large leaves, scald the leaves in boiling water for a few seconds, transfer them into cold water.  Let them cold completely, and keep the leaves in the water.

Step By Step How To Do

Place 1 tablespoon filling

wrap to enclose the filling

Nasturtium Leaf Roll with The filling

The Rolls are ready for braising

 Place them onto a deep pot, add in chopped sun-dried tomato and fresh tomato, herbs, also 1 cup stock/water,  cover the pot. Cook and braise slowly over low heat for about 45 minutes.

The Braising

chopped sun-dried tomato, fresh tomato, dried herbs and salt for braising

Add 1 cup stock, cover the pot and braise for 45 minutes, until all the liquid is absorbed

Braise for 45 minutes with the lid on.

Bring to a simmer and braise in high heat for 5 minutes

Reduce the heat,  cook to braise over a lower heat until

the liquid is absorbed about 35 minutes.

To Serve

When they are cooked, transfer onto a serving plate and dressed with yoghurt and chilli
Serve hot, with a fresh leafy salad.


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A basket full of mixed herbs 

Freshly Picked Herbs and Nasturtium Flowers

That was my first attempt to cook nasturtium leaves, I am sure the stuffed nasturtium leaf rolls are suitable for deep freezing.  It is an excellent time to prepare now if you have the plants in the garden.  On a cold and wet day like today, you will enjoy the beautiful, hot/warm meal from your kitchen.




Until Next Post
Thank You For Visiting
Susy