Herbed Olives

French Fridays with Dorie Haiku Catch-Up

Herbed Olives

Olives are one of those foods I did not appreciate until later in life.   And by “later in life” I mean just a few months ago. Weird, huh?  One day I didn’t like ’em, the next I did.  Just like that. I’ve heard that our tastes buds will evolve over time for certain flavors but waiting half a century to enjoy the taste of olives seems a little ridiculous to me.

I would eschew the whole pizza if it had even the slightest hint of an errant black olive.   When restaurants started getting too clever and offered tapenade with their bread baskets  I would push it away and request butter instead.  Or olive oil.  Olive oil was always an exception to my rule.  (And ironically, pissaladiere, where my love of anchovies was strong enough to win the tastebud war with my dislike of olives.)

Then I discovered the olive bars at fancy markets.  Here the olives are inspired.  Whereas the olives I had been rejecting all years were overly salty and one dimensional, these olives are layered with all manner of interesting stuffings and aromatics.  I think it took 3 attempts before I realized how perfectly they pair with a cocktail or glass of wine while dinner is getting ready.

Whats more, I enjoy the ritual of selecting a small amount each week to serve as cocktail fodder for as long as they last.   (My favorites are the ones stuffed with blue cheese.) These olive bar olives are nothing like their canned counterparts.

Herbed Olives

Herbed Olives

These were very easy to make.  Warmed aromatics such as like coriander seeds, fennel seeds, and black peppercorns are added to garlic, lemon peel, and dried peppers to infuse an olive oil that is warmed and poured over the olives.   A lengthy maceration finishes the job and makes a perfectly lovely olive.

I’m sure I will never make these again, however.  Its just too much fun sifting through the olive merchant’s selection.

French Friday’s with Dorie Haiku Catch-Up

Seeing as how today is a day for leftovers I thought I would serve you up some of my French Friday with Dorie leftovers.    Here are some dishes I was able to cook up along with the group but couldn’t seem to get ready on time for prime time on an actual Friday.

Top Secret Chocolate Mousse
Recipe posted here.

Top Secret Chocolate Mousse

Secret agent mousse
worst secret in all Paris
just uncooked soufflé.

Wasn’t the secret
something else entirely:
that you used raw egg?

Mushroom and Shallot Quiche

Mushroom and Shallot Quiche

Just another quiche
but this one tastes fantastic
cooked by a real man

 


Chicken Tagine with Sweet Potatoes and Prunes
Recipe found here.

Chicken Tagine with Sweet Potatoes and Prunes

Oh Moroccan stews!
My favorite things to eat
but not photograph

 

“Herbed Olives” was this week’s assignment for French Friday’s with Dorie, a cooking group working its way through Dorie Greenspan’s culinary tome “Around My French Table”. Generally we are discouraged from including the recipes in our posts. Wherever there has been significant adaptation by me or where the recipe has already been publicly posted by Ms. Greenspan or her publishers I will either include it here or provide a direct link. Please also feel free to contact me via the link provided on my page if you need any assistance finding French Friday with Dorie Recipes.

Bomb+End+of+Post4

About Trevor Kensey

I don't know what “Sis. Boom. [blog!]" means either. But, if a post makes even a small 'boom' in your day, I would be happy. Please don't call me a "foodie", or even a food blogger. I prefer "food raconteur" thank you very much.
Each bite tells a story...

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  1. Olives, quiche, mousse
    Let’s not forget the tagine
    Handcrafted, supreme?

    Olives, a new love?
    Blows my olive-loving mind.
    Great with glass of wine!

    Have a great weekend.

  2. I’m not even going to attempt a Haiku…but so glad you and Cher are here to entertain me! I’m with you on the olive bars…even though I loved the olives of my childhood, the fancy, schmancy gourmet ones are SO much better. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

  3. Well, good timing that you started to like olives shortly before they showed up on the FFwD roster. Blue cheese stuffed olives are my favorites too. Especially tasty in martinis.

  4. Life without olives?
    It’s not a life worth living!
    Olive wonderland

    Impressed you posted!
    I feel too bloated to think
    So what else is new?

  5. I agree with Liz. What are those olive bars I keep reading about? For now I must go on making my own marinated olives, not that I mind. Love the way your quiche looks Trevor! That´s certainly a catch-up. Have a great weekend!

  6. I love seeing all your beautifully photographed and delicious dishes from French Fridays all in one post- reminds me of how many wonderful recipes we’ve tried in AMFT this year. I served the mini goat cheese puffs, sweet & spicy nuts and the herbed olives for apps before Thanksgiving yesterday. Cooking along with the FFWD group has been a fun project and we’ve been eating pretty well if I don’t say so myself!

  7. Wow, you have been busy. Everything looks perfect and I am glad you are enjoying the
    olives now, they look so perfect in that mason jar. Happy weekend.

  8. Beautiful catch up post! I’m haiku-less in my response this week, but nonetheless impressed with your catch up post – gorgeous photos. I hope you’re having a lovely long weekend!

  9. NICE one Trevor 🙂

  10. I like the holiday header. I can’t believe you’ve just started to enjoy olives, but fortunately you know how good they are now! I’ve never seen blue cheese stuffed olives, but I’d like to try those.

  11. What a fantastic smorgasbord of food!
    The olives look and sound amazing, I can’t wait to try them next week (I messed up the order of recipes!)
    I think I was fed olives from birth by my good intentioned yugoslav mother. Toast and olives for breakfast, olives along sweet porridge “to break up the sweetness”, you name it, she would convince you olives went with it! Glad you found your taste for them, it’s never too late for olives in your life!

  12. Trevor, quite impressed by all the terrific “catch-up” dishes that you prepared and, of course, they all look wonderful. The presentation of the big green mediterranean marinated olives in your Mason jar is quite flawless too!

  13. The only thing that would have made this post better would have been one of your signature cocktails along with!! Your header is super-snazzy! And your olives and other dishes look delicious. I like olive bars too, but it’s still fun to mix something up at home. I’ve made infused cheeses – I might just steal your idea of adding some yummy blue cheese to this!!! Hope you had a fun weekend!

  14. I am with you on this one, Trevor. I enjoyed the process (and, the aroma) of making these olives but will probably never do it again. I’m a believer in “if someone can do it as well, or, even, almost as well” than you don’t have to. And, it is fun to try everything at the olive bar, at least once. I currently have Colossal Green Olives stuffed with a Garlic Cloves in my fridge but usually do rely on a jar of the blue-cheese variety. Your other dishes looked delicious, especially that mousse. Your banner is great – very creative, simplistic and clever.

  15. You did an amazing job on your catch up….I still have to make my quiche and tagine! I also agree with Lizzy…I don’t do haiku…but you and Cher, and Trix do it incredibly well!
    Back to the olives…love the blue cheese version too! Yours look wonderfully delicious…glad you enjoyed them!!

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