All posts tagged: green olives

Olive oil 2019

Another great year for Popi. She now has the confidence of a master producer, ready to show off her cool and tackle any small unexpected incident: A sack of olives forgotten in the far corner of the grove was picked up the next day. She could prove (contrary to everybody’s concerns ) that the olive press did not embezzle any of our precious juice to the advantage of the producer ahead of us! Olive groves produce a strong harvest every second year. 2019 was an abundant year and the hired workers plus friends and family worked for three days. The crew were Greeks, Albanians, German, French. The olives have to be shipped in the same day they are picked to the olive press, else the quality of the oil is degraded. A three day harvest implies three visits to the olive press, that stays open all through the night. There is interaction with producers that seem to be meticulous in their approach and there is always something to learn: this year Popi spotted a better …

chicken with crushed green olives

Chicken with (fresh crushed) green olives

This is a dish we prepare in autumn with chicken or pork, while the olives are still fresh and bitter. It is a recipe that my grandmother brought form Asia Minor. We cook it with fresh crushed green olives but you can substitute with regular green olives you can easily buy. We prepare our crushed olives end of October. We crush the olives with a stone and put them in a brine. Depending on your tolerance on bitterness you can have them in three to ten days. You can also put them in olive oil and store them, but we think that they loose their spark if kept more than 2-3 months. Serves 6 1 whole chicken (about 2kg), cut in 8 pieces 1 cup olive oil 1/2 tsp dried red chilli flakes 500g onions, finely chopped 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped 1 cup dry white wine 2 cups tomatoes, grated or pureed 1 tsp sugar (depending on the acidity of the tomatoes) 1/2 cup warm water (or more if necessary) 250g green olives (fresh crushed if possible…) …