I often grouse about the lack of ingredients available locally so I feel it is my duty to report that we now have an olive and antipasto bar at the local Italian market.The store has always carried an impressive array of pasta and sauces and olives and all the accoutrements of Italian cooking. Its pizza section is huge, and there's a nice little "gourmet" area that includes the basics of French cooking, too. It has never been difficult to adopt a Mediterranean-style approach to cooking and we have gladly done so.
The Italian market just got better. As soon we heard the olive bar was up, my husband and I hightailed it over there to sample the wares.
What a feast for the eyes as well as the palate: Black Nicoise, green Picholene, jumbo Calamata, medleys and mixes of every color and origin. Olive heaven. I bought a medley with garlic (above) and green olives stuffed with blue cheese.
I had a mixed reaction to the latter. Yes, they are two fabulous flavors, but they seemed at war with one another. Too much salt for one thing. I tried stuffing blue cheese into black olives and did not like that either.
(Stuffing black olives with cream cheese was the chore Grandma Annie gave me before family holiday dinners when I was a child. The taste may be a bit bland, but it's still my favorite. The creaminess of the cheese is a good foil for the saltiness of the olive.)
Up here on the tundra, a new olive bar that provides hints of sunnier climates and more opportunities to create Provencal and Tuscan dishes is something to celebrate in winter.
14 comments:
Congratulations on your new olive bar! I've got to agree about olives and bleu cheeses -- the only way to combine them, I think, is to use the cheese side-by-side with mild olives, as in a salad.
Wow, an olive bar, that really is an occasion to celebrate!
I like the bleu cheese stuffed olives, but only one or two of them, adn then they do get too salty for me. But the benefit of a jar here is that I'm the only one who like them, so they last a long time.
We have a mini olive bar at our local grocers, so we have been able to get them for quite a while, but my recent search is for Meyer lemons. Any up your way, Mimi?
Back to the o;oves...one of my favorite ways to use an olive is in a "dirty" vodka martini! I don't drink them very often as my preference has always been wine, but every once in a while, especially if I want to "nurse" a drink for a while, that one fits the bill.
Lydia, as is often the case, I agree with you. I think mild is the key word when it comes to green olives and blue cheese.
Erika, I'm sure it will be a matter of time before Woodman's gets an olive bar. They already have a great selection of olives in jars.
I've seen Meyer lemons once or twice, Cyn. I'm not a big martini fan, but the pomegranate martinis I had the other night were powerful.
I have to say those look like "chocolate" olives in the last photo. Wishful thinking I guess...
Chocolate olives? Sounds like a good idea — I mean we've got chocolate fish for Poisson d'Avril.
Or we used to.
Anyone seen these lately?
I've never really been a big fan of olives, but I'm coming around. And lately, I've been seeing them as ingredients in various recipes, including a Provencal chicken dish you posted recently, if I remember correctly. Think I'm going to have to start experimenting with them a little.
Blue cheese and garlic stuffed olives are my absolute favorites. I buy them all the time. I blush to say, it's something I've never thought about a person actually stuffing them. I like the idea.
Ever since we moved to Maryland, I've come to appreciate olives more and more. They're everywhere around here. I like the idea of stuffing them with bleu cheese. As I get older, I seem to prefer stronger flavors, less subtlety. But if the bleu cheese is too strong, maybe something milder like gorgonzola, parmesiano regiano (sp?), or gruyere. Or really mild like edam or gouda. The garlic idea sounds wonderful too! I've even stuffed anchovies in pitted olives. Nice work, Mimi. Now I'm craving olives.
Hmm.. I'm seeing an olive event here..
Yes, congrats on the olive bar! And what simply beautiful photos of the olives. Wow.
I have to say: I love the blue-cheese-stuffed green ones. But then, I'm a glutton for salt.
Yeah, I like the salt but does it like me?
I think maybe in small quantities I can deal with the green ones...
I miss the olives from Spain. The French aren't nearly as creative and I have yet to see an olive bar which were standard in the Andorran and Spanish Markets.
Well, we can't have everything handy....
Perhaps in Provence?
It's fun to try the different mixes or types of olives and they change the offerings every day or so...
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