This Saturday marks the first day of spring. We’ve developed a do-it-yourself menu to celebrate the occasion. The artichokes, halibut, and accompanying strawberries, in particular, make me think spring.

So does the weather here in northern California. Sunny skies and warmer temperatures are in the forecast this week. In other words, time to head outdoors, fire up the grill, and prepare a good meal.

Here’s our olive oil-inspired menu:

Starter

Roman-Style Artichokes

I was lucky to try this classic Roman dish last spring at a conference sponsored by the Culinary Institute of America in California’s Napa Valley. Famed Las Vegas chef Paul Bartolotta prepared these artichokes at the conference. They’re simmered in extra virgin olive oil and a little water in a covered pot until tender.

Entrées

Grilled Halibut with Chunky Fennel Vinaigrette

Grilled halibut is a favorite of mine. A fennel vinaigrette adds a new flavor dimension. Steve Johnson, chef-owner of the Rendezvous in Central Square in Cambridge, Mass., created this dish, which is pictured above. He told us the vinaigrette also would work well with rich, oily fish such as tuna, mackerel, sardines and bluefish.

Grilled Chicken Breasts with Tangerine, Honey and Chipotle Glaze

Poultry lovers can tuck into these flavorful chicken breasts. They are the creation of Jamie West, executive chef at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa in California.  The chicken is brushed with a spicy glaze made from freshly squeezed tangerine juice, honey and chipotle chili peppers.

Potato

Oven-Roasted Tattooed Potatoes with Rosemary

These roasted potatoes not only are delicious – they look beautiful, too. Each potato is “tattooed” with a fresh rosemary sprig or a parsley leaf.  The potatoes are a breeze to make. These potatoes, like the halibut, appear in Peggy Knickerbocker’s cookbook, “Olive Oil: From Tree to Table” (Chronicle Books, 2007).

Dessert

Yogurt Cake with Strawberries

This dessert comes from a favorite culinary blog, pastry studio. The cake, which uses olive oil instead of butter, is not as dense as a pound cake and serves as a perfect backdrop for fresh fruit, ice cream, sorbet or your favorite dessert sauce. The accompanying strawberries are macerated in lemon juice and sugar.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Jicama isn’t going to win any beauty contests. But beneath the skin of this Mexican tuber lies a pure treat.

The crisp white flesh of raw jicama delivers a slightly sweet taste when added to a freshly made leaf salad. It also pairs well with cabbage, so would add a new twist to a St. Patrick’s Day meal.

While jicama has developed a following both here and in Asia, it has a Mexican heritage. It’s also known as a Mexican potato or Mexican water chestnut.

Our friends at Viking Range have created this slaw that pairs julienned jicama with shredded cabbage. The easy and healthful dish also features carrots, cilantro and green onions.

The slaw is topped with a dressing made from fresh lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil and agave nectar.

Whoever said beauty is only skin deep?

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

When we asked award-winning cookbook author Marie Simmons if she had a cabbage recipe she could share with us, she responded immediately: yes!

Marie e-mailed us a great looking recipe for cabbage leaves stuffed with risotto and toasted walnuts. The dish would provide a gourmet twist to any St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Marie suggests using the outside leaves of a loose head of Savoy cabbage, which is widely available in supermarkets. Or she suggests using pan di zuccero, or sugar loaf; it’s a type of Italian chicory sometimes found in farmers’ markets.

Marie first had the dish several years ago in Sicily. She was a guest at the estate of a famous cooking instructor. The stuffed cabbage accompanied a grilled fish.

“The tender cabbage leaves were loosely rolled around spoonfuls of delicate risotto,” Marie recalls. “I can clearly see the bright green leaves and feel the soft texture of the risotto rich with the taste of grated cheese.”

For this vegetarian recipe, the leaves are boiled a few minutes until tender. You then make the risotto, which is flavored with Parmigiano Reggiano, lemon zest and fresh thyme.

A spoonful of hot risotto is added to the lower half of each leaf along with a tablespoon of toasted walnuts. The leaf is folded and rolled over the risotto.

The leaves, which get a sprinkling of Parmigiano Reggiano, are accompanied by a tomato sauce. You can make Marie’s sauce, or use your own favorite sauce. The dish is baked in the oven until the leaves are tender and the cheese is bubbly and begins to brown.

You can also check out our earlier posts featuring Marie’s excellent oven-roasted fish that’s topped with an herb and citrus dressing, as well as her raw fennel salad.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

You’ve already heard from us about studies suggesting olive oil could be good for your heart, your bones, and your head, namely your brain. Now comes word that it could be good for your eyes, too.

A new Australian study, from the Centre for Eye Research Australia, suggests olive oil could significantly reduce your risk of blindness in old age.

According to the study, people who consume at least 100 milliliters, or about seven tablespoons, of olive oil per week are almost 50% less likely to develop late age-related macular degeneration than those who eat less than 1 milliliter per week.

Known as AMD, the disease targets people older than 60. It affects the part of the eye known as the macula that allows you to see fine details. The disease gradually destroys sharp, central vision. You need that vision to see objects clearly. You use it when you read and drive.

Report author Elaine Chong said olive oil contains a number of protective elements that contribute to eye health.

“Olive oil is rich in powerful antioxidants such as vitamin E. It also contains an anti-inflammatory
component, similar to ibuprofen, which helps to protect the blood vessels in the eye,” said Dr. Chong.

“A diet rich in olive oil and other foods containing omega-3 fatty acids such as oily fish varieties like salmon and tuna, and nuts may help protect your eyes against diseases such as AMD.”

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Our eyes opened wide to the possibilities of cabbage after we prepared a dish featuring maple-spiced red cabbage and apples. It was delicious, as were the accompanying breaded pork cutlets. Cabbage doesn’t always get its due. But as a converted fan, I’m hoping that will change.

Cooks in northern Italy, for example, already add savoy cabbage to pasta and risotto. And at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., cabbage is served with foie gras and caviar. “Its sweetness complements the duck and pork,” writes owner Alice Waters in her book Chez Panisse Vegetables (HarperCollins, 1996).

The recipe that caught our attention comes from a great cookbook written by the folks at EatingWell magazine. They teamed up with health care provider Kaiser Permanente to produce the book, EatingWell In Season (The Countryman Press, 2009).

The cabbage is shredded and sautéed in extra virgin olive oil, along with apples and red onion. Maple syrup and cider vinegar are added; the combination is considered a traditional New England seasoning. The cabbage has a sweet and sour taste, though perhaps a bit more sweet than sour. It’s definitely a keeper.

For the cutlets, we used thin-sliced pork loin chops. That way we didn’t have to pound the pork to make it thin. We departed from the recipe in one other small way. To brown the bread crumbs, we turned up the broiler near the end of baking.

More great cabbage recipes coming up.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

I’ve just learned that Italy has trained some of its cops to become crack olive oil tasters. Their mission: distinguish between bogus extra virgin olive oil and the real thing.

You may have read that Italy has had a bit of a problem with counterfeit extra virgin olive oil. A couple years ago the Italian police nabbed 39 people and seized more than 25,000 liters of counterfeit EVOO. It was about to be sold in Italy and elsewhere in bottles bearing the labels of phony companies.

If you’re wondering what actually was inside those bottles, Britain’s Guardian newspaper provided this version of the secret recipe: “Oil made from soya beans or sunflower seeds – some of it genetically modified – mixed with beta carotene and industrial chlorophyll.”

The prosecutor who ordered the plant raids said the concoction “of itself” wouldn’t have hurt you.

But it caused huge embarrassment for Italy, which reacted by training a special squad of “gourmet” police officers to sniff out EVOO fraud. No word on whether they used those small blue olive oil cups for tasting when they got their training from Unaprol, a trade group representing Italian olive growers.

The industry association representing Italian olive oil producers did say, however, the fraud was “the tip of the iceberg,” according to the Guardian. You can also check out a fascinating article in The New Yorker about how widespread the problem has become overseas.

To prevent such fraud, California has adopted strict standards governing what can be sold as genuine EVOO. Oil certified as EVOO here must undergo lab and taste tests. California’s standards are stricter than those set by the International Olive Council.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Our friend Sam Fromartz isn’t your ordinary home baker. You may recall I wrote about him last year, noting how his baguettes were judged No. 1 in Washington in a blind tasting against professional bakeries. More recently, Sam got a call from Chez Panisse owner Alice Waters asking if he could prepare the breads for her charity dinner in Washington at the home of journalist Bob Woodward. Sam obliged. Sam, an author and food blogger, keeps his eye on recipes suited for beginning bakers and recently wrote about the no-knead pizza developed by New York baker Jim Lahey, owner of Sullivan Street Bakery as well as the newer pizza restaurant, Co. (short for company). Below is an excerpt of Sam’s blog post, along with the recipes for Lahey’s pizza.

Before we get to Sam, I should note we made the pizza over the weekend and found it was delicious. It had a crispy brown crust that benefits from the use of extra virgin olive oil. We found our pizza – topped with tomato sauce, onions and mushrooms – was done after 25 minutes. So you may want to begin checking it a little before then. Sam suggests 30 to 35 minutes. Take it away Sam.

Jim Lahey caused a storm on the Internet in 2006 with his no-knead bread recipe, courtesy of New York Times food writer Mark Bittman. Then, he spun those recipes into My Bread (W. W. Norton & Company, 2009), which ranks as a perfect starting point for an aspiring baker.

Less known than his bread, however, are his terrific pizzas, which he also includes in the book. These are rectangular sheets of exceedingly thin-crust pizza, topped with onions, mushrooms or just tomato sauce.

The big secret about these crispy gems? Like no-knead bread they are dead easy and fast to make. For the effort, you get great results.

In fact, the pizza recipe was so easy I was skeptical it would be worth it. You mix the dough quickly, let it rise for a couple of hours, flatten it out in a rimmed baking sheet with extra virgin olive oil, spread the topping and bake it.

You can dispense with a baking stone, too, since the crust is so thin. And finally, watch your impulse on toppings! The biggest error pizza novices make is to pile on so much stuff the pie turns into a soggy, gloppy mess. As Jim told me many years ago, when it comes to pizza, “less is more.” He’s right.

Here’s his basic dough recipe and the stellar pizza patate (potato pizza).

Basic Pizza Dough

Yield: enough dough for two pies baked in 13×18-inch rimmed baking sheets

3 3/4 cups (500 grams) bread flour
2 1/2 teaspoons (10 grams) instant or active dry yeast
3/4 teaspoon (5 grams) salt
3/4 teaspoon plus pinch (3 grams) sugar
1 1/3 cups (300 grams) water
Extra Virgin olive oil for pan

1. In a bowl, stir together the flour, yeast, salt and sugar. Add the water, and using a spoon, your hand, or a baker’s plastic bench scraper, mix together until blended – about a minute (Jim says 30 seconds but mine took a bit longer). You don’t want to mix or knead this dough too much, or else the gluten will develop and you won’t be able to shape it in the pan. But you want to mix in all the lumps of flour. In the end, you’ll arrive at a stiff dough.
2. Cover the dough and let rise at room temperature for about 2 hours. (If your room is cold, put it in the oven with a pilot light to warm up a bit, or in a closed cabinet).
3. Dump out the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut it in half. Use both pieces, or save one in the refrigerator (I use a zip lock bag) for up to 1 day. Oil a 13×18 inch rimmed baking sheet liberally with good extra virgin olive oil (yes, pour it on). Then gently plop the dough on the pan and stretch and press it out to the edges. If it springs back (that’s the gluten working) wait five minutes and then proceed. I found the gluten weak enough to spread it fully over the pan. The dough is very thin. If it tears, piece it back together.

Lahey has a few basic toppings in his book, such as pizza pomodoro (tomato sauce), pizza funghi (mushroom), and pizza cavolfiore (cauliflower), but I zoomed in on his pizza patate (potato). This might sound like a carbo-loading dream, but remember the crust is thin, so you’re not stuffing yourself with dough.

Pizza Patate

As Jim writes, “Potato pizza is another Italian classic you don’t see very often in the United States. While my rendition is pretty traditional, I soak the potatoes in salted water first, which actually extracts about 20 percent of their moisture. That causes them to cook more quickly and makes them firmer. It’s a little trick I learned from cooking potato pancakes.”

Yield: One 13-by-18-inch pie; 8 slices

EQUIPMENT: A mandoline

1 quart (800 grams) lukewarm water
4 teaspoons (24 grams) table salt
6 to 8 (1 kilo) Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled
1 cup (100 grams) diced yellow onion
1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) freshly ground black pepper
About 1⁄2 cup (80 grams) extra virgin olive oil
1/2 recipe (400 grams) Basic Pizza Dough
About 1 tablespoon (2 grams) fresh rosemary leaves

1. Preheat the oven to 500 F (260 C) with a rack in the middle
2. In a medium bowl, combine the water and salt, stirring until the salt is dissolved. Use a knife or mandoline to slice the peeled potatoes very thin (1/16th inch thick), and put the slices directly into the salted water so they don’t oxidize and turn brown. Let soak in the brine for 1-1/2 hour (or refrigerate and soak for up to 12 hours), until the slices are wilted and no longer crisp. (Note: I cut the soaking time to 30 minutes and the results were still good.)
3. Drain the potatoes in a colander and use your hands to press out as much water as possible, then pat dry. In a medium bowl, toss together the potato slices, onion, pepper, and olive oil.
4. Spread the potato mixture evenly over the dough, going all the way to the edges of the pan; put a bit more of the topping around the edges of the pie, as the outside tends to cook more quickly. Sprinkle evenly with the rosemary. (Note: I left it out in the version pictured above, but feel it’s better with it).
5. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the topping is starting to turn golden brown and the crust is pulling away from the sides of the pan. Serve the pizza hot or at room temperature.

Variation • Pizza Batata (Sweet Potato Pizza)

Substitute 2 sweet potatoes (800 grams), peeled, for the Yukon Gold potatoes, and use about 4 cups (about 900 grams) water and 24 grams (4 teaspoons) salt for the soaking liquid. Omit the rosemary in the topping.

Recipes reprinted with permission from the publisher.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Your brain will thank you for working out at the gym and eating plenty of fruits, vegetables and olive oil. A recent study suggests you could significantly cut your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease if you’re more physically active and eat a Mediterranean-style diet.

In fact, a combination of exercise and a Mediterranean-type diet were far more effective in lowering your risk of Alzheimer’s than exercise or diet alone.

“This study is important because it shows that people may be able to alter their risk of developing Alzheimer’s by modifying their lifestyles through diet and exercise,” said Nikos Scarmeas, lead author of the study and associate professor of clinical neurology at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

Past studies have looked separately at the link between Alzheimer’s and either physical activity or diet. This study, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, examined exercise and diet together.

“Often people who exercise also follow a healthy diet and vice versa,” said Scarmeas.  “We wanted to tease out which of these two behaviors may be associated with lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease,” or if the combination of the two is associated with an even lower risk.”

The study looked at 1,880 elderly subjects, with an average age of 77, living in northern Manhattan.

The participants were interviewed about their level of physical activity – jogging, biking, hiking, and gardening, for example – and their dietary habits.  They were observed over about 5-1/2 years, receiving periodic tests.

Those subjects who were very physically active had a 33% reduction in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Those who adhered more strongly to a Mediterranean-type diet had a 40% risk reduction.

And for the clincher: those who reported they were exercising a lot and following a diet closer to the Mediterranean-type had a 60% risk reduction.

“So it seemed that the more that they were doing in terms of both diet and exercise, the lower was their risk for the disease,” said Scarmeas.

It wasn’t exactly clear which foods in the Mediterranean diet delivered the most benefits.  Scarmeas said it could be individual components – or the interaction among the various foods.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Yogurt cake is a household staple in France. It’s easy to make and tastes great. And it’s a productive way to use up extra yogurt sitting in your fridge.

The recipe for this yogurt cake comes to us by way of a terrific baking blog, pastry studio. It’s written by a San Francisco pastry chef named Gayle. I’ve also written about Gayle’s take on an Alice Medrich recipe for olive oil and sherry pound cake.

The yogurt cake – which uses olive oil instead of butter – is served with strawberries. But it also would go well with other fruit or ice cream.

“This is a very versatile cake that is much lighter and not as dense as a pound cake and serves as a perfect backdrop for fresh fruit, ice cream, sorbet or your favorite dessert sauce,” writes Gayle. “It can be served at any meal, as a snack or taken along on a picnic.”

Gayle recommends full-fat yogurt. Greek yogurt, she adds, “is perfect.”

You can brush the cake with a syrup made from fresh lemon juice and syrup. The cake will have a more “pronounced” lemon flavor if you brush the syrup on while the cake is still warm.

The accompanying strawberries are macerated in lemon juice and sugar. You can serve the cake with fresh whipped cream or crème fraîche. Or, if you want to go the full nine yards, you could make a batch of extra virgin olive oil ice cream.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Can you guess where California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is holding this bottle of California Olive Ranch extra virgin olive oil?

The “Governator,” as he’s known, was more than happy to be photographed with a bottle of our Arbequina EVOO.  No word yet on whether he’s had a chance to open the bottle and taste the oil.

A quick follow-up to my initial post last week: The Governator was in central California paying a visit to the world’s largest annual agricultural exposition, the World Ag Expo in Tulare.  He was visiting the stall of one of the nurseries we buy our trees from – NursTech Inc. – and the company happened to have a spare bottle of our EVOO.

On a related note, the governor earlier this month officially proclaimed February 2010 as “California Olive Oil Month.”

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch