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

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

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

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

My wife and I sometimes celebrate Valentine’s Day by going out the night before to avoid crowds. But we’ve had some of our best meals at home.

We’ve put together a do-it-yourself menu that’s easy enough to prepare for your Valentine – either with or without your Valentine’s  help in the kitchen.  (You can also find additional recipes on our Web site.)

Here’s our EVOO-inspired menu:

Appetizer

Almonds Sautéed in Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Prepare a batch of these almonds to munch on beforehand over cocktails. This Spanish dish is a personal favorite of mine. It comes from a top-notch restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area, César. While we don’t have the actual recipe, my blog post about the dish will give you all the information you need. One other suggestion: Do as the Spanish do and serve the almonds with thin wedges of Manchego cheese.

Entrée

Oven-Roasted Fish with Herb and Citrus Dressing

This recipe for oven-roasted fish with a citrus herb dressing will hit the mark.  I recently wrote about this dish. We’ve made it several times using halibut and salmon. You can use either of those two fish, as well Pacific cod or swordfish. Award-winning cookbook author Marie Simmons created this recipe.

Grilled Skirt Steak with Chimichurri Sauce

Meat lovers can savor this Latino-inspired dish. The chimichurri sauce – a traditional accompaniment to South American grilled meats – features fresh cilantro, oregano, parsley, extra virgin olive oil and crushed red pepper flakes for heat.

Vegetable

Sautéed Green Beans with Shallots

This dish is easy and flavorful. It comes from Ojai Chef Jamie West.

Potato

Olive Oil Crushed Potatoes

These potatoes, also from Chef Jamie West, are a natural match with the beans, the fish or the steak. This dish features a particularly delicious spud: the fingerling potato.

Dessert

Chocolate Almond Torte

What would Valentine’s Day be without chocolate? This cake is phenomenal. And it’s easy to make. It comes for our friend dessert guru Alice Medrich.

Bon appétit,

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

I was lucky to live in a crab mecca during college: Annapolis, Md. Fresh blue crab was – and still is – everywhere. You could go to an unpretentious restaurant, sit at a simple table covered with paper, and whack the steamed crabs with a wooden mallet to free up the meaty morsels inside.  Crab cakes were – and still are – another great dish.

Fortunately, we’ve hooked up with a company that specializes in crab: Baltimore-based Phillips Foods. They shared a recipe for chilie lime crab cakes with chipotle avocado mayonnaise.

These crab cakes are made with chili garlic paste, among other ingredients. And the avocado mayonnaise gets a dose of dried chipotle chili.

We recently prepared these crab cakes and did a bit of improvising with what we had on hand. For example, we substituted Japanese-style panko bread crumbs for crushed crackers.

We also tweaked the cooking method. Phillips suggests sautéing the cakes in extra virgin olive oil until golden brown on both sides.  We sautéed the cakes until golden brown on one side; we then carefully flipped them and placed our ovenproof nonstick skillet in a hot oven ( around 400 degrees F) to finish the cooking. Either technique should work fine.

Phillips also offers helpful tips for making crab cakes. A key piece of advice: It requires a delicate hand, both when combining the ingredients and when forming the cakes.

“When shaping the crab mixture . . .  be gentle and use your hands to gently press and shape the cakes,” the company notes on its Web site. “One trick is to add the largest lumps of meat last so you don’t break the lumps.”

Bon appétit,

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

Food writer Jessica Strand creates vinaigrettes that tend to be versatile. They’re great with salad and can serve as marinades or sauces for poultry, seafood and other fare. I wrote recently about her cookbook, Salad Dressings (Chronicle Books, 2008). I’d like to share her excellent recipe for grapefruit vinaigrette.

While it certainly can be used as a marinade for chicken or fish, Strand told us she prefers it on white fish such as sea bass or snapper, or used for a seafood salad with shellfish such as clams, mussels, lobster, etc.

When it comes to greens, Strand likes to pair this vinaigrette with a salad of escarole, avocado, and bite-size pieces of Ruby Red grapefruit – like the dish in the photo.

Now that it’s grapefruit season, Strand suggests pairing fresh grapefruit juice with champagne vinegar, grapefruit and lime zest, a dash of honey, and extra virgin olive oil.

Strand said she favors grapefruit “for their tart yet sweet” finish.

“It’s sweeter than a lemon, yet more tart and tangy than an orange,” she said. “It’s the perfect flavor to enhance the subtle flavor of white meat or fish.”

Strand also gave us this tip if you happen to be out of grapefruit but have other citrus fruits on hand: “I’ve combined lemon and orange as a way of getting that balance of tangy and sweet.”

Bon appétit,

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

In this country, we have bakeries. In Italy, they have focaccerias. I’m a focaccia fan. The flatbread hails from the Mediterranean coast. Its roots, I learned, date to antiquity.

“In ancient Rome panis focacius denoted a flatbread cooked in the ashes,” writes food historian and author Alan Davidson in The Penguin Companion to Food (Penguin Books, 2002). In ancient Rome, focus meant hearth. There followed the term focacia, and ultimately focaccia in modern Italian.

Residents of the south of France have their own version of the yeasted flat bread: fougasse.

Focaccia and extra virgin olive oil are a natural pair. Olive oil is used as an ingredient. And olive oil frequently is drizzled or spread on top of the dough to keep it moist.

The toppings are countless – from EVOO and sea salt to herbs, onions, cheese, vegetables and meat. The sky’s the limit. Although from our standpoint, less is more. The one pictured here is topped with fresh rosemary.

Olive oil expert Fran Gage developed a focaccia featuring pumpkin seeds and thyme. They’re mixed into the dough. One of her favorite bakeries makes loaves of bread studded with pumpkin seeds.

“It was an inspiration for this focaccia,” Gage writes in her book The New American Olive Oil (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2009).

Gage suggests using a medium or robust EVOO. The latter includes our  Olio Nuovo and our Arbosana. But I’m sure any good EVOO would do the trick.

Bon appétit,

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

We’re lucky to have a friend who’s been flying regularly to Alaska for the past ten years to go halibut fishing. Bill went again in September, traveling to the fishing port of Seward. He hooked lots of halibut, which was then quick frozen. Bill was kind enough to share some with us. The timing was perfect: Award-winning cookbook author Marie Simmons had just given us a fish recipe.

Marie’s recipe looked easy and great – and we needed a photo. So we fired up the oven and got out the cutting board and a knife. We weren’t disappointed.

The fish is roasted in the oven at 450 degrees and then drizzled with a dressing made from freshly cut herbs, extra virgin olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and sun-dried tomatoes.

“Roasting fish at a high temperature for a short period of time is a classic fish preparation method that I love because it’s fast,” said Marie, whom we met recently at a Culinary Institute of America conference in California’s Napa Valley.

Marie also told us she’s “a big fan of anything citrus.” She adds it to a variety of dishes, including cooked tomato sauce and her salad dressing creations. “So that accounts for the sauce on the fish.”

The fish – you can use halibut, swordfish, salmon or Pacific cod – also gets a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil before going in the oven.

“The olive oil adds both a subtle flavor and moisture,” said Marie, noting it’s especially important for providing moisture when roasting a less fatty fish like halibut. “I also love the buttery taste of California olive oil because it complements rather than masks the delicate taste of the fish.”

The fish can be served warm, at room temperature or chilled. And you can mix and match the herbs, using basil and parsley as substitutes for the dill and mint. “Or use a little of each, selecting a total of three to four herbs if you have them all on hand,” said Marie, who also writes a great blog on fast and fresh vegetarian cooking.

“The most important hint for any cook is to taste, taste, taste. Never serve any dish until it’s been tasted and the flavors adjusted.”

You can also check out Marie’s raw fennel salad recipe if you missed it when I blogged about it the other day.

Bon appétit,

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