Crispy Chicken Thighs Paired w/ an Earthy Black Bean Tapenade

Posted on January 17, 2012 by consumers

Stephanie Izard has been piling up accolades while keeping a busy schedule. She’s the only woman to win Bravo’s Top Chef reality-TV cooking show. Next, in July 2010, Izard opened her own Chicago restaurant, the acclaimed Girl & the Goat. More recently, Izard was profiled as one of 15 breakthrough stars in Oprah Winfrey’s O magazine. And, to top it off, she’s just published her own cookbook, Girl in the Kitchen (Chronicle Books, 2011).

It’s filled with enticing recipes, including the crispy braised chicken thighs featured here. They’re paired with a tapenade made from olives, fermented black beans, and extra virgin olive oil. (Click here to see the recipe.)

“While I could be perfectly happy with these braised chicken thighs on their own (or even just nibbling the crispy skin), the fun part about this recipe is the olive and fermented black bean tapenade,” she writes.

Salty fermented soybeans are a Chinese product. Izard notes they can provide and “earthy pungent kick to American dishes.”

In this dish, the tapenade can be made up to three days in advance. The chicken, meanwhile, is marinated overnight with sliced orange, onion, garlic, toasted coriander seeds and red pepper flakes, along with salt and sugar. The next day the thighs are browned in a pan and then braised in the oven. When served, they’re topped with a savory pan sauce and the tapenade.

Izard, by the way, is a big fan of chicken thighs, noting “it’s the dark meat that holds all of the delicious flavor.” She used to avoid dark meat, instead buying boneless, skinless chicken breasts “to be a bit more health conscious.

“But the truth is there are only two more grams of fat in six ounces of chicken thigh than there are in the same amount of chicken breast. And for the extra flavor you get, that’s two grams of fat well spent.”

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

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A Look Back At Our 2011 Harvest and the Robust Olive Oil It Produced

Posted on January 13, 2012 by consumers

Our fall olive harvest was filled with sunshine and long working hours, Adam Englehardt tells us. Adam heads our farming operations. He and his harvest team worked two 12-hour shifts every day, seven days a week, during the harvest. It stretched from Oct. 10 to Nov. 18. We asked Adam about the weather during the harvest, the quality of the olives, and the oil they produced.

Photo by Terry McCarthy www.tmcphotography.com

How was the weather?

We couldn’t have gotten any luckier. We had dry, mild weather throughout. It was better than previous years. No frost and no large rains that prevented us from harvesting.

We did start a little late, because the spring was cool. So the crop cycle was behind. But because the crop-load was light, we ended up harvesting it right about on time.

What was the big difference between the 2011 harvest and the 2010 harvest?

Photo by Terry McCarthy www.tmcphotography.com

There were less tons of fruit per acre than in 2010. So the olives produced an oil with a more robust flavor profile, because the flavor is concentrated in fewer olives. It’s similar to a wine grape crop when you thin the crop to allow the flavors to concentrate.

How would you characterize the differences between the three olive varietals you picked during the harvest?

The Arbequina crop was light so the fruit size was large and the fruit matured early with more intense flavors. Arbosana had a heavy year and so was late in maturing. Koroneiki was an average crop.

What do you like about this year’s Limited Reserve versus previous years?

The 2011 Limited Reserve is much more intense in flavor than the 2010, while still having a good balance.  That’s due, I think, to this year’s lighter crop. We also try to “stress” the trees going into harvest by not giving them as much water. It intensifies the flavor of the oil and also speeds the ripening process. (Adam, by the way, tells us he and his family have been enjoying Limited Reserve on simple green salads, where the flavor of the oil really stands out.)

How did the new harvesters perform that the company acquired?

Photo by Terry McCarthy www.tmcphotography.com

We’d been working on some prototypes for a couple of years. So this year we were ready to go. They performed very, very well. The new harvester was kind of the superstar of the year.  It’s built specifically for olives, and so it’s taller. It’s gentler when picking the tree. The older harvesters were retrofitted grape harvesters – the kind that vineyard operators use.

What was the first thing you did when the harvest ended?

We actually got done halfway through the day. We shaved the beards off. And then we sent the guys home for the entire weekend. It was the first day we’d had off in about four weeks. I think everyone went home and slept. People were working 14-hour days. We plan on a 12-hour shift; but we end up working a little bit longer. And then we run a day and a night shift; so it’s a 24-hour operation.

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

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A Smoky, Savory Veggie Pasta That’s Easy and “Delivers Heaps of Flavor”

Posted on January 10, 2012 by consumers

Viviane Bauquet Farre loves recipes “that can be thrown together in minutes, yet are healthful and over-the-top delicious.” Viviane, a whiz at creating wonderful dishes, has done just that with the orecchiette pasta featured here. It’s landed a top spot on our to-do list of flavorful, healthy recipes for the New Year.

Photo courtesy of Viviane Bauquet Farre

“The tender-yet-robust chickpeas happily provide protein even as the copious amounts of spinach leaves lighten the load,” says Viviane, who writes the food blog foodandstyle.com, where she publishes beautiful and innovative recipes and photographs inspired by seasonal ingredients and local farmers. (Click here to see the pasta recipe.)

The orecchiette — “little ears” in Italian — gets a good dose of smoked Spanish paprika, or pimentón, that adds a “seductive smokiness.” The dish is finished with shavings of nutty Manchego cheese and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

“Hearty, smoky, savory, this pasta dish delivers heaps of flavor and leaves you feeling utterly satisfied,” Viviane says.

You can also see Viviane’s recipes for linguini with roasted beets and grilled vegetable brochettes. And you can see more flavorful, healthy recipes in our January In Season eNewsletter. (Click here to see the eNews.)

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

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More Evidence Med Diet May Help Heart Health + Lay Off the Carbs – Study

Posted on January 6, 2012 by consumers

It’s never too late to make a New Year’s resolution that may help your heart. And this one comes courtesy of Johns Hopkins University researchers: Lay off carbohydrates tied to white bread and pasta, and replace them with unsaturated fats from olive oil, avocados, and nuts — foods typical of the Mediterranean diet.

In a study prepared for a recent conference, the Johns Hopkins investigators say swapping out certain foods can improve heart health in people at risk for cardiovascular disease — even if the dietary changes aren’t coupled with weight loss.

“The introduction of the right kind of fat into a healthy diet is another tool to reduce the risk of future heart disease,” Meghana Gadgil,  a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, says in a news release.

Gadgil and her colleagues looked at 164 people with mild hypertension but no diabetes. The researchers studied their ability to regulate blood sugar and maintain healthy insulin levels while on a carb-rich diet, a protein-rich diet and a diet rich in unsaturated fats. People whose bodies fail to effectively use insulin usually develop type 2 diabetes, a major risk factor for heart disease.

The researchers say they found a generally balanced diet higher in unsaturated fats like those in olive oil, avocados, and nuts “improves insulin use significantly more” than a diet high in carbs — especially refined carbs like white bread and pasta.

“A lot of studies have looked at how the body becomes better at using insulin when you lose weight,” Gadgil says. “We kept the weight stable so we could isolate the effects of the macronutrients. What we found is that you can begin to see a beneficial impact on heart health even before weight loss.”

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

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Start the New Year with a “Sophisticated Yet Simple” Radicchio Pasta

Posted on January 4, 2012 by consumers

We splurged on great meals over the holidays: roast goose stuffed with apples and dried fruit; mushroom and ricotta ravioli drizzled with our Limited Reserve olive oil; and a chocolate-laden Buche de Noel. With the arrival of the New Year, we’re ready to return to simpler dishes. The fettuccine with radicchio featured below is a good start.

Radicchio is in season here in California. It’s a colorful and flavorful member of the chicory family.

“When it’s not festooning salad bowls, this indelibly Italian vegetable is sensational grilled or sautéed, mixed into pasta sauces and risottos, or simply dipped in bagna cauda, the celebrated hot anchovy-olive oil dip of Italy’s Piedmont,” Christopher Hirsheimer and Peggy Knickerbocker write in their book The San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market Cookbook (Chronicle Books, 2006), where the pasta recipe appears.

Hirsheimer and Knickerbocker describe radicchio’s taste as “refined and sophisticated.” Similarly, they call the pasta dish “sophisticated, yet simple.” (Click here to see the recipe.)

To begin, sauté pancetta or bacon in extra virgin olive oil until browned. Add a chopped onion, followed by the radicchio, which is cooked until wilted. Save a cup of the water used to cook the pasta. Toss the drained pasta with the radicchio mixture and some of the reserved pasta water to make a sauce-like consistency.

The final touch: Drizzle each individual serving with some extra virgin olive oil.

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

 

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Baking a Better Holiday: a Primer On Baking w/ Olive Oil – Part 2

Posted on December 23, 2011 by consumers

Like wine, different extra virgin olive oils deliver different flavor profiles, including when you use the oil in baking a cake or cookie. Olive oil can make other contributions to baked goods, too, such as helping ensure a dish is moist.

Photo courtesy of www.artisanbreadinfive.com

To assist you with your holiday baking and cooking, we’ve asked baking experts for tips on using olive oil with baked goods and desserts (you can click here to see an earlier blog post about how to substitute olive oil for butter in baking).

Below is a Q&A:

How should you approach pairing a dessert or baked good with a particular olive oil flavor profile?

Fran Costigan, vegan pastry chef: “Olive oil can be considered a flavoring agent for a dessert when you want to use the oil that way. … Think about what it is your making. A robust oil (like Arbosana) can go with some chocolate desserts, such as: a tartine, which is simply warmed melty chocolate on a crusty baguette, or an olive oil ganache spread on the bread, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with coarse sea salt. … When I want to taste the olive oil, I’ll go to an oil such as Arbequina, Arbosana, or Miller’s Blend.”

Matthew Kadey, registered dietitian and recipe developer: “I would use a more delicate flavored oil if you are just using the olive oil to add moisture to a baked item and don’t want its flavor to come through. But for items like dinner rolls that can benefit from olive oil’s flavor, I would gravitate towards a stronger flavored choice.”

Are there any particular desserts and dishes that go especially well with extra virgin olive oil?

Costigan: “It’s very nice in most all chocolate confections. I particularly like lemon scented chocolate olive oil sauces and creams. … Olive oil and almonds are great together, like my orange almond olive oil cake. For something different, drizzle a robust oil on the chestnut cake known as castagnaccio.” (The recipes for both of these cakes are featured in the recipe section of our website under desserts.)

Jeff Hertzberg, best-selling author of the new book, Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day (St. Martin’s Press, 2011): “I always drizzle it on top of pizza.”

What does extra virgin olive oil contribute to baked goods – flavor, texture, etc.?

Sarah House, recipe specialist for Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods: “Extra virgin olive oil produces light and moist baked goods with rich olive oil background notes while letting the accompanying flavors shine through.  There are all the nutritional benefits of olive oil — like very low saturated fat — and it helps extend the shelf life of the product.  Olive oil is an excellent fat for (my spelt cake with caramelized apples) to lighten the otherwise dense and heavy whole grain flours.” (Click here to see the recipe for the olive oil spelt cake.)

Kadey: “I find that it adds a nice earthy, peppery flavor to baked items. It’s an especially good addition to baked goods that you would consider more savory than sweet.

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

 

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Baking a Better Holiday: Chocolate Lovers & the Gluten-Free, Unite!

Posted on December 20, 2011 by consumers

We can thank our food blogger friends this holiday season for delivering to us a bundle of terrific baking recipes ranging from cakes to breads. Here’s the second batch we received as part of our focus this month on baking with extra virgin olive oil. It will satisfy chocolate lovers and those who are are gluten-free.

Photo courtesy of http://pastrystudio.blogspot.com/

You may recall we got these recipes after we challenged some talented food bloggers to create baking recipes using our olive oil and flour from our baking pals at Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods. The bloggers delivered big time, including the recipes below.

Chocolate Rosemary Olive Oil Cake

Blogger Christen Waller, who pens the fine blog life:styled, created this chocolate cake with a savory twist using our Arbosana olive oil (which goes well with chocolate) as well as all-purpose and millet flours from Bob’s Red Mill. She adds 1-1/2 tablespoons of chopped fresh rosemary. Waller gives the cake a crunchy, sugary top by spooning 2 tablespoons of sugar into the bottom of the bundt pan before adding the batter. (Click here to see the recipe.)

Gluten-Free Cinnamon Bread

“I have a standard few things that I make every year during the holidays. My most favorite is … cinnamon bread!” declares Sarena Shasteen, the creative talent behind the excellent blog The Non-Dairy Queen. She says this bread is perfect to “package up for traveling, and it only gets better when it sits over night!” It features Bob’s Red mill white rice, brown rice and buckwheat flours. You can bake the bread in a 9-inch by 5-inch loaf pan or in mini loaf pans. (Click here to see the recipe.)

Chocolate Almond Olive Oil Cake (Gluten-Free)

This Latin-themed cake packs some heat in the form of cayenne. “The cayenne in the recipe gives this cake a little kick, while the combination of whipped egg whites, olive oil and almond meal flour give this dense, flourless cake an unparalleled moistness and delicate crumb,” says Vanessa Nix, the witty creator of The Groovy Foody blog. She says her travels through Italy inspired this gluten-free cake. There, she came across dense olive oil cakes made with almond meal. For this recipe Nix used Bob’s Red Mill almond meal/flour and our Arbosana oil. (Click here to see the recipe.)

Chocolate Spice Cake with Figs

This rich chocolate cake (in the photo at the top) delivers an intriguing twist: fresh figs. “I found myself wanting to combine the bright fruity flavor of fresh figs along with the earthy depth and acidity of cocoa,” notes the anonymous San Francisco pastry chef who pens the lovely blog pastry studio. “To make a good union even better, I invited some spices to liven up the pairing.” The spices: cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg. The pastry chef decided at the last minute to pass on the use of a “gooey” chocolate glaze. “I wanted the gorgeous fruit and the complexity of the spices to take center stage, so this is a very dressed down cake but a beauty nonetheless.” (Click here to see the recipe.)

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

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Baking a Better Holiday: Zuke Flatbread w/ Tomato + Rosemary Bread

Posted on December 16, 2011 by consumers

We’ve been talking a lot about how we like to bake cakes, torts, and cookies made with extra virgin olive oil. But we’ve not yet talked much about how we like to bake savory dishes, too, like bread and flatbread. Well, it’s about time we do!

Photo courtesy of www.artisanbreadinfive.com

Baking aficionados tell us extra virgin olive oil improves the texture of bread, pizza and flatbread dough. “It tenderizes the dough,” Jeff Hertzberg, a best-selling author and doctor who has just released a new book, Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day (St. Martin’s Press, 2011), says

Matthew Kadey, a registered dietitian, recipe developer, and magazine writer whose work has appeared in EatingWell and Men’s Health, says olive oil helps to keep baked goods moist. It also plays a role in the physical sensation a baked good creates in your mouth. “It definitely contributes to moisture and mouthfeel,” says Kadey, the baking guru behind the website Muffin Tin Mania.

Below are two savory recipes Hertzberg and Kadey shared as part of our Baking a Better Holiday focus on baking with olive oil instead of butter. (Click here to see a chart for how to substitute olive oil for butter in baking.)

Zucchini Flatbread with Roasted Tomato and Pine Nuts

This flatbread (featured in the photo above) would make a great appetizer during the holidays, given its festive red and green colors. The recipe originally appeared as a zucchini flatbread in a baking book Jeff Hertzberg co-authored, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day (St. Martin’s Press, 2009).

This past September Hertzberg decided to make a variation on the original recipe, which also featured chopped parsley, sliced scallions and pine nuts in addition to the shredded zucchini.

“I wanted something to brighten up the flavor and color of all those soft lovely green things— roasted cherry tomatoes did the trick,” he says. “The tangy acidity was perfect for cutting the softer flavors of the zucchini, parsley, cheese, and nuts.” (Click here to see the recipe.)

The recipe featured here uses a dough made with olive oil. You can also use the dough for pizza, focaccia or olive bread. “The fruitier the olive oil, the better the flavor,” says Hertzberg, a physician by training with 20 years of experience in health care as a practitioner, consultant, and university faculty member. (He’s also a passionate baker: “I’m an amateur who’s taken it to a crazy level.”)

The addition of the roasted tomatoes, by the way, turned out to be a winning combo for the flatbread. Hertzberg’s suggestion: Serve this dish as an appetizer with a crisp dry white wine.

Olive Oil Rosemary Bread

Photo courtesy of www.muffintinmania.com

Matthew Kadey likes to use extra virgin olive oil in an herb-infused dinner roll, muffin or bread. “I tend to use it most often for items that are not meant to be overly sweet,” Kadey says. This bread recipe, baked in individual muffin tins, fits the bill. (Click here to see the recipe.)

“These individual olive oil breads are very light and have just the perfect touch of rosemary,” says Kadey, who writes a food blog about his passion for cooking with muffin tins. He adds they would make a “perfect side-kick” for hearty soups or a festive holiday meal.

The recipe is versatile. Kadey suggests you could substitute grated nutmeg for the chopped rosemary to give the bread an altogether new flavor.

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

 

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Baking a Better Holiday: Chocolate-Dipped Biscotti and Hazelnut Shortbread

Posted on December 13, 2011 by consumers

We recall vividly the wonderful aroma of Christmas cookies baking in the oven while growing up. Cookies are in many people’s ovens this time of year, including our own. And you don’t need butter to make a good cookie. Instead, we’ll be using extra virgin olive oil to prepare our cookies — namely the chocolate-dipped biscotti and hazelnut shortbread featured here.The recipes are part of part of our “Baking a Better Holiday” focus. “Olive oil adds a depth to the flavor,” says vegan pastry chef Fran Costigan, who once relied mainly on canola and other “neutral” oils in her desserts. “I seem to be getting a richer product when I use olive oil rather than the neutral oils.”

Fran also suggests adding our Arbequina oil to the chocolate for her dipped almond and anise biscotti (photo above), saying it helps “ensure a lovely glossy chocolate coating.” (Click here to see the biscotti recipe.)

Biscotti, you may know, means twice cooked. And these popular Italian cookies boast historical roots dating to the Roman times.

Fran makes her biscotti with whole wheat pastry flour, as well as “heart-healthy” almonds and extra virgin olive oil. She says “you really can feel good about enjoying these not too sweet, not too hard cookies any time of the day, including breakfast.” The cookies stay crisp for at least a week in a tin, and can be frozen up to a month.

Fran also notes the chocolate-dipped biscotti “look good and are simple to make.” We couldn’t agree more. Faith Durand, meanwhile, likes to bake with olive oil so much she even made an olive oil cake for her wedding. “I think that the flavor of olive oil can add something really special to baked goods where you might not expect it,” writes Faith, managing editor of the fabulous food site, The Kitchn.

Her shortbread (photo above) “consists of hazelnuts, olive oil, and a touch of lemon — and very little else.” She used Bob’s Red Mill hazelnut meal. The ingredients can be mixed up in a matter of minutes and baked quickly. (Click here to go to the recipe.)

“They taste delicious too,” Faith adds. “Sweet, nutty, savory from the oil, and salty on the finish.”

We can’t wait to put them in our oven and to smell the lovely hazelnut aroma.

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

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Baking a Better Holiday: a Primer On Baking w/ Olive Oil – and Skipping Butter

Posted on December 9, 2011 by consumers

A topic we find gets lots of interest: how to use extra virgin olive oil in baking, including how to substitute it for butter in a recipe. Olive oil is lower in saturated fat than butter. Plus, it adds a good, nuanced flavor. So we asked baking gurus for tips and suggestions on using olive oil as part of our Baking a Better Holiday focus this month. Below is a Q&A.

Photo courtesy of www.artisanbreadinfive.com

How can I substitute olive oil in a baking recipe that calls for butter, like a cake?  

“Olive oil can replace butter and margarine in almost all baked goods,” says Sarah House, recipe specialist for Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods, the Oregon provider of high-quality flours and other natural foods. “I use a 3:4 ratio – 3 parts olive oil is equal to 4 parts butter.”

In other words: If a baking recipe calls for a stick of butter (8 tablespoons), for example, use 6 tablespoons of olive oil. (Click here to see a conversion table.)

Are there times when I should avoid using extra virgin olive oil in a baking recipe that calls for butter?

Yes. “The only time olive oil is not an acceptable substitute for solid fats is in recipes that require a lot of creaming of the butter and sugar (super light and fluffy cakes), or when the fat needs to stay solid, as in a frosting,” House says.

Can I substitute extra virgin olive oil in a baking recipe that calls for a different oil, like canola or vegetable oils?

Why not! Extra virgin olive oil tastes better than “neutral oils” like canola and vegetable oil.  “Any dessert that’s already made with some kind of vegetable oil is a candidate for trying,” award-winning cookbook author and dessert guru Alice Medrich says.

We’ve found you can substitute olive oil for other oils on a one-for-one basis. If a recipe, say, calls for half a cup of vegetable oil, use the same amount of extra virgin olive oil. We’ve done this with carrot and chocolate cakes.

Can I use any type of olive oil in baking?

Not if you want to improve the flavor of your baked good. Use a quality olive oil that tastes good. “Only use an olive oil that you enjoy eating on salads, as a bread dip etc.,” Matthew Kadey, a registered dietitian, recipe developer, and magazine writer whose work has appeared in EatingWell and Men’s Health, says. “If you don’t particularly like the taste of a highly processed olive oil, why sully your baking with it. As the old saw goes: ‘Never cook with a wine you wouldn’t want to drink.’”

What’s so bad about using any olive oil off the grocery shelf?

Ask House, of Bob’s Red Mill. She initially tried using an “inexpensive, off-the-shelf extra virgin olive oil” while developing a recipe for olive oil spelt cake with caramelized apples. (Click here to see the recipe for the cake.)

“Wow, was it obvious that I had used low-quality oil.  The flavor of the oil overpowered the rest of the cake and left a noticeable aftertaste,” House explains.  “When I baked the cake a second time using the California Olive Ranch extra virgin olive oil, the final product was so much better.  There was a lighter, more fragrant olive oil flavor that melded nicely with the nuttiness of the spelt and the warmth of cinnamon and the texture was lighter, almost velvety.”

Bon appétit,

Your friends at California Olive Ranch

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