HERBAL REFRESHMENT

In my herb garden is a little shrub that I had thought was manzanilla, chamomile. When it began to flower, I started looking for ways—besides the familiar, soothing tea—to use chamomile.

Manzanilla--dried chamomile flowers.

I found an intriguing recipe in Food & Wine magazine that called for cooking chicken with chamomile flowers and, on a blog, the idea of infusing cream with chamomile, chilling it and whipping it to serve with berries. 

But, when I picked the yellow flowers and sniffed them, the scent was definitely not chamomile! (Still haven’t identified my mistaken-identity herb.) By then, I was launched on my chamomile project, so I visited the herboristería in my local market and bought a packet of dried manzanilla flowers.

Three kinds of manzanilla--wine, olives, herb.

Chamomile in Spanish is manzanilla. In Spain, three unrelated products are called manzanilla. One is the herb, chamomile (matricaria recutita), commonly used as an infusion; another is Manzanilla Sherry, a fino made in Sanlucar de Barrameda, and the third is a variety of olive tree grown in Andalusia and source of the world-famous Sevilla olives.

"Manzanilla" means “little apple” and the herb apparently was named in Greek for the resemblance of the flower to a little apple. However, the wine takes its name from the town of Manzanilla (in the province of Huelva, near the Sherry district), which traditionally made a similar style of wine. The olive variety, as far as I can tell, is named because the fat olives somewhat resemble “little apples.” I also detect a slight similarity in flavor in all three—a bitter apple, subtly saline taste—but, perhaps that is only the power of a name.

Chamomile tea and a shot of anise.

In herbal medicine, chamomile is traditionally used as an antimicrobial, antiinflammatory and antispasmodic. The tea is prescribed for colic or any stomach upset. My midwife used a dilute solution of chamomile to wash the eyes of my newborn son. Andalusian campesinos (field workers) start the day with chamomile tea and a shot of strong aguardiente, anise brandy.  Chamomile makes a good hair rinse for blondes, to bring out golden highlights. It’s a soothing bath for prickly skin.

I chose to turn manzanilla into summer refreshment.

Limonada con Manzanilla

  Herbal Lemonade

When life gives you lemons--

 Inspired by a bucket of end-of-season lemons, I made a chamomile-infused, whole-lemon lemonade. Very refreshing on its own, it would also be a bitter-lemon mixer for an alcoholic tall drink. (Try it with aguardiente, an anise liqueur.) You will have to sweeten the lemonade to taste—I used stevia, a non-calorie sweetener—and dilute it with water to take the edge off the bitterness.

Made with whole lemons, this chamomile-infused lemonade has a grown-up bitter taste. Sweeten to taste.

4 cups water
4 chamomile tea bags (or about 2 tablespoons dried chamomile flowers)
Sugar or stevia (about ¼ cup)
3 whole lemons
1-2 cups water
Ice cubes to serve

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add the tea bags or flowers. Cover and let the tea steep until cool. Remove tea bags or strain out flowers.
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In blender or food processor, chop the lemons with 2 cups of the tea and sugar or sweetener. Strain the lemon water, discarding the solids. Add remaining tea and 1 to 2 cups more water. Chill the lemonade.

Serve cold with ice cubes.

Gin con Manzanilla
Chamomile Gin

Herb-infused gin and tonic. Cool.

Gin already has a herbal, botanical essence. Steeping chamomile in it adds another dimension. Use the infused gin for cocktails or for that ever-popular summer refresher, gin-tonic.

7 chamomile teabags (or 3 tablespoons chamomile flowers)
Zest of 1 lemon
2 cups gin

Open the tea bags and place the contents in a jar with the lemon zest. Add the gin. Close tightly and infuse for 24 hours or up to 1 week. Pour through a fine strainer. Store in a tightly stoppered bottle. 

Triple-Manzanilla Martini

Manzanilla (herb) in the gin, Manzanilla (wine) in the martini and Manzanilla (olive)  in the cocktail.

Manzanilla multiplied by 3: chamomile-infused gin, Manzanilla Sherry and Manzanilla olives.

Makes 2 cocktails.

Manzanilla olives
Cracked ice
4 oz chamomile gin (recipe above)
1 oz Manzanilla Sherry

Chill the martini cocktail glasses. Place 2 olives in each.

Place ice in a jar or cocktail shaker. Add the gin and Manzanilla Sherry. Shake or stir. Strain the martini into the cocktail glasses and serve.

Gin with chamomile. Cocktails?

JUMPING ON THE OLIVE BANDWAGON

¡PRACTICA EL ACEITUNING!  Before you say “Gesundheit!” to “aceituning,” let me remind you that the Spanish word for “olive” is aceituna. Olivo, a word that comes from the Romans, is an olive tree, but aceituna, from the Arabic, is the fruit of that tree.

Practica el aceituning is the catchy slogan for the grand marketing campaign rolled out this week by the producers of table olives. Spain is the world’s principal producer and exporter of table olives. What is aceituning? “To add original and creative seasonings to commercially bottled olives from Spain.”

Some examples: olives with pesto, cheese and salt cod; black olives with cayenne and orange peel; green olives with goat cheese, honey and hazelnuts; black olives with strawberries, tomato and PX vinegar; olives with soy sauce and ginger. (See more recipes.)

Brining my olives.

I’m practicing aceituning in my own way. I just put my hand-picked olives into salmuera, a brine seasoned with garlic, thyme and fennel. They should be ready to eat in a couple of weeks. I’m also using store-bought olives in some new ways.

Queen-sized Gordal olives.

The most familiar Spanish table olives are Manzanilla, sometimes marketed as “Seville” olives. Manzanilla is the name of the variety of olive tree. It produces a plump, meaty olive. Manzanillas make up the bulk of Spain’s table olive production, but the fat Gordal olive (also called “queen”) is another favorite commercial table olive.

The olives are hand-picked when still green. The curing process entails first soaking in an alkaline solution to remove the bitterness. Then the olives are left in a brine to ferment, which converts the olives’ natural sugars into lactic acid. This is what gives them that wonderful tangy flavor. They are canned or bottled whole and unpitted, pitted and stuffed.

Black olives are picked green.

Most olive varieties, when fully ripe, turn a purplish color, not black. Black olives that you buy in a can—gorgeous for garnishing salads and cold dishes—are not really ripe olives. They are picked green, processed in alkaline solution, then the black color is fixed by oxidation.

These are by no means the only olives in Spain. Every olive-producing region has its particular varieties and methods of curing and flavoring olives.

In Andalusia, you might sample aceitunas partidas, green olives (Manzanilla, Hojiblanca or Morisco)  that have been cracked to split them open, then brine-cured (no alkaline is used). They may be flavored with thyme, fennel, cloves of garlic, slices of lemon, oregano and strips of red pepper.

Split and brine-cured.

In Extremadura and La Mancha, ripe Cornicabra and Cacereña olives are prepared rayado, incised with a sharp blade, then cured in brine and flavored with local herbs. Arbequina is the varietal best-known in Catalonia, especially Lérida. These are tiny olives with a delicate flavor, simply brine-cured. The Empeltre olives of Aragón and Navarre are cured in brine when they reach a purplish-black degree of ripeness. In Murcia and Alicante, the Cuquillo olive is cured when nearly black.

You can add flavor to bottled, store-bought olives by draining them, then marinating for two days in salt water with slivered garlic, fresh or dried thyme,  sliced lemon and a splash of extra virgin olive oil. Or, practice some extreme aceituning and get a little adventuresome.

Olive Bread with Sardines. Inspiration for this recipe comes from a recipe booklet published by the board of the Denominación de Origen Protegida Aloreña de Málaga. The Aloreña olive is a type of brine-cured Manzanilla.  The recipe calls for a sort of focaccia bread made with Aloreña olives and roasted red pepper, topped with grilled sardines, olive “air,” and a smear of strawberry alioli. The bread recipe didn’t work so well for me and the “air” required techniques and ingredients with which I am not familiar. So I topped the bread with canned sardines and stacked some sliced Aloreña olives on top. The strawberry alioli (garlic mayonnaise) was, uh, interesting.

 Potato-Olive Salad. I “aceituned” a typical Spanish potato salad, papas aliñadas, by upping the proportion of olives. For 1 cup of diced, cooked potatoes, I used 1 cup of pitted brine-cured olives. (Split olives are easily pitted by pressing them on a board to squeeze out the pits.) Other ingredients are diced tomato, parsley, green onions, chunks of tuna, hard-cooked egg, olive oil and Sherry vinegar.

Olive-Cream Cheese Dip. This is incredibly easy! In a blender or mini processor, blend 1 cup softened cream cheese, 2 cloves garlic, 2 tablespoons chopped onion, ½ teaspoon pimentón de la Vera (smoked paprika), and ½ teaspoon ground cumin. Add 1 cup pitted green Manzanilla olives and process until they are coarsely chopped. Serve with regañás  or any crisp crackers for dipping.

Black Olive, Corn and Avocado Salsa. Relish, salsa or salad?  Combine equal quantities of pitted black olives, corn kernels and chopped avocado with roasted red pepper, scallions, chile to taste, olive oil, lemon juice and a garnish of cilantro. Because olives are salty, you may not need to add salt.

COCKTAILS WITH SPANISH FLAIR

The first time I encountered a mixed drink made with Sherry—a Sherry-tini—I  was horrified. I guess I’m a purist—I like my fino Sherry straight up and chilled, in a proper stemmed Sherry copa. Likewise, it seems a shame to mess with a mellow amontillado or palo cortado.

Nevertheless, I must admit that Sherry, slightly nutty, lightly fruity, a tiny bit salty, adds complexity and depth of flavor to a cocktail. It’s anyway more interesting than vermouth. I decided to give it a whirl. Or shake. Or stir.

By the way, Sherry is a protected denomination for wines made in the region of southern Spain around Jerez. (That’s why I always write Sherry with a capital “S”.) It comes in several types. The driest one is pale fino. One sort of fino comes only from Sanlucar de Barrameda and is called manzanilla. So far, I’ve only experimented with fino in cocktails, but I am guessing that oloroso Sherry, on the sweet spectrum, might make a good mixer.

Gorgeous autumnal weather is a fine excuse for a cocktail party. Here are two to try, plus a recipe for cheese puffs to accompany the drinks.

Sherrytini Cocktail

Dry Sherry stands in for vermouth in this twist on a classic martini. If you use manzanilla Sherry, spike the drinks with manzanilla olives. If you choose dry fino, finish with a twist of orange peel. Warming the twist over a lighted match releases the citrus fragrance. Chill the martini glasses before mixing the cocktail.

Makes 4 cocktails.

8 olives or 4 twists orange peel
Cracked ice
8 oz gin
2 oz manzanilla or fino Sherry

Stick olives on 4 picks and place in four chilled martini cocktail glasses. Or, if using orange peel, hold each strip of peel, skin side down, briefly over a lighted match. Drop the orange peels into cocktail glasses.

Place ice in a jar or cocktail shaker. Add the gin and Sherry. Shake or stir. Strain the Sherrytini into the cocktail glasses and serve.

Sherry-Lemon Cocktail

Makes 4 cocktails.

Grenadine is pomegranate syrup. It gives a fruity flavour and a deep blush to this cocktail. If available, add a few ruby seeds from a fresh pomegranate to the drink. Brandy de Jerez is Spanish brandy from the same region where Sherry is made.

Cracked ice
4 fl oz dry Sherry
4 fl oz Brandy de Jerez
6 tablespoons grenadine syrup
4 tablespoons lemon juice
4 strips lemon peel

Put the ice in a cocktail shaker. Pour over the Sherry, brandy, grenadine and lemon juice. Shake the cocktail. Strain into four cocktail glasses. Hold each twist of lemon peel, skin side down, briefly over a lighted match and drop it into the cocktail.

Buñuelos de Queso
Cheese Puffs

Vary the flavour by choosing different cheeses. Manchego is excellent, but smoked Idiazábal will give the puffs a different dimension. The puffs can be fried or baked.

Makes about 45 puffs.

1 cup water
½ teaspoon salt
Pinch of thyme
Pinch of cayenne
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup plain flour
4 eggs
2 cups grated cheese
Olive oil for deep frying

Place the water, salt, thyme, cayenne and oil in a pan. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and add the flour all at once, stirring hard with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Remove from heat and allow to stand 2 minutes.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Thoroughly mix in one egg before adding the next. Stir in the grated cheese.

Place oil in a deep frying pan to a depth of 1 in and heat it until shimmering,  360ºF. Dip two teaspoons in oil. Scoop up batter with one spoon and use the other to push the batter into the hot oil. Don’t crowd the pan. Puffs will bob to the surface. Carefully turn them so they brown on both sides. Remove when golden, 2 to 3 minutes, and drain on paper towels.  Serve immediately.

Variation: Bake the cheese puffs instead of frying them. Line an oven tin with baking parchment. Drop spoonfuls of the batter at least 1 in apart. Bake in preheated oven, 375ºF, until golden, 30 minutes.