DINNER, OFF THE SHELF

What’s for dinner? I’ve got a couple of chicken breasts in the fridge, but chicken breasts can be pretty dull without something to jazz them up. Here’s an open can of piquillo peppers, a jar of anchovy-stuffed Sevilla olives, most of a can of chopped tomatoes, an open bottle of Manzanilla Sherry---  Sounds like a plan! Chicken breasts, Sevilla style, with olives. Cans of olives on the pantry shelf provide the perfect way to jazz up foods from chicken to meat to fish to vegetables to salads to grains.

 

Chicken breasts finish cooking in a sofrito of red peppers and olives.

The recipe, chicken breasts Sevilla style, takes the name of Sevilla because that province in Andalusia (southern Spain) is a top producer of table olives, which are widely used in the traditional cooking. (Spain, according to ASEMESA ,  the Association of Spanish Table Olive Exporters, is the world leader in table olive production.)

I served the chicken with a side of quinoa, which, incidentally, also is produced in Sevilla province.

Chicken Breasts with Sevilla Olive Sauce
Pechuga de Pollo a la Sevillana

Slice large breasts and serve with some of the olive sauce.

Quinoa is a nice side with the chicken and tangy olive sauce. Beans from the garden.

Use small chicken breasts, one per serving (about 5 ounces each), or two or three larger ones. Small ones can be served whole; large ones need to be sliced before serving. Adjust cooking times for size. Breasts can be skinned or not, as you like.

Use Sevilla-style pitted manzanilla olives, preferably stuffed with anchovies. Use the brine from the olives as part of the cooking liquid. Manzanilla is fino Sherry from Sanlucar de Barrameda, down the Guadalquivir river from Sevilla. Any dry Sherry can be substituted. No canned piquillo peppers? Use any roasted and peeled red pepper or fresh bell pepper.

Serves 4.

20 ounces boneless chicken breasts
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped piquillo peppers or red bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Red pepper flakes, to taste
1 cup chopped tomatoes (canned or fresh)
1/3 cup fino Sherry manzanilla
1/3 cup olive brine
Sprig of thyme
1 cup drained and pitted manzanilla olives, sliced or coarsely chopped

Sprinkle the chicken breasts generously with salt and pepper and allow them to come to room temperature.

Heat the oil in a skillet and brown the breasts on both sides. Remove them from the pan.

Add the onion, peppers and garlic to the skillet and sauté until onions are softened, about 5 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes and tomatoes, turn up the heat and fry until tomatoes are slightly reduced, 5 minutes.

Add the manzanilla, olive brine and sprig of thyme. Simmer about 8 minutes. Return the chicken breasts to the pan. Cook, covered, until they are just cooked through, about 10 minutes for large, thick ones.

Add the olives to the pan and cook 2 minutes longer.

Slice chicken breasts to serve.

Remove the breasts to a cutting board. Allow them to rest 5 minutes, then slice them on the diagonal. Serve the chicken with the olive-pepper sauce.

Olive and red pepper sauce.

"HAVE AN OLIVE DAY!"  By coincidence, my recipe using table olives coincides with the launch of a campaign to promote Spanish table-olives in the US. Chef José Andrés, Michelin-starred restaurateur and recipient of a 2015 National Humanities Medal in the US, unveiled the campaign at Spanish restaurant, Toro, in New York on May 17. Sponsored by the Spanish Inter-Professional Table Olive Organization from Spain, the campaign will run through 2019 and will educate US consumers on the different variations of olives and their culinary uses.”

Some more recipes with olives, to see you through the next two years of “olive days”:

Milled Olives.
Marinated Bonito with Olives.
Grilled Duck Breast with Olive Sauce.
 Black Olive, Corn and Avocado Salsa.
Potato-Olive Salad.
Málaga Salad with Oranges and Olives.
Olive Bread with Sardines.
Olive-Cream Cheese Dip.
Olivada Spread.
Black Olive Tapenade.
Green Olive Spread.
Salt-Cod Ajoarriero with Black Olives.
Tagine of Chicken with Olives.

About Manzanilla: http://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2015/07/herbal-refreshment.html

OLIVES--THE TASTE TEST

A few weeks ago I wrote about the big, fat Spanish olives that I pick from my trees, put to soak until they are sweet, then cure in garlic-seasoned brine. I said I’d report back on the success of the various batches. So, here are the season’s tasting notes, plus, I am re-posting the original article, as it had code embedded in the text.

I made three jugs of olives, all of the large Manzanilla variety. The olives in the first were rayadas, incised with a blade, then soaked in water for about three weeks. I prepared a brine according to my own directions below—7 tablespoons salt for every 4 cups of water. The olives turned out nice and crisp—but they’re quite salty. Now I’m diluting the brine and placing the olives in smaller jars.

The second batch I prepared in the traditional manner—smacking them with a stone to split open the flesh. I used less salt, only 5 tablespoons for every 4 cups of water. These olives are soft, a little mushy. I think the cracking technique is better suited to a firmer variety of olives.

For the third jug, I used a tool to pit the olives. Picked green, they are firm enough to stand up to pitting. They needed less than two weeks in water to sweeten and they have a great texture. Plus, now I can stuff them with strips of piquillo pepper, anchovies, pickled garlic.


MY BIG FAT SPANISH OLIVES
 (originally posted November 7)

I like to tell my guests that the olives they are nibbling come from the tree they’re sitting under. But, no, don’t reach up and pluck one! Straight from the tree, they are impossibly bitter and astringent. Olives need a curing process to make them edible.

That’s what I’m doing this week, picking, sorting, cracking and soaking olives that will become table olives, eating olives. They are picked green—soon after the first fall rains soak the parched earth and plump up the olives.

Most of my olive trees are varieties usually pressed for oil. But I have several Manzanilla trees that produce big fat, fleshy olives, the same kind you usually find in jars at the supermarket. But the home-cured ones are very different from commercial olives. Commercial olives are soaked in an alkaline solution (lye) to remove the bitterness. The home-cured ones require nothing more than water and salt, plus seasoning.

I prepare my olives in the Andalusian style that I learned from local country people many years ago.

First, the olives must be cracked with a stone or small hammer to split them open. This allows the soaking liquid to quickly penetrate to the pit. Uncracked olives require months to sweeten; split ones take about three weeks. I wear old clothes because smacking olives splatters oil everywhere. I’ve also tried the method from Extremadura, where olives are rayado, incised with a sharp blade. (I resisted buying a rough wooden tool that had both a clapper for splitting open the olives and a hole with blades for slitting them.) As an experiment this year, I used a little gizmo, like a hole-punch, to remove the pits from some of the olives. (I’ll report back on whether this was successful or not.) 


I place the olives in small earthenware jugs, orsas.  I cover them with water. Just water at this stage. I use non-chlorinated well water. It’s extremely hard water (high in calcium, demonstrated by limescale on my kettle), which I think may help keep the olives crisp. I drain off the water and refresh it every two or three days until, when tasted, the olives are no longer bitter. Defining bitter is definitely subjective. I bought some cured olives at the market a few days ago that I would say were still really bitter. It’s a matter of taste. I let mine soak, changing the water every few days, until they are really sweet. That takes about three weeks. 

The olives are then immersed in brine, where they continue to cure, as well as take on flavor. Years ago, I learned that the brine should be strong enough to float an egg. Believe me, that can vary depending on the freshness of the egg! Optimal measures: measure the water required to cover the olives. Use 7 tablespoons of kosher salt or any non-iodized salt for every 4 cups of water. (Or less—see tasting notes above.)

Now comes the flavoring. In my village, traditional flavoring for olives  includes quartered lemons, unpeeled cloves of garlic, sprigs of thyme and flowering bracts of fennel. Elsewhere in Spain, I have sampled olives flavored with strips of red pepper, chile, oregano, vinegar.

Although the olives are ready to eat in a few days, flavor develops as  fermentation continues. After about a month, I pack the olives into clean jars and refrigerate them. Without conservatives, they last for many months.

That is, they last if I haven’t given them all away by Christmas.  Friends say they are the best olives they have ever tasted.

You can buy home-cure style olives from open stock at many markets in Spain. They are dipped into plastic bags along with some of the brine. Olives travel well—drain off the brine, then put them in a fresh brine when you get them back home.

You can add flavor to bottled, store-bought olives. Buy unpitted Seville olives (big Manzanillas). Drain them and rinse well. Marinate them for two days with slivered garlic, salt, sprigs of fresh or dried thyme, a sliced lemon and a little extra virgin olive oil.

In Spain, olives are enjoyed as a tapa and alongside meals. They top typical salads, from mixed greens to exotic orange, onion and salt cod. They are used rarely in cooking, although duck with olives is a Seville classic. Olivada is an olive pâté, sensational spread on toasts.

Olivada
Green Olive Spread

This is best made with home-cured brined olives (squeeze them to remove the pits), but pitted olives from a jar can be substituted. Serve this olive purée as a dip, sandwich spread or sauce to accompany roast lamb, grilled fish or boiled potatoes. The spread keeps, refrigerated, for a week.

Makes 1 cup spread.

1 ½ cups drained and pitted green olives
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons dry Sherry
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend until smoothly puréed. Serve cold or room temperature.