Wednesday, December 15, 2010

OLIVES!!!!!!

Been meaning to post this for some time, but boy..... it's been very (positively) hectic lately!  It was olive picking season here in Cyprus a couple of months ago, back in October, although we were actually a bit late with our picking.  These pictures were taken in mid-November, and we were lucky to find a tree in our friend's field that still had green olives for preparing "tsakistes" (crushed olives), the most delicious way of preparing olives!


This is my husband and me picking the olives from the tree

So, the way you prepare the olives is by first smashing open EACH one with a rock or hammer, hard enough to split the skin but not so hard that you break the pit.  This is my daughter helping me.

Next step is to fill the bucket with olives with plain water.  You need to change the water about 2-3 times a day for about 8 days.  This will get rid of the extreme bitterness that renders them inedible when not cured.

So oily!  Feels good on the skin :0)



After about 8 days you need to prepare a salt bath and let the olives soak in there for another 24 hours.  You can see that the color has changed already

Next, you pack them up into small bundles, leave a few in the refrigerator and the rest go in the freezer, to be eaten at our own (fast) pace.

Before eating you need to make one last preparation:  In a bowl put the amount of olives you want, peel a few garlic cloves and split them in half length-wise, crush some coriander seeds (as much as you like), pour some olive oil and some lemon juice!

Now you are ready to enjoy these excitingly delicious olives.  We eat them at an increadibly fast pace because they are soooooo delicious and irresistible.  They go with just about anything......  Even breakfast :0)




6 comments:

  1. What a luxury to be able to make you own prepared olives ! They really look delicious !

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  2. yeah, but you gotta love doing this sort of thing (which i do), but nowadays so many people don't care about preparing things from scratch and prefer to go to the supermarket and find everything ready :0/ anyway, the taste of these olives is truly AMAZING

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  3. how yummy! save some so you can bring them on your next trip here! :-)

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  5. I've always wondered about olives...unfortunately Central Pennsylvania is known for it's apples & blueberries & we've never seen an olive that wasn't canned or in jars. Thanks so much for sharing this...I would love to share with my blogger friends, your link and a small article. I originally found you on stumble upon...I dabble in crochet & knitting and really loved your necklaces. Looking forward to reading more!
    Melinda
    www.orrtec.blogspot.com

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