Cooking with "This Will Make It Taste Good", by Vivian Howard

[blue_dolphin]

38 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

 

For some things, I have been willing to work with unpitted olives, but it's a real pain if you are just blending them into something. 

And I have to say those Castelvetranos cling to their pits most annoyingly. With kalamatas and lots of others, I can press on the olives to smash them and easily remove the pits.  Not those guys!

[rotuts]

I got two med. jars from Target

 

a while back.  w pits.

 

I had to taste them

 

thought about figuring out how to 

 

de-pit them.  gave up.

 

ate them., you know , letting them roll around dans le mouthe 

 

I must say , the olives themselves were a new , ' interesting ' taste

 

and I have not made LGD.

 

based on Chef VH's other combo's

 

Im sure it works better than fine

 

but for ' olives '  by them selves

 

Ill stick w Kalamata.

[BeeZee]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

And I have to say those Castelvetranos cling to their pits most annoyingly. With kalamatas and lots of others, I can press on the olives to smash them and easily remove the pits.  Not those guys!

It's time consuming, but I approach it as my zen moment...I treat them as I would a mango. Slice 2 "cheeks" off using a small paring knife, then the 2 narrow strips. The bits of flesh left on the pit are cook's treat.

[MetsFan5]

Wegmans sells them pitted. 

[rotuts]

@BeeZee 

 

a MicroMango  [ MM ]

 

wow !

[Shelby]

I can even get them pitted at the smaller grocery store I frequent.  They ain't cheap, but I can get them.

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

And I have to say those Castelvetranos cling to their pits most annoyingly. With kalamatas and lots of others, I can press on the olives to smash them and easily remove the pits.  Not those guys!

I know. I know. I try hard to forget.

[Shelby]

This makes me curious as to how the olive canners --makers---you know what I mean--get the pits out so well.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

I use something like this for olives and cherries.    Easy and  efficient.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

When I made LGD I used whole Castelvetranos and pitted them myself.  No big deal with an olive pitter.  I loved the Castelvetranos, LGD not so much.  I finished the batch of LGD but I doubt it will be made by me again.  Did I mention I loved the olives?  I thank Vivian for that.

 

 

[curls]

2 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

I use something like this for olives and cherries.    Easy and  efficient.

Yup, I use the same cherry pitter / olive pitter. It works on the Castelvetrano olives... there is some meat left on one side of the pit (makes a great cook's treat).

[liuzhou]

 

4 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

I use something like this for olives and cherries.    Easy and  efficient.

 

The first "one use" kitchen tool I ever bought was an olive pitter in a market in Desenzano del Garda, Italy in the eary 1970s. I still have it, but it's on the other side of the planet.

Here, I use this one which came free with a box of cherries when I was hospitalised 4 years ago.

 

Prior to acquiring this, I used the usual Chinese method of holding the olive ot cherry between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand and pushing a chopstick into the blunt end. Probably quicker than the dedicated tool and a chopstick is easier to clean!

Edited April 23, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

15 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

 

The first "one use" kitchen tool I ever bought was an olive pitter in a market in Desenzano del Garda, Italy in the eary 1970s. I still have it, but it's on the other side of the planet.

Here, I use this one which came free with a box of cherries when I was hospitalised 4 years ago.

 

Prior to acquiring this, I used the usual Chinese method of holding the olive ot cherry between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand and pushing a chopstick into the blunt end. Probably quicker than the dedicated tool and a chopstick is easier to clean!

 

But I suspect you have to aim.

 

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

But I suspect you have to aim.

 

 

If you can't aim the end of a chopstick into an olive at point blank, no tool is going to help you.

Edited April 23, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[Anna N]

Having dealt with these particular olives I’m having a hard time imagining how any of these methods would actually work. 

[blue_dolphin]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

Having dealt with these particular olives I’m having a hard time imagining how any of these methods would actually work. 

They didn't work for me.

I tried and failed with both the cherry pitter and chopstick.  My cherry pitter isn't really designed to accommodate these large olives.

I fished around in the jar and located a few small olives that I could orient correctly.  It took all my strength and eventually broke the olive in two pieces.  One small piece with a sharp fragment of pit went thru and the rest of the olive and most of the pit stayed on top. 

 

With the chopstick method, I usually set the cherries or olives on top of an empty bottle so the pits collect inside.  

With significant effort, I was eventually able to drive the olive into the bottle, pit and all.  Here we are about half way there:

 

I used the method @BeeZee described to cut up what I needed from this jar.  The rest will become marinated olives I can nibble one. 

[Anna N]

11 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

They didn't work for me.

Thank you. Thank you.
 

I used the same basic “treat it like a mini mango” method and enjoyed an abundance of cook’s treats. 

[TicTac]

You can also try to press the olives with the bottom of a pot/pan and then remove the pit - unless they are really firm, then this method will not work.

 

 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

18 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 

I used the same basic “treat it like a mini mango” method and enjoyed an abundance of cook’s treats. 

Only problem is that regardless of how luscious the remnant tidbits are, they lose their allure after the first pint of olives.    Cherry pits, on the other hand, come away clean, leaving no debris.

[liuzhou]

26 minutes ago, Anna N said:

I used the same basic “treat it like a mini mango” method

 

Ah!, but did you then hedgehog cut the olives à la mangue?

[Anna N]

5 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

Ah!, but did you then hedgehog cut the olives à la mangue?

That would’ve been a bridge too far!

[heidih]

On 4/22/2021 at 1:03 PM, blue_dolphin said:

And I have to say those Castelvetranos cling to their pits most annoyingly. With kalamatas and lots of others, I can press on the olives to smash them and easily remove the pits.  Not those guys!

Yes what I do is slice off sides and put leavings in mouth as cooks treat. We used  to do same with tight to pit plums. 

[blue_dolphin]

I made a new batch of V's Nuts p 266 with walnuts and used some in the Little Bit Scrappy, Little Bit Rock 'n' Roll... Parfait p 279 from This Will Make It Taste Good

I used Grape Nuts for the cereal and strawberries for the fruit. 

The sweet/spicy nuts were an excellent addition to this fruit/yogurt/cereal breakfast bowl. Once I blitzed the full-fat Greek yogurt with the ripe banana, orange zest and juice, it was about the consistency of a smoothie, not something layer-able. I ended up straining the mixture and putting it in the iSi whip to make a yogurt foam. Fun, but next time I'll just put sliced banana in with the other fruit and skip the blender business.

[heidih]

I thought of you guys when I saw @David Lebovitz post about seedy furikake crackers. Maybe another use for V's furikake mix?  https://www.davidlebovitz.com/furikake-seedy-recipe-gregory-gourdet-crackers-gluten-free/#more-50080

[blue_dolphin]

2 hours ago, heidih said:

I thought of you guys when I saw @David Lebovitz post about seedy furikake crackers. Maybe another use for V's furikake mix?  https://www.davidlebovitz.com/furikake-seedy-recipe-gregory-gourdet-crackers-gluten-free/#more-50080

 

Yep, I saw that and making it with Quirky Furki was the first thing that came to my mind!