Liquid Olives

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
1

Anybody tried spherification yet? I have my “Texturas” but have yet to make an attempt, but planned on giving it a go with the ‘classic’ liquid olives.

Here’s my one question. (And this looks like about the easiest thing in the world to make, even though it is a showstopper to serve.)

In one place I have read that one should use “uncured green olives” (and one of Jose Andres chef’s is being quoted).

Can that be completely correct? An uncured olive will taste nasty. A juiced uncured olive will taste nasty. A liquid olive made from the juice of an uncured olive will taste nasty, no?

I know you store in a jar with EVOO and herbs - maybe that infuses the little critters with some flavor - but I would think the spherification would be a barrier against infusing.

Maybe I should just make caviar out of canteloupe, first.

Thoughts?

2

I have made the mistake of trying an olive directly off of the tree in Napa…will never make that mistake again. I cannot imagine that any olive product (non oil) can be even remotely palatable without brining.

3

I did that when I first moved out here. I had that taste in my mouth for half the day. [bleh.gif]

4

Olives are one of those foods that make you wonder exactly how high our ancestors were.
Any normal species would take one taste and decide that they weren’t worth bothering with ever again, no matter how plentiful they might be.

5

So what do you guys think - do I just get raw olives and puree them? Do I get something that is canned in a neutral ingredient?

6

To be honest with you I don’t know what you are talking about. The only liquid olives I know of are olive juice and olive oil.

7

And whoever ate the first raw oyster was a very brave person.

8

Ferran Adria invented them. He’s big on spherification. Puree them. Strain them. Then you mix a bit sodium gluconate in the juice and sodium alginate in some water. Spoon in little olive size bits of juice into the water solution, and the chemicals react to form a very thin “skin” (the longer in, the thicker the skin). Fish em out, rinse with water, and you have these olive shaped spheres that taste like olives but are liquid. Eleven Madison Park in New York is using them, too. You can store them in EVOO with garlic and herbs. They are tasty - the essense of olive - and quite a thing to see.

Another fun spherification trick is making “caviar” out of cantaloupe juice. But it works with lots of liquids. But I figured I’d start with the classic! But since you are tasting the raw ingredient, I have been concerned about the raw olives.

9

Just don’t try that in Italy:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/food-politics-one-country-wages-war-on-molecular-gastronomy-1915900.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

10

Well obviously sodium gluconate is a salt, so this would seem to be the ingredient in the “brining” process. I’m assuming since the olives are pureed, the brining happens rapidly because the olive is broken down rather than whole as is normal. In looking this up on line, every recipe says use uncured olives, so I’m they must know what they are talking about.
I guess you learn something new every day.

11
12

Interesting to watch, but now I’m even more confused.
The olives in the jar looks like they might have been cured. [dontknow.gif]

13

They sure do.

14

If he wants to attract Landreth he’ll have to start working on this dish

Spherical cow - Wikipedia" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

15

Nice…very nice.