A brine-cured black olive grown in Greece though in Love Hypothesis the book authored by Ali Hazelwood, the character refers to the heroine simply as Kalamata.
I’m not going to be all cliché and tell you that the book made me love olives but I can tell you that it made me want to know more about olives.
Black olives, revered for their versatile role in gastronomy, demand a meticulous approach to achieve their optimal form, whether as a standalone delicacy or an embellishment to culinary creations like pizza. To tread this culinary path successfully, one must pay heed to the principles of precision and patience.
Ingredients:
Three kilograms of black olives.
A modest amount of oil.
Three cups of vinegar.
One kilogram of coarse salt, a substance that plays a pivotal role in their preservation.
Mind you, the quantities mentioned above are estimations.
Now let’s start the process.
Step 1: Prepare an ample volume of boiling water, commensurate with the quantity of black olives in need of preservation. Submerge the olives briefly in this scalding bath.
Step 2: Subsequently, the olives are dramatically laid out under the benevolent rays of the sun for a period extending from one to two days, contingent upon the atmospheric conditions. They should be periodically turned to ensure uniform drying until they reach a state of complete desiccation.
Step 3: In the ensuing stage, place the black olives into a suitable container, where they shall coexist with a proportionate quantity of water, salt, and, on occasion, a trace of lemon. This infusion of acidity and salinity is instrumental in the preservation of these culinary pearls. The olives are then to be left in this container in a warm environment for a week, during which weight is judiciously placed atop to facilitate the absorption of salt and ensure compactness.
Step 4: Following the designated week, relieve the olives of their weighty burden and decant the brine within the container. The olives are retained and gently rotated while being conscientious to maintain the integrity of their arrangement for the purpose of adequate water drainage. A fresh layer of salt is then applied atop the olives, subsequently resealed with the weight, and allowed to rest for yet another week.
Step 5: The cycle of salinity is to be repeated, ideally, three to four times, following the same procedure.
Step 6: Following this immersion, the olives are transferred into a smaller jar, with judicious additions of oil, vinegar, or lemon to foster a harmonious synergy of flavors.
Step 7: When the moment arrives to partake of these meticulously preserved olives, a ritualistic cleansing with vinegar or a modest drizzle of olive oil is prescribed to revive their dormant savors.
This whole process of filtration which should be smoothly carried out slowly, can take a whole week or more until the olives turn out to be edible.
it’s okay! you can thank me for the lessons learnt! English, chemistry, Geography and PATIENCE to be precise!
if you’ve read love hypothesis, I am sending you love kalamata.