We have two lovely olive trees in our garden, and I decided that I really should try and do something with the olives.
So using my day off, I decided to dabble in curing my own olives. I have no idea how it is going to turn out but I am going to give it a go.
After looking at lots of different curing methods, I settled on something that looked the simplest.
I love black olives, so I picked the olives on the trees that were starting to ripen. Olives can be stored in any jar that you would use for preserves.
I sterilised a couple of jars by boiling them.
Whilst the jars were sterilising, I cut a slit each side of each olive down to the stone.
Once all the olives were ready I added them to the jar and then covered in a mixture of rock salt and tap water. About 50g of salt to 500ml of water. I then weighted down the olives to ensure they stay under the brine using a plastic bag filled with a little water.
The salt helps remove the bitterness from the olives and darkens them. I have read that I now need to replace the liquid around the olives every week to 10 days for four weeks. Following this you can create a nice marinade for them using olive oil, pepper corns, lemons and bay leaves.
They look pretty next to my preserved limes, which are going down a treat in our curries and with couscous.
I will keep you posted on the olives.
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