To All Things Olives

Going the distance: as far as they can see

I first gained an inkling of the labourious process of making olives tastily edible in an episode of "The Food Lover's Guide to Australia". The freshly picked fruit has to be immersed in salted, flavoured water for weeks on end. And the water has to be changed a couple of times within that time frame! However, if you have a recipe on par with the way Coriole gets their kalamata olives up to scratch, by all means bottle that. Otherwise, do as I do: buy a dozen packages from this winery when I'm next in South Australia. It's so good it's definitely worth carting all of them back to Singapore.

And you'll be amazed how quickly I'll go through the dozen. You see, they make wonderful after five nibbles with that glass of pinot grigio. And like any good crisps, you can't ever stop at one. Yes, they are that additive!

Then generously toss them pitted and whole onto a tomato passata-ed pizza base that's been slapped with lip-smacking delicious slices of salami and three cheeses. Although the olives stick out like UFOs, they hold up  to the oven's heat pretty well - neither burning up or shrivering.

Or slice the pitted olives up and patiently stir them into a basil, mushroom and garlic tomato pasta sauce. Well, not that patiently, as it doesn't take that long for the olive slices to completely dissolve and disappear into the rich gravy; enriching it ever so slightly ever.

Or you can toss the pitted olives into a food processor, along with sprigs of fresh rosemary and a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. And keep the machine switched on high till a smooth paste is formed. This then naturally becomes a great succulent crust slabbed over the portions of meat on each lamb cutlet, after the seasoned red meat has been sitting in high heat for about fifteen minutes. And this offers a balanced contrast from the Greek-inspired lemon-spliced fresh salad of halved cherry tomatoes, whole kidney beans, sprite-ly green koo chye and crumbled marinated feta.  

The versatility of this delicious savoury fruit holds no bars to your leaps and bounces on the culinary balance beam. Only the limits of our imagination will hold it back from going for a perfect ten.