preserved food

olives

Olives should be prepared in autumn,There are 3 varieties of olives : black, green and violet.
Pick them over first before preserving.

violet olives

For 10 kg (22 lbs) of violet olives the following ingredients are required : 30 kh (66 lbs) of bitter oran gers (elranj) which should be bought 40 days after the olives. 2kg 1/2 of salt (5 ibs 8 oZ)

1. Choose violet olives (between green and black) . Make an incision from top to bottom of the olive as far as the stone. Wash and place in a jar or bottles, covering them in water. Seal and leave in this water for a month.

2. After a month, change the water, seal again and leave for a further 10 days.

3. At the end of this period, wash, peel and quarter the bitter oranges, taking care to mix immediately with the salt, and pass through a vegetable sieve, Empty the water from the bottles of olives and replace it with the juice of the bitter oranges, taking care to fill right up to the brim again .close the bottles again.if there is not enough juice to cover, fill up with water. Do not eat for 4 or 5 days.

green olives

10 kg (22 ibs) green olives

Break the olives with a stone, wash them and place in bottles filled with water. Change the water morning and night for three days. Once the olives are no longer bitter, stop changing the water, but otherwise go on doing so every 2 days until the olives mellow. Cover with water right up to the brim and be careful to close the bottles properly, Always take the olives out with a perfectly clean spoon or ladle. These olives can be eaten as fhey are with a little salt or used te accompany tajines.

black olives

1. Clean the olives and throw away any that are over-ripe or crushed; wash carefully. Mix with salt and leave to dram in a reed basket. Tilt the basket slightly by propping it against a large stone and put several other stones on top of the olives to press fhem. They will exude a black liquid.

2 After 5 days, spread the olives out on a plastic cloth in the Sun br a whole day, then put them back in the basket with the stones on top for a further 5 days. Do this 3 more times after the same Iapse of time.

3. After the third time, puf the olives in the sun for 2 days running, then smear with groundnut oil. The olives are ready to eat. Put them in bottles stuffing them in tightly wifh the palm of the hand so that the olives do not go dry. Cover carefully.