Hi all, I’m back. After a long and interesting travel through Greece and some of the coast of Turkey it is good to be home. Back to family and Melbourne in the middle of winter.
I ate some great food, and of course, some bad food while travelling. The worst was on Greek ferry boats (I’m sure many of you know this pain) and the best was in the world heritage village Alacati, Turkey. I sent some articles while away but dragging a suitcase around and chasing ferry boats is not the best way to seek creative inspiration.
But, despite the hustle and bustle, I did collect some interesting recipes. So here’s some background for this week’s recipe theme. It came to my attention that many Greek sweets use olive oil and not butter. It is easy to deduce why. Olive oil has always been available, while butter was, until the ’60s, a luxury commodity.
Olive oil sweets also go hand-in-hand with Greek tradition. Greek olive oil sweets were a delicacy during the forty-day fasting culture and added a healthy break to the sometimes bland food options in the vegan cookbook. There are countless recipes for sweets with olive oil that are traditional. An outstanding example are melomakarona, a Greek housewife’s bread and butter, minus the butter. In Neapoli, Laconia, classic melomakarona aren’t only made with olive oil in the dough, they are fried in olive oil as opposed to oven-baked. In Levidi, Arcadia, the traditional butter-infused kourambiedes are made with olive oil. And don’t forget the trusty dipla, fried in olive oil and finished off with honey syrup, walnuts and cinnamon. We should pay homage to the accompanying ingredients that make up a good Greek sweet.
Along with the use of oil, many wouldn’t call it a Greek sweet if it didn’t have nuts, dried fruits, citrus, honey, and spices that perfume. Sweets with olive oil are definitely denser and less crisp than those made with butter, but the nutritional value certainly adds to the overall product. Olive oil also adds to the texture of some of our favourite ingredients. Chocolate with olive oil will make a mousse silky smooth, while a mud cake will be extra moist with a bit of olive oil in the mix. These days all sorts of new things are being created with olive oil, including olive oil ice cream. The best olive oil ice creams use flavoured olive oil to create new tastes and flavours. So let me share with you some of the best I came across.
Chocolate mousse with olive oil
The combination of the silky smooth chocolate with fruity olive oil is perfect. There is a scientific explanation of why chocolate pairs well with olive oil. Chocolate is made up of cacao solids, cacao butter, vanilla and sugar. Cacao butter is very fatty and coats the tongue. The extra virgin olive oil decreases the fat thanks to the polyphenols it contains, a class of antioxidants found in a variety of foods, and these polyphenols dry the mouth and allow the cacao flavour to come through.
INGREDIENTS
¾ Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
270 gr coverture chocolate
7 eggs, separated
130 gr sugar
30 mls brandy
Zest of 1 orange or lemon
METHOD
1. Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie, remove from heat and add olive oil in a slow steady stream stirring constantly with a wire whisk.
2. Add brandy.
3. Beat egg yolks with half sugar 65 gr until light and airy.
4. Add to chocolate mixture with a plastic spoon.
5. Beat egg whites with remaining sugar in mixer at low speed until stiff peaks form.
6. Fold into chocolate mixture along with the orange or lemon zest.
7. Divide mousse evenly among 6 bowls and put in refrigerator to chill
