Tag Archives: olives

Kalamata Olive White Bean Hummus

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For some reason, I’ve always been more successful with the white bean dips over chickpea hummus. But I really wanted to make this after I found olive hummus at Publix the other day and forgot to buy chickpeas, so white bean dip it is!

Let me tell you about a little creation that was the first recipe I ever wrote. And I apologize to my loving family for forcing them to eat this. I guess I was a super salty child because this was an appetizer composed of round tortilla chips, penne pasta, and kalamata olives. Here goes: Set out some round corn tortilla chips on a tray. Chop up your kalamata olives into really tiny pieces like tapenade. Stuff the olive pieces into cooked penne pasta and set two atop each tortilla chip. Serve. Cold. Hence, the beginning of my kalamata olive love.

I like my hummus thick but not really chunky so I’ve adapted from this lovely recipe.

Kalamata Olive Hummus

makes about 2 cups of hummus

1 1/2 15 oz. cans of white northern beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, including some juice from the jar

2 cloves garlic, minced

6 TBS tahini

4 TBS lemon juice

2 TBS olive oil

1/4 cup water

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp salt

pinch of cayenne

cracked black pepper to taste

 

1. Whisk together tahini and olive oil until smooth in a small bowl. Combine lemon juice and water in a separate bowl.

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2. Add beans, spices, olives, and garlic to the bowl of a large food processor. Pulse until fairly smooth and then scrape down the sides before adding the lemon/water mix.

3. Stream in the tahini/olive oil and add more beans if you like your hummus even thicker than this. Add some cracked black pepper at the end.

4. Refrigerate to let flavors meld or eat immediately with pita chips, carrots, other veggies or on a sandwich.

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Roast Chicken Strikes Again – with Grapes, Olives & Rosemary

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Roast chicken is on my “perfect it” list. I can’t get over all of these wintry roasted, braised, wine-y, juicey, flavorful roast chicken recipes. This one is no exception! After making the stove-top Mediterrean chicken and rice, I wanted to try out the pan-searing then roasting in the oven technique. I thought this was called braising but apparently that’s for like one-pot meal kind of things.

I adjusted the recipe by 1.5 to make it suitable for 6 people and thus had to shift from baking in a skillet to a roasting pan. It worked out fine though because I still made the gravy/sauce in the skillet since it had the seared chicken juices in the pan. Both serious eats and amateurgourmet have tried the recipe for this chicken.

So, like JoytheBaker suggests, still working on “mise en place” this year aka PREPARE BEFOREHAND! Aka our trusty 3×5 cards to prep us for a seamless transition from pan to oven. Bone-in skin-on chicken, you are in fact somewhat difficult to work with.  Deb suggests you use any mix of bone-in skin-on cuts, but I have to say it’s hard to get breasts to cook at the same tenderness as thighs and drumsticks. The breasts cooked up faster and I was still waiting on the dark meat. I know that if you’re having guests (which I was) you really need to have both white and dark meat, but please, if you are going to make this and like dark meat, I’d stick to drumsticks and thighs. Much juicier!

To start, I focus on the bird. Cutting off excess fat and drying the chicken, then sprinkling each piece with kosher salt and pepper. Since the chicken will take a little bit of time in the pan, it was okay to worry about the accoutrements after I got the chicken in the pan. Then, go ahead and heat up your pan, add a very tiny bit of oil and sear away on the skin-side first!

2014-01-06 18.25.55After washing my hands and being chicken free, I sliced shallots very thinly and measured out 1.5 cups each of grapes and olives. I decided to serve with a side of lemony garlic asparagus, so I also washed and prepped those. Set out your white wine and chicken broth for later.

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After searing my two batches of chicken and gaining a thin film of chicken fat on my shirt, I nestled the chicken into a roasting pan and mixed these guys over top. I thought it would need some salt or flavoring or something, but turns out the blend of sweet grapes and really salty olives kept it flavorful.

2014-01-06 18.39.17When the chicken emerged from the oven after around 23 minutes, I scraped the juices back into the skillet to make the white wine and chicken broth sauce. Pour over top and garnish with fresh rosemary. I served this with crusty french bread and steamed asparagus yummmm.

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