Salsa Verde to the Rescue

Oh.  Hi there.

It's me, your friendly neighborhood olive oil lady.  Sorry you haven't heard from me in a while.  But here I am!  I promise I haven't forgotten about you.  I hope your summer is going well and that you all had a fun, safe July Fourth Weekend.  I have been doing all the Fayetteville summertime things: concerts in the park, botanical gardens, farmer's market, chigger bites, sun burns, trying to keep my children occupied for 8 hours a day.  You know, the usual. 

We have a couple of new items in the store.  First, there's Madagascar Black Pepper Olive Oil.  At first, it seems like just another lovely mild olive oil.  And then you get a hint of cracked black pepper that creeps up on you.  It's a really fun oil.  To me, it tastes like one of the medium/robust extra virgin olive oils, but with no bitterness and all the peppery finish.  Try it with pasta, parmesan, and a fried egg.  (Side note: have you guys tried Pozza's pasta?  It's hand made in Tontitown!  It's amazing!  I can always find it at Harp's and it's sooooo good.)  Try it on popcorn.  Add it to your Steak and Potato Foil Pack Dinner.  I like it!  I think we'll keep it around.

Next, we brought back the Alfoos Mango White Balsamic.  This is a sweet and smooth hot-weather worthy balsamic.  Add it to fizzy water for a fun drink.  It pairs well with the Persian Lime Olive Oil, which happens to be on sale this month.  Take 20% off for flavor boosting fun!  Use the Mango/Lime combo on fish tacos and peppery arugula salads.  This is a crowd favorite that we only keep around for summer, so get it while you can!

We are fully stocked on olives, my friends.  We have the green chili/garlic stuffed, red chili/garlic stuffed, lemon stuffed, and Abuela style olives on the shelves.  Every one of these takes martinis and Bloody Mary's to the next level.  Also, your charcuterie plates will be sure to impress with these green beauties in the mix.

We will be switching out extra virgin olive oils soon.  Right now, we have a really excellent selection of Northern Hemisphere oils from Portugal, Spain and Italy.  As wonderful as the current olive oils are, the varieties were somewhat rare.  We have Cobrancosa, Chiquitita, Biancolilla, Cerasuola, and Nocellara.  Yeah, those are not the varieties that we generally know and love.  But fear not! Over the next few months we'll get in the Southern Hemisphere harvest, which includes: Australian Koroneiki, Hojiblanca, Picholine, Manzanillo, and Barnea (which we haven't had since we opened in 2014!); and Chilean Arbosana, Arbequina, Picual, and Coratina.  Yes...those are familiar.  And award winning!  I think this is going to be an amazing year for olive oil.

Since I have a lot of new readers and I haven't written to you old hats in half a year (apologies, again), I feel like I should explain why we switch out our EVOOs.  Feel free to skip this paragraph if you know the ins and outs of olive oil.  Olive oil is a fruit juice.  Fruit juices do not keep.  They are not like wine or balsamic that get better with age.  You do not want to hoard olive oil.  It oxidizes and becomes rancid with time.  Generally, from the time the olives are pressed into oil, you have about 16 months of freshness.  Then it is time to toss out any old oil.  Olives are harvested in the fall (October/November for Northern Hemisphere and May/June for the Southern Hemisphere) and immediately pressed into oil.  In our store, we keep the freshest olive oil possible.  That's why we switch oils as the new harvests come in and why we have the date the oils were pressed on the fusti tag.  I know it can be frustrating when you find an oil you love and then we don't have it anymore, but I promise it's better than supplying you with half-rancid oil.  We always try our best to keep your favorite varieties around, but no batch of oil will taste exactly the same from harvest to harvest.  They will, however, be delicious!

Now, on to what you guys really want...a new recipe.  I have been decidedly uninspired when it comes to cooking lately.  I'm talking spruced-up ramen noodles, egg fried rice, peanut butter-honey sandwiches, and cereal-for-dinner uninspired...since February.  The struggle, my friends, has been real.  But now it's summer.  And I remembered that grills are magical beings that can transform a package of chicken thighs into a delicacy.  Seared tuna steaks, shrimp kabobs, a lovely steak.  All the meats (and the veggies, too...I see you, fajitas) become a quick and easy dinner when it's grilling season.

But the real dinner-time hero is this sauce.  It doesn't look like much, and I couldn't tell you how to make it exactly the same way every time, but this is the sauce of the summer.  It goes by many names: salsa verde, Columbian salsa, cilantro-lime sauce, or herby-green-sauce.  Whatever you call it, and however you make it, it is a culinary all-star.  It goes like this: olive oil (preferably Persian Lime Olive Oil), an entire bunch of cilantro, almost an entire package of green onions, a jalapeno (optional), a little sugar, salt, white vinegar, and lime juice.

To those of you already scrunching your nose, know this: I hate cilantro.  I'm not a huge onion fan, either.  But I adore this sauce.  Its versatility will amaze you and the flavor combo is just right.  Spoon it over herbed meatballs, add it to yellow curry, add a little more oil and use it as a salad dressing, use it as a marinade for grilled chicken or shrimp, drizzle it into lentil soup, or dollop it on top your cold Asian noodles.  All you do is wash your cilantro and green onions, trim off the ends of both, and throw everything into a blender or food processor.  Fiddle with it until you get the sweet/sour/savory balance you prefer and then make it again and again all summer long because it goes on everything.  It's a little runnier than regular salsa, but not quite as thin as plain old oil/vinegar salad dressing.  I'll leave you to experiment with it however you'd like.  I trust your judgment.

Salsa Verde/Columbian Salsa
Recipe adapted from my amazing Mother in Law, Sydnie Kleinhenz

1 bunch cilantro, washed and ends slightly trimmed
3/4 package of green onions/scallions, washed and ends trimmed
1/3 cup (or more) Persian Lime Olive Oil
1 jalapeno, seeded (optional)
1 1/2 tsp. (or more) white sugar
1 tsp. (or more) salt
1/4 cup (or more) distilled white vinegar (or wine vinegar or apple cider...whatever you have lying around, but probably not Balsamic, unless you omit the sugar)
Juice of 1/2 a lime (or a whole lime, if you like the acidity/don't use Persian Lime Olive Oil)

1.  Wash the cilantro and green onions.  Trim their ends.  Cut the jalapeno in half and remove the seeds.

2.  Throw all the ingredients into a food processor or blender.  Blend it all together until mostly smooth.  Taste for sweet/salty/savory balance and add more of the sugar, or salt, or vinegar until it tastes the way you want it.  Keep it in the refrigerator (will keep for at least a week, if not longer) and use it often.

Well, that's pretty much it.  Not too much to report.  I'll try to keep you posted on the ins and outs of what's going on when the new harvest gets in.  In the meantime, enjoy your summer and I'll see you soon!

Cheers,
Andrea

Simplicity

Hi, friends and Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.  And let me start by thanking each of you for letting us be a part of your celebrations.  From stocking stuffers to centerpieces on the dinner table, thank you for shopping local with us.  We wouldn't be here without you!

Even though the holidays are over, I know parking on the square is an ongoing issue.  If you're in a hurry and know what you want, you can always give us a call at (479) 445-6066 and place your order over the phone.  We will bottle it up and have it ready to go for you to just pop in and grab it.  We can call it "Cask & Grove Curbside" or "Cask & Grove Carry-Out" or something snappy like that.  If there is a way to make your experience easier, let us know!  Also, our hours are back to normal.  Tuesday-Friday 10:00-6:00 and Saturday 10:00-3:00.

We have three sale balsamics this month.  Our Lavender Dark Balsamic, Coconut White Balsamic, and Pineapple White Balsamic are all 25% off.  If you love the Vermont Maple Dark Balsamic, get it while you can, as it is a seasonal vinegar and once it's out, that's all there is...for now!  We just decanted a new batch of the Honey Ginger White Balsamic.  It may be the most gingery batch I have ever tasted.  It's fantastic with the Toasted Sesame Oil.  We have a pretty good stock of the Spanish olives and I'll try and keep it that way.  We're also getting the Northern Hemisphere extra virgin olive oils in slowly, but surely.  Right now we have a tasty California Manzanillo that is smooth and
lovely, with that bite of pungency at the end that marks it as a winner in my book.  Throughout the month, there will be more Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese oils making there way to us, including this vibrant green Spanish Picual.  Hold tight! 

I had a glorious plan about what I was going to write this time on the Cask & Grove blog.  I was going to tell you to make this amazing Cauliflower Walnut Vegan Taco Meat (no really, it's AH-Maz-Ing) along with this addictive Vegan Mexican Cheese because it's 2019 now and we should be more sustainable by eating more vegetables and nuts and what have you.  I still encourage you to make those recipes, as they are fantastic and I highly recommend them.  However, the original writers do them better justice than I could, so just mosey over to their blogs to get the info.  Because...

While procrastinating writing this post, I accidentally sat down and turned on Netflix and those crafty so-and-so's flashed a show called "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" at me.  Within two minutes, I was hooked.  You guys, the very first episode was "Fat" and it opened up with a beautiful olive grove.  They were pressing olive oil.  They were speaking my love language, and I'm not talking about just the lilting Italian.  The oil was a lovely, vibrant green.  They spoke of pungency, and bitterness and the spice in the back of your throat!  Ahhhh.  As the episode progressed, she made focaccia (one of my favorites) and fresh pasta (also one of my favorites).  It dawned on me that instead of getting fancy with spices and creative ingredients, I should go back to the basics.  I wanted pasta.

By the time the episode was over, it was 5 p.m.  I threw my better judgment to the wind and made my own home made pasta.  Why use store bought pasta when it only takes 45 minutes from start to finish to make your own?  (Except for 99.8% of the time when I don't have 45 minutes to make my own pasta and store bought is A-Okay.)  I still had a head of cauliflower in my refrigerator, but instead of turning it into tasty taco meat that my children won't eat anyway, I decided to give a good roasting with just some of that zesty California Manzanillo EVOO, salt and pepper.  I wanted a simple dinner that showcased the delicious olive oil.  I prevailed!

And that, I think, is going to be my theme for this year.  Simplicity.  There are a million different ways that I can make life more complicated than it needs to be. (Hello, I'm Andrea, and I have two young children, a small business, and am a first year law student.  How can I make life harder? Oh yeah, by making my own pasta.)  But really, the best things tend to be the most basic.  If you ask me what my favorite balsamic is, I'll tell you it's the Traditional Balsamic.  And my favorite olive oil is any one of the robust extra virgin olive oils.  It doesn't need to be complicated to be perfect.

So...I give you recipes for roasted cauliflower and home made pasta.  Roasting cauliflower, or any vegetable for that matter, is as easy as it gets.  You take a vegetable, chop it up, drizzle it with oil and put it in a hot oven for a little while.  Easy peasy! Home made pasta is also incredibly easy.  Flour, eggs and a little bit of water and some time.  That's all.  Having a pasta roller around is nice, but you don't need one to get the job done.  An old fashioned rolling pin and a large counter-top/table will work just fine.  (Side note: if you're ever on the lookout for weird kitchen gadgets that you use once every three years, such as this lovely pasta machine, I highly recommend garage sales.  No body in their right mind makes their own pasta except for me, and now you.)  If you haven't eaten fresh pasta before, you are in for a treat! 

Roasted Cauliflower (or any vegetable, the same rules apply)

1 head cauliflower, chopped and washed
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place rinsed cauliflower on baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast for 30 minutes, shaking pan around once, halfway through.  Remove cauliflower from oven and drizzle with olive oil again!  In fact, go to town by putting the cauliflower in a bowl, give it a really healthy dose of olive oil (think of marinating it), and get crazy by adding in a teaspoon or so of good Dijon or Spicy mustard.  Yes, that's right.  Mustard.  Add in a few snips of fresh parsley and a shake of red pepper flakes and you're in heaven.

Home Made Pasta
From Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

2 c. (300 grams) all purpose flour
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
Tiny amount of water

Mound the flour in a large mixing bowl and make a tiny well in the middle.  Crack your eggs and put your yolks into the well you created.  Take a fork and whisk the eggs, while slowly pulling in the surrounding flour.  Keep whisking it all together.  It will look like a shaggy, sticky mess.  If it gets too dry, add a TINY bit of water (I usually add in 1/2 tsp. at a time)  and switch to using your hands and gather up any dry bits of flour until it comes into a mass of dough.

Now turn your dough onto a floured work surface and knead the dough, as you would knead bread, until it is smooth and elastic, 4-5 minutes.  You can add more water as you go, if it's too dry, or add more flour if it's too sticky.  Okay!  Now wrap it in plastic wrap and set it aside to rest for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to boil.  And make any sauces you want to go on your pasta: pesto, marinara, bolognese, alfredo, or just plain olive oil.

If you happen to have a pasta rolling machine, then this is the fun part!  Working with a quarter to half the dough, roll it out on a floured surface until it is a small rectangle.  Feed it through your roller until it's the right thinness, keeping it floured along the way so that it does not stick.  After you've rolled it through the machine 5-6 times, run it through your pasta cutter attachment, separating out the noodles and keeping them floured.  After carefully separating out the pasta, let it hang on a hanger until you have finished rolling and cutting the other half of the dough.

If you do not happen to have a pasta rolling machine, do not despair!  People have been making pasta for a long time without fancy gadgets.  Flour a good work surface, flour a rolling pin, and start rolling.  Work carefully, with half the dough at a time.  The dough shouldn't resist you the way bread does, but it can still tear, so go slowly.  Roll until it's nearly see through, keeping it well floured the whole time.  Once you get a good sheet of pasta, gently fold it in thirds on top of itself (WELL FLOURED between the layers!) like you're folding a letter.  Take a sharp knife and cut the pasta into thin strips.  Unfold them, carefully, and hang them on a hanger while you repeat the process with the other half.

Gently put your cut pasta in the salty boiling water, cook for 4-5 minutes, or to the chewiness you desire. It cooks much faster than the dried stuff in the box.  Drain pasta.  Top with whatever sauce you desire and a sprinkle of cheese.  Devour.

There a tons of YouTube videos and a video in the link for Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat that do a great job of explaining the process.  It's not difficult and it can be a lot of fun!  I hope you give it a try and enjoy it.

I'll see you all soon. Here's to a fantastic 2019.

Cheers!
Andrea