A simple olive cake....

did you ever pick up olives ? I did once to help a friend who needed to gather at the least 500 kgs to bring to the olive press. At the end of the day, the only thing you can picture are tiny green or black olives. And you're likely to dream about these little olives as well. But we must keep in mind that these little tiny green fruits produce the golden treasure of Andalusia, el aceite de oliva, the best ally of all time of healthy food and gourmet palates. In some restaurants, like La Almazara in Almuñecar, down on the coast, the chef will make you taste his olive oil from Jaen as a pre-aperitivo with a slice of bread and salt and will give you a small chunk of homemade olive oil soap as a souvenir. An Andalusian friend, a charming old aristocrat from Sevilla taught me lessons about how to choose the right olive oil for a salad, to fry fish and so on according to the level of acidity but hum I'm afraid my culinary knowledge is now a little bit rusty. I must confess, olive oil at home is only used for salads and to make a very simple olive cake.


with a little bit of olive oil and a bunch of olives
you can make this simple olive cake


you need :

180g of flour
200g of green olives
100g of ham
100g of grated Emmenthal cheese
1 dosis of baking powder
13cl of olive oil
10cl of milk
3 eggs

slice the olives. Mix the flour and the baking powder. In a bowl, whisk the eggs, the olive oil, the milk, salt and pepper. Pour the preparation into the flour and mix carefully until the mixture becomes homogeneous. Then add the olives, the cheese and the ham. You can also add some herbs, parsley etc. Pour the preparation into a mold and bake in the oven for 40 mn at 180ºC. Let it cool. Serve the cake lukewarm or cold with a salad or as an appetizer.

note : as you can see on the photo, I use green olives stuffed with red pepper. They're already salted so I don't add salt in the recipe.

Enjoy !




ps : Nothing to do with the olive cake....I would like to say a big THANK YOU to Charmaine for featuring my bags on her delightful blog, Beautiful things to share. Charmaine recently started her blog about design and fashion and the beautiful things which inspire her daily and make me drool whenever I visit her !



photos by your devoted blogging hostess






Comments

P said…
That olive loaf looks amazing! I want to try it...if I can figure out the metric system.
Tess Kincaid said…
Alas, no, I have never picked olives. Something I would love to do someday. I only see olive trees in photos and films. Your picture is lovely!

This looks amazingly delicious!!! I might have to give it a try. I'm taking the recipe back to Willow Manor. Thank you! :)
P. , oh..sorry for the metrics, I didn't realize. I just have the French measures


Willow, I doubt you'll ever want to pick up olives ! it's some work you know...and your muscles know it too at the end of the day !
Relyn Lawson said…
Just last night at dinner Jeffrey and I were telling Sloane about some of our favorite restaurant and the olive oil they served. We ended up spending half the dinner conversation talking about olives, olive oil, and fresh baked bread. How nice to read this particular post the very next morning.
christina said…
Your cake looks incredibly beautiful. I will have to try and make this for my family.

You have a gorgeous blog : )
somepinkflowers said…
no i have never...

but,
when i am visiting you in my day*dream,
after you make me a romantic hand*bag,
after you make me a cotton night*dress

then
we go pick olives...

:-)


oh happy day,
oh happy *LONG* day!
Elizabeth said…
Sounds delicious!
I must try it.
The olives in New York are very dull, and expensive.
Marrakshi olives rule! -as, I'm sure real Spanish ones do too.
Hope you get to the beach soon!
Lavinia said…
Lala, I am with you on the olive oil. Being Greek we use it on almost everything. We drizzle it over steamed vegetables, dip bread in it as you mention, and I fry eggs in it, then sprinkle with oregano. It is the taste of Greece to me. I am curious about this olive cake---do you use pimentos? Can I use ordinary green olives in brine?
Robin said…
Great olive tree photo. I have a wreath of olive leaves hanging in my bedroom. I love the silver green the leaves turned as it dried.

Your olive bread sounds delicious, it will make a lovely appetizer for a party I am going to this weekend!

I converted your recipe, the only thing I wasn't sure of was the "dosis" (dose) of baking powder. I'm guessing given the amount of flour and eggs it is a teaspoon. I didn't convert the liquids because most glass measuring cups have both ounces and CLs.

180g of flour = 3/4 to 1 cup or 6.5 to 7 ounces if you are weighing
200g of green olives = 7 ounces
100g of ham = 1/4 pound (4 ounces)
100g of grated Emmenthal cheese = 1/4 pound (4 ounces)
1 dosis of baking powder = 1 teaspoon?
13cl of olive oil
10cl of milk
3 eggs

Bake at 350 F.
YUM!
Gill said…
Reminds me of Shirley Valentine...you gave his olives a good pressing!!! Tee hee
I may have to try this recipe, yum!
Congrats on the blog feature, you deserve it.
xoxo
Unknown said…
Never eaten olive cake before...certainly dont mind a piece and I dont care about the diet.

Never picked olives too, well, we dont have them here :) Happy weekend my friend
alis said…
Yes, I have! Remember the view of my parent's house which I recently posted? Well that house is actually on a hill that has about 300 olive & fruit trees. My mom, dad, sometimes me, and some helpful neighbours hand pick all the olives. Then my parents sort all of the olives one by one, and process them at home in barrels with zero-chemical methods (for example they use fermented yogurt water to produce lactic acid). The low-quality olives go to an olive press nearby and are juiced for the best olive oil ever (it has a gorgeous green color). And the fun part? Giving our home-made olives to relatives and neighbours, and hear the words "the best olives I have ever tasted" :)

ps: Some olive producers use some kind of black dye to make the olives very black, or try to hide the tastelessness with too much salt. This is unhealthy so watch out for it.

Love,

Alize
Vanessa said…
Yes I have picked olives! One summer in the kibbutz. And they went into lovely salads we had all the time. Oh this post made me long for that time. :-)
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