Saturday, August 20, 2011

The best ever marinated olives (aceitunas aliñadas)

Marinated olives / Marineeritud oliivid

Well, I don't actually know if that title holds true, but when I made these olives recently, then my dear K stated that these are better than anything he's ever had before (read: shop-bought marinated olives). I loved them, too.

I had few friends over for a tapas night recently, and wanted to serve aceitunas aliñadas. I browsed tens of recipes for Spanish-style marinated olives, and finally came up with this version. I had run out of sherry vinegar, so used a mixture of Spanish red wine vinegar and some dry sherry instead, but feel free to use sherry vinegar instead. As far as the olives are concerned, try to find Spanish ones that are unstoned - these have much more flavour compared to the stoned olives. I used Spanish hojiblanca olives, but arbequina, sevillano, manzanilla (f. ex. Campo Real), arauco would all work well, too.

These last for a week in a fridge, if not longer.


PS If you've got a favourite marinated olives recipe, I'd love to hear about it! Feel free to leave a link to your recipe in the comments section.

Marinated olives, Spanish style
(Marineeritud oliivid)
Serves four to six as part of a tapas table

about 200-250 g olives (in brine, drained weight)
1 Tbsp Spanish extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp sherry vinegar (or red wine viner + 1 Tbsp sherry)
1 tsp coriander seeds, crushed in a mortar
1 thyme sprig, leaves only
1 rosemary sprig, leaves only
0.5 tsp dried red chilly flakes
1 or 2 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced

Place the drained olives into a bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and stir.
Leave to macerate for at least couple of hours before serving.

10 comments:

Kat said...

nom, sounds delicious. koriander tundub superlisandina!

Joanna said...

I haven't got a marinade recipe but in Cyprus I found that the black olives were wonderful barbecued

ChichaJo said...

I love marinated olives! And yes, you can get a much yummier (and so much cheaper!) version making your own instead of the store-bought marinated ones! I like mine like this too...with garlic and coriander seed :)

lobstersquad said...

Never marinated an olive in my life, obviously, but oh, what a pang it gave me to see those photos of Campo Real olives...
I´ll be trying this when I feel homesick.

Anonymous said...

Your recipe seems delicious. I'm Portuguese and we use olives all the time - they're very cheap. Usually I use crushed garlic, a tbs of oregano, a litle olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. They can be kept like this for a long time. Just give them a stir now and then.
I love your blog.
Aurora

Katherine Martinelli said...

Yum! These look great. I just saw uncured olives and have been thinking about curing my own - then want to use your marinade!

Ashok Bardhan said...

Hi
I just came across your food blog....and as someone who studied (and ate) in the former Soviet Union for 7 years I really loved it.....in addition to all the other ethnic cuisines that you cover.
Great job!
Best
Ashok
P.S. will try out the estonian shashlyk next

egle said...

I´am an estonian living in Portugal and as Aurora said before, we/they eat lot of olives. One of the most simple way to make olives little more interesting without marinating them, is to use black unstoned olives and add some finely chopped garlic, fresh coriander and olive oil. This is the mild and fresh version and I could eat a bowl of them :)

Sara said...

These are so simple, I can't believe I haven't ever made these.

Muggsy said...

What a lovely recipe- I'm going to make these as Christmas presents to go with my Chilli Jam!