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O We present some of the best olives available from local suppliers
Osmin Olives Speciality Mixed From Bread & Olives, 17 Queensferry Street, Edinburgh
Black olives are simply green olives that have been left longer on the tree to ripen further. Mixing olives can be one way to divert attention away from less flav0urful specimens. but done skilfully using hand-picked olives and well-made marinades. yOu can achieve a bowl full of interesting and complementary flav0urs. Lovely soft olives and fresh herbs mark Out Osmin's treatment.
Kalamata Olives
From Bread & Olives, 17 Queensferry Street, Edinburgh The best known of all black olives. from the Messina valley of the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece. Kalamatas have a distinctive pointed shape and a russet. purpley brown tint from their traditional red wine vinegar Cure. They have a rich and beautifully balanced but not intense flavour. firm flesh and are long and easy on the palate. A great eating olive.
Di Gaeta Olives
From Eusebi Deli, 793 Shettleston Road, Glasgow
From further scuth in Italy. between Rome and Naples. these uniform. mid- sized brown. purple and even blueish olives are sweeter and perkier than the Taggiasche. with a firm flesh and a milder flavour. Large enough to be worth pitting. they offer a great savoury punch to pasta or on pizza r— the black olives you often get on pizza are green lie young) olives. artificially coloured.
Queen or Gordal Olives
From Edinburgh-based El Olivo, www.e|o|ivo-olive-oil.com
Big. fat. pale green olives from Granada in Spain. one of the main producers of eating olives. Green olives are picked before they're ripe and are inedible raw. so are matured and fermented in Oli or. more commonly. brine. This Curing process leaves good olives like these wrth a tart. fruity freshness and a good bite to them. but underdone they'll be crunchy and still too bitter.
FOODFOR ‘ w
Ian Brown
Queen Olives stuffed with capers From Edinburgh-based El Olivo, www.elolivo-olive-oil.com
Souash ball-sized olives like these offer plenty of options for stuffing: commonly. a strip of lightly peppery pimento paste. but sometimes garlic. nuts. cheese. anchovies or sun-dried tomatoes. Generally olives are a great foil for contrasting tastes and textures: here the capers offer a salty bite that gives the green olive a deeper. more rounded flavouc
Taggiashe Olives
From Eusebi Deli, 793 Shettleston Road, Glasgow
Tiny. pebble-Sized. savoury. mixed black. brown and beige olives from Liguria in northern Italy. Unlike many eating olives these also make excellent olive oil. and the 0in nature of the fruit gives it a deeper. more mature flav0ur and a lovely sensation in yOur mouth as the flesh peels away easily from the smooth stone. There's not much to each one. but they're packed with flav0ur.
Head chef at The Ubiquitous Chip, Glasgow
I can't eat breakfast first thing in the morning. I'll have a milky coffee when I get out of bed. then porridge with Maldon sea salt mid-morning. If I'm in the restaurant. I don‘t normally have a sit-down lunch because I end up tasting dishes while I cook. But at home we like making big pots of fresh soup. My wife does a lovely tomato and lentil which I'll have with bread and Scottish unsalted
butter.
l snack on things like grapes in the afternoon — I love the way they taste straight out the fridge. I try to be good but I like to enjoy myself too. I have to put my hands up and admit to nicking the occasional bit of home-made
shortbread in the restaurant.
Tea is normally one course followed by a yoghurt. We sit round the table and have something like lasagne or Thai curry. We're trying to get Our kids into cooking. and my 13-year-old son does pretty good meatballs in a tomato sauce. If we have folk round. I‘ll do the whole three c0urses with appetiser and sweet meals as people expect it. For special occasions. I love a bottle of white burgundy. and for the morning after. my favourite hangover cure is having
another drink. (interview by Claire Sawers)
SIDE DISH
News to nibble on
e LIST Card
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I “Ill II must you might be bowled over by the sheer quantity of information in our Eating & Drinking Guide, one new arrival to keep an eye out for is the List Card, registration now open, our dining promotion scheme that offers two-for-one meals at a wide range of leading restaurants in Glasgow and Edinburgh. We like to think of it as our very own contribution to beating the credit crunch. More at www.list.co.uk/card
I ICOTLAID'I IIOOIST beer festival, the Paisley Real Ale Festival, runs from Wednesday 30 April to Saturday 3 May in Paisley Town Hall. Celebrating its let birthday. 130 beers are on tap including representatives from around 20 different Scottish breweries from the local favourite. Kelburn, to Isle of Skye. Orkney and Sulwath from Castle Douglas. Entry is 25. wwwpaisleybeer festivalorguk. For other Scottish food and drink festivals throughout the year, see the Scottish Food Calendar on page 152 of The List Eating & Drinking Guide.
hick helm
I "II NICK NAIIIII Cook School cook book is out now, penned by the chef along with his Cook School cohorts John Webber and Alan Mathieson. It has strong, well-illustrated sections on basic recipes, important kitchen and cooking skills as well as the philosophy underpinning the whole enterprise. Published by Cassell Illustrated at £20. For more information, see
nicknairncookschool.com
24 Apr—8 May 2008 THE LIST 13