How to prepare home-made Olive Dip

NB. This is officially my first recipe on the blog... so please bear with me!

Local olives are rarely, if ever, found pitted

6 years ago, when we were still at the initial stages of starting this eco venture, I didn't have the slightest of clues that I'll be concocting dips or preparing recipe blogs! Ok, we were already delving into local products and stuff by then, but me, writing a recipe?! Well it turned out that most of our eco tours ended up having something to do with local food, in some form or another, so it was only a matter of time that we started to explore our own twists to traditional recipes.

For this season's Olive Grove Experience we introduced home-made dips. We figured that if we're promoting local products we should serve in-house nibbles with fresh ingredients - wherever possible - no shortcuts. Quite simple... yet it took time for us to get there. The supermarket, grab-and-go option was just too tempting! Even though we did our best to see that the processed ingredients were local, we knew that we could do better - yet the additional chore of preparing even the dips for each event seemed to be a daunting task. Until, one fine day Jeanette casually mentioned cream cheese!

Wild Thyme from
Tas-Salut Orchard

She has lately spent a lot of her free time looking into baking and other flabby-belly-inducing habits, mostly thanks to Il Piu Grande Pasticciere, a food reality TV series, and her knowledge of ingredients increased exponentially. When she did mention this wonder ingredient - cream cheese - it was quite a revelation to me.

Guilty as charged, I don't 'make' home-made cream cheese in our tiny apartment... this is one of the short list of ingredients that we buy from a supermarket! But if you want to keep the recipe 100% local you can even try and substitute cream cheese with ricotta and even fresh sheep's milk cheeselets - I tried this and it's divine! But cream cheese it is for now...

So this Olive Dip made it to this year's Olive Grove Experiences - and we'll have to be really running out of time to go back to the pre-packed version. The dip was a winner during every experience. We just couldn't believe how much the guests enjoyed it, and raved about it, given that it was not such a big deal to prepare.

Maybe it's just because of that - the simplicity and freshness of the ingredients, or it could be due to the extra bitterness of the olive drupe. Whatever the reason, during all of the sessions, without exception, some guest asked for the recipe... so here it is.

Enjoy!

Christian

OLIVE DIP 

______________________________________________________

PREP TIME  15 mins

Ingredients

80g olives (around 20 pitted olives)

1 medium tomato

200g regular cream cheese

1.5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Fresh herbs

Salt & pepper 

  

 

Instructions

Bring the cream cheese close to room temperature, this avoids leaving larger chunks of cheese in the dip.

Remove the pits from the olives by pinching both ends of the drupe, or squash it with the flat part of a heavy chef knife, and place the flesh in a separate bowl. 

Dice the tomato in smaller parts, so as it will be easier to blend. Don't waste anything from the tomato (apart from the top part of the stem). This adds liquid to the mixture and also gives it a nice orange-to-pinkish colour. 

Toss everything into a mixing bowl and blend with an electric blender until it's the right consistency.

Add the extra virgin olive oil, together with the other seasoning and blend further.

For best results, refrigerate, and let the mixture settle for at least 12 hours before serving.

Traditional Maltese Coffee Brewing Method

Have you ever heard anyone mentioning the aromatic coffee that used to be brewed locally back in the day?

Some people highlight the smell or taste of aniseed and cloves in it and probably also mention that it used to be prepared by their mother, an aunt or grandma!

Of course, coffee is not grown in Malta.  It was originally cultivated in Southern Arabia and is now grown in over 70 countries, primarily in the equatorial regions of the Americas, Southeast Asia, India and Africa. Having said that, over the years we have still developed our own traditional blend which is a mixture of imported Arabica and Robusta coffee beans, infused with roasted chicory, ground cloves and ground aniseed.

This is not your regular 'instant' coffee mix either!  There is a whole process of brewing that needs to take place in order to savour those lovely flavours. 

The method is quite simple, and you may vary the amount of coffee used depending on how strong you like your coffee... here's how we do it: 



Makes 4 cups:

• Start off with bringing to a boil 2 cups of water. Lower the flame and gently sprinkle 4 tablespoons of 'Merill traditional ground coffee mix' over the water. Do not stir.

• After approximately 3 mins stir and brew for another 5 mins. Avoid bringing it to a boil.

• Add another 2 cups of water and stir. Keep on stirring every now and again. Allow at least another 5 - 7 minutes of brewing.

• Remove from heat and allow the coffee residue to sink to the bottom or filter it through a fine strainer.

• Enjoy!

If you are keen on sampling some of this coffee you can also join us on our regular Sunday morning tours at the Tan-Nixxiegha Olive Grove where you can get to experience Extra Virgin Olive Oil and other lovely products by our network of farmers and artisans.

Honey Muffins

Jeanette is still going strong baking and making delicious goodness using local ingredients, and at the office we are loving this!  We are getting our daily bread... or cupcakes, to have with our first coffee before we kick off with work!

This fine Monday morning we were treated to some Honey Muffins!  Honey is one of the most precious ingredients in a kitchen and for good reason. In Jeanette's words, honey is the only natural food that has all the ingredients to support life, including water.  Not solely used in food, honey has also been used as a natural remedy to treat a variety of ailments.

Here is Nina, Jeanette's cat, eyeing the muffins!!

Its prestigiousness also comes from the fact that it is a very limited product.  Pure raw honey availability depends on a healthy hive of bees foraging on the flora in their surroundings.  This year's biggest issue for our local farmers has been the lack of rainfall which of course affects the amount and variety of flora and therefore impacts on the amount of honey produced by the bees!

So whilst we pray and hope for more rainfall so as to be able to produce more pure local honey, below is the Honey Muffin recipe Jeanette has used thanks to www.simplefood365.com.  

 HONEY MUFFINS

______________________________________________________

PREP TIME  15 mins

COOK TIME 18 mins

TOTAL TIME 33 mins

Author: Tara Kimball

Recipe type: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Serves: 12 Muffins

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1½ teaspoons vanilla
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• ⅓ cup honey
• 1 large egg

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
3. Mix the milk, vanilla, butter, honey and egg in a smaller bowl until well blended.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing just until everything is combined.
5. Divide the batter into a sprayed or lined muffin pan so that each cup is ⅔ full.
6. Bake for 18 minutes, then remove to a rack for 10 minutes.

More interesting information about pure honey can be found in two other Merill Local Product blogs: Let's Talk About Honey, Honey!  Part 1 & Part 2.

Have a great week!!

Steph

Did you know...

...that there are different types of honey depending on the season it is harvesting in, because of the different flora available to the bees at the time?  Different season, different colour! At our speciality store we are currently stocked up on Autumn flora honey which is the darker shade and also some Thyme & Clover honey!  All very limited!!  Should you be interested contact us now - info@merill.com.mt or call us on 21411388.

Some of the honey can also be tasted during our weekly Olive Grove experiences happening every Sunday! Click here for more information.

Oranges and Lemons: What to do when you have too many!

Yesterday Simone, a friend of mine, asked me what can she do with a crate full of oranges. Good question, so I decided to dig further! 

December and January are the months when we're blessed with bountiful citrus fruits, mainly oranges, lemons and tangerines. I also spotted huge grapefruits at the Farmer's Market in Ta' Qali. Apart from this market, fruit and veg mongers roaming around the streets would also offer a range of locally grown produce...always ask for local :)

To answer my friend's question I resorted to my social media platform of choice, Pinterest, for inspiration. 

So here are some interesting blogs that can help you process your favourite citrus fruit in a multitude of ways!

Orange Muffins

www.annies-eats.com

Lemon Cake (I tried this...it's divine)

www.averiecooks.com

Candied Peel

www.closetcooking.com

Orange Blondies

www.laurassweetspot.com

Cranberry Orange Smoothy

www.babble.com

Citrus Syrups

www.blossomtostem.net

Enjoy the recipes!

Jeanette

Colours, patterns and imagination

By Steph Camilleri

This week we wish to shed some more light on our current collaboration with local artist and graphic designer, Stephanie Borg.  

Her use of bright colours and patterns makes her work stunning and interesting, and her love for certain features of the local scene such as the typical Maltese doors and old tiles are seen in most of her work.

She has creatively made her artwork available on items that can be used daily, widening her product range to include not just wall pieces but also wrapping paper, calendars, mugs, mouse pads, espresso cups and coasters.

Stephanie has been collaborating with Merill for a couple of years now, including designing our new jams and pure honey tags. We have also combined her lovely items together with Merill products into our Eco Hampers.

Stephanie Borg

One of the gift item ideas launched this year - #♥LOCAL