Easy Pesto Recipe

It’s that glorious time of year when you can buy the freshest Basil and produce from your local Farmers’ Markets, farm to fork and right into your mouth!!  Please try our olive oil pesto recipe.  You can find our olive oils and basil at the following Farmers Markets

Pesto

  • 4 bunches of Basil
  • 16 oz (500 ML) CALOLEA OLIVE OIL
  • 3/4 lb. Walnuts
  • 3 cups Parmesan
  • 2 Tbls. Salt
  • 2 Tbls. White Pepper
  • Juice of 3 Large Lemons

Blend in Cuisinart

Variation: for any garlic lovers, try it with our Garlic Olive Oil instead!

Mandarin Orange Olive Oil

We’re very excited to introduce our Mandarin Orange Olive Oil to you.

This special blend of perfectly ripe Mandarin Rind’s crushed together

with Calolea Olives makes a delightful and pleasing flavor for your pallet.

Try drizzling over steamed vegetables, seer meets, pair with Calolea Strawberry

balsamic vinegar for a delicious salad dressing.  We will be offering Mandarin

Orange in gallon sizes for $75.oo shortly.

 

Enjoy!!

Olive Leaf Tea

Our dear friend Celeste has shared her Olive Leaf Tea Recipe with us, olive leafs provided from Calolea Olive Oil’s Century old trees in Loma Rica. Olive leaves have been used in the human diet as an extract, an herbal tea and a powder. They contain many potentially bioactive compounds that have antioxidant, antihypertensive, antiatherogenic, anti-inflammatory, hypocholesterolemic and hypoglycemic properties — similar to olive oil benefits.

 

 

Photo 1 The cuttings.
2. Get a big pot to place the leaves in.
3.  Weed out the bad leaves. Spots, mold on the back. Bug chew. I’m kind of fussy about my leaves. You can cut the leaves off the stem or you can pull them. They are easily pulled back toward the main stem. You can fold over the leaves at the end and cut or pull them off together. You will figure it out.
4. Gather enough leaves for you dehydrator to hold. Bring them in and fill your pot with water and wash well.
‘I’m off my photos, but next rinse again in a colander. Then spin in the salad spinner.
Whatever Number. Lay out your washed leaves on your clean towel. You need to spread and roll up, spread and roll up. This will give you another chance to sort out the bad guys.
Completely roll up and press out excess moisture.
Next number. Start placing leaves in the dehydrator. Not too much. And stack. Every dehydrator is different. Mine takes 5 hours on medium with one restacking. When the leaf snaps your done.
Then it is on to the food processor until it looks like tea!!

 

Caesar Salad, Made with The Real Ingredients and Technique

This is a delicious recipe from our most creative friend Winter Rosebud, Enjoy her story and recipe!! “I thought I’d share my Caesar Salad dressing, as it is something I’ve been obsessed with for years and spent a good amount of time altering. I grew up going to Tijuana and eating the real thing, tossed table side at Caesars Hotel. When we where not making that trip, the Long Beach Yacht Club did a pretty close comparison, but this was back in the 70’s and I cannot contest to what they serve now 🙂 It really makes me crazy that the bottled stuff tastes nothing like Caesar dressing at all and in my opinion it is a crime!”unnamed-6unnamed-5unnamed-4

1 large head of organic romaine, washed and torn by hand into bite size pieces.
2 large cloves of fresh garlic, pressed or minced
1/4 cup Mission Blend Olive Oil (yes, we have used the Meyer Lem oil for this, its great too!)
Juice of one lemon (maybe more, depending on your lemon)
2 anchovy filets, minced. I do use a bit more sometimes, because I love anchovies!
1 large raw egg. (my mother used to coddle the egg and many people do that. I think it comes out gloopy.)
Lots of fresh black pepper.
Lots of fresh grated parmesan. I use at least 1/2 cup tossed in and more sprinkled on top 🙂

Please do not use any salt, until after you have tossed and tasted your salad. The saltiness from the cheese and anchovies is usually enough for us and the idea of this salad is to enjoy the simple flavors of quality ingredients!

Whisk olive oil, egg, lemon juice, garlic, some pepper and anchovies in a bowl until well mixed and frothy. This should taste lemony and slightly salty.

In a wooden bowl, add your torn romaine, then drizzle on your dressing, toss gently. Now start adding in your grated parmesan and tossing gently, until the dressing and cheese starts to bind to your leaves. Add more black pepper, your homemade croutons and toss gently again. Sprinkle lightly with more cheese and serve in wooden bowls.

If you are a true Caesar Salad junky like myself, you will have purchased a really good wooden salad bowl set, that you use only for this salad. A good wooden Caesar bowl becomes seasoned after multiple uses and should never be washed with soap, just as you would care for a good cast iron skillet 😀

NOTES: *Use whole anchovies, packed in olive oil and mince them yourself. Many “classic” recipes call for anchovy paste and I feel it tends to be way too salty.

*Use a good quality Parmesan cheese and do not use anything pre-grated. My favorite is the Stravecchio they sell at Trader Joes!

*Homemade croutons! ONLY. Store bought are too greasy, salty and dense. We use a soft french loaf, cubed and light tossed in Calolea Mission Blend and a couple cloves of pressed garlic, them baked on a sheet in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes. The inside of the crouton should still be a bit soft.

*GOOD olive oil. The Mission Blend by Calolea, adds the perfect buttery touch and is light enough to not weigh down your salad. I also must mention, this 2015 harvest we just received is DELICIOUS!!!

White Bean, Kale & Sausage Soup

Soak white beans overnight in water, drain them and place back in the pot
to boil with water. Cook large, mild Italian Sausage links and brown on all
sides, finish with a cup of beer and cover pan until beer has reduced by half.

Dice celery, onions, carrots, garlic, mushrooms and saute in Calolea Mission
olive oil until almost cooked. One hour before beans are finished cooking add
sauted vegetables, one bunch of uncooked Kale chopped, chicken stock and 2 cans
of diced tomatoes.

Once sausage has rested slice them thinly and add to soup, if more liquid is needed
add chicken stock. Cook until beans are done. When serving, finish soup with
a healthy pour of Calolea’s “Olio Nuovo” Mission Olive Oil and ParmesWhite Bean Soupan.

Enjoy!!

Roasted beets and sautéed beet greens By Winter Rosebudd for Calolea Olive Oil

#1#2There is nothing like fall root vegetables drizzled with good olive oil and roasted. Simple as that!! I must admit, this recipe was inspired by Martha Stewart’s baby beet recipe. She uses a mix of different colored baby beets, but I prefer the big fat red ones, they are sweeter! I understand there are quite a few beet haters out there, but let me tell you, I have converted a few haters with this recipe. Most beet haters grew up with their mothers serving them slimey canned beets and in my opinion, that is not food.
Please go buy some fresh organic beets from your farmers market and be sure the greens on top are nice and fresh. Preheat the oven to 350. Wash them well, the beets and the tops. Cut the tops off, and reserve the greens and a few inches of the stems.
You can scrub the beets or peel them, then cut them in 3/4″ thick wedges. Chop up your greens coarsely, with the stems and set aside from the beets.
Toss the beet wedges in a bowl with a big drizzle of Calolea Tuscan Blend. Spread them onto a big piece of foil and toss a pinch of course sea salt and fresh ground pepper on top. Stick them in the oven about 25-30 minutes until fork tender.
#3
Preheat a large skillet to medium/high with a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Put your chopped greens and 2 cloves of minced garlic on top.
Let them settle for about a minute, then splash in one tablespoon of water and one tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Gently turn the greens a couple times with tongs, reduce heat to medium low and cover for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve the beets nestled on top of a bed of greens and sprinkle with crumbled gorgonzola.#4
We have done these with a big spoonful of fresh Burrata cheese on top and they where even better. Drizzled with Calolea Blood Orange Olive Oil and Calolea 18 yr. aged Balsamic Vinegar, of course! This dish goes great with a simple roasted chicken and a fluffy green salad.

Bon Appetit!

Homemade Mustard with Calolea Habanero Olive Oil and White Balsamic Vinegar

Recipe provided by Winter Rosebudd

Homemade mustard is so easy and so much more delicious than anything store bought. You can add different ingredients after soaking your seeds overnight and flavor it any way you want!

Note, the brown mustard seeds are quite a bit hotter than the yellow, so adjust according to your taste. I used equal parts in this recipe, along with a tablespoon of habanero oil, so this one packs a punch and that’s how we like it around here!

I recommend getting the best and freshest mustard seeds you can. They keep awhile, but lose potency after 4-6 months.

Calolea Habanero oil and Ale mustard

1/2 cup brown mustard seeds
1/2 cup yellow mustard seeds.
3/4 cup Calolea White Balsamic VinegarIMG_6129
1/4 cup ale (any brown beer will do)

Soak seeds in above ingredients in a covered bowl on the counter overnight. You should see that the seeds have absorbed all of the liquid and are nice and plump.

Put seed mixture in a food processor and add the following ingredients…

3 fresh cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon Calolea Habanero oil (or less if you prefer)
1 tablespoon salt

Blend until the seeds start to break up and get creamy. Adjust seasoning. If it seems dry, add more vinegar or beer to taste (or whatever you can think of!). Scoop into jars and stick it in the fridge and don’t even look at it for at least a couple days. You want the flavors to combine and it just gets better over time!

Calolea Garlic Mud Rubbed Potatoes, A Winter Mullender recipe.

All I did was get some big fat Yukon Golds. Washed em, poked em with a fork. Make a thickish paste, I say about 4 Tbls of garlic oil to about 1 Tblsp each of big chunky course grey salt and fresh course ground pepper. You want to be able to rub the skin of the potatoes a bit with your hands. Roll the taters around in the bowl of delicious mud, rub and sand the skin with the chunky mixture and try to pack some of the mixture on them before setting them directly on the rack of a 400 degree oven. Bake 25-35 minutes depending on the size of your potatoes.-21 -22 -23