Real African Dishes: [MC-AllEthnic-Recipes] Confiture d'Olives et Citron - Sweet Olive Jam with Lemon

Thursday, August 11, 2011

[MC-AllEthnic-Recipes] Confiture d'Olives et Citron - Sweet Olive Jam with Lemon - 18g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary

Splenda substitutes well.
* Exported from MasterCook *

Confiture d'Olives et Citron - Sweet Olive Jam with Lemon

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 24 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Condiment LowCal (Less than 300 cals)
LowerCarbs Veggie

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
2 cups Kalamata olives -- drained and pitted (packed)
1 cup high-quality green olives -- drained and pitted (packed)
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 1/3 cup water
1 organic lemon
1 large green apple -- peeled, cored and diced
1/3 cup mild honey

Put all the olives in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and boil for one minute. Drain completely. Repeat this process two more times - this should take enough salt out of the olives so that they're only mildly salty. Set the olives aside and rinse out the saucepan.

Add the sugar and 1 1/3 cups water to the saucepan and swirl to combine. Cut a couple of strips of zest from the lemon and drop them in the sugar water. Slice the lemon up very thinly (don't worry about the seeds), and add the slices to the pan as well. Bring this to a simmer over medium heat and let it cook for about 8-10 minutes, or until it's reduced to about a cup of liquid.

Pour this through a strainer into a bowl, pressing on the lemon solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Return the liquid to the pan, adding the diced apple, honey and olives. Bring to a simmer once again and cook, stirring occasionally, just until the apples are soft and everything is very thick - about another 10 to 15 minutes (you can add a bit of water if it seems to be getting too thick). Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.

With an immersion blender or a normal blender, process the entire mixture until it is velvety-smooth. It should be quite a jammy consistency already; if it's runny you can continue to cook it a little bit more, but keep in mind it will thicken as it cools.

Transfer to jars and refrigerate. I haven't tested how long this keeps, but mine is a week and a half old and still going strong.

And how to use this miraculous substance? I love this jam with cheese, particularly with hard pungent cheeses like Manchego or Pecorino or an aged farmhouse cheddar. In Scotland nice restaurants will often serve a cheese selection with oat biscuits and a homemade chutney - it would be perfect for that. I've also fallen in love with it on sandwiches with Italian dry salami and Emmenthal or Gruyere cheese and a bit of peppery arugula. Heaven.

Note that it's really necessary to buy high-quality olives, as they tend to be less overwhelmingly salty and have more complex flavors. Also be sure to buy olives packed only in brine, not in oil or with added garlic and herbs.

Serves 24 (two-tablespoon servings)

Cuisine:
"French"
Source:
"Melissa @ Traveler's Lunchbox blog"
S(Formatted by Chupa Babi):
"Aug 2011"
Yield:
"3 cups"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 119 Calories; 6g Fat (42.7% calories from fat); trace Protein; 18g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 364mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Fruit; 1 Fat; 1 Other Carbohydrates.

Nutr. Assoc. : 0 678 0 0 3896 0 731