Tasty Black Olives at a Fraction of the Price

[Rocklobster]

I live in a rural area about 100 miles from the nearest large city. I can't get any decent imported olives, which I love. What I have been doing is buying the black pitted olives packed in water at the Dollar store. I give them a good rinse and then marinate them in my own brine. I use things like garlic, salt, olive oil, fresh herbs, red chili flakes, lemon zest. There are many recipes on the internet if you care to search around. Anyway, I leave them sit in the marinate in the fridge for a couple of days and then they are ready to go. Not the real thing, but it makes a decent addition to your table.
Here is one recipe that I use.
Morrocan Style Spicy Olives
2 cans black olives,
Two tablespoons of some kind of Tomato Sauce
½ cup fresh coriander, finely chopped
½ cup flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1tsp dried chilli flakes or 1 red chilli, finely sliced
1tbsp ground cumin
Juice of a lemon
Extra virgin olive oil

Mix together and leave sit in fridge for a couple of days. Remove and let olives reach room temperature before serving/eating.

Italian Style
Black olives
Salt
Olive oil,
Fresh Parsley
Chili Flakes
Chopped Garlic
Fresh or Dried Herbs like Basil, Oregano, or Thyme
Splash of Red Wine, or Balsamic vinegar

[mollyanne]

wow...what a great idea...thanks for sharing the recipe. Perfect example of "neccesity is the mother of invention"...good for you. I paid $3 for a 6.5 oz jar of kalamata olives at Trader Joe's so I'll bet it's even more at a grocery store. Compared to your $1 jar...that's a huge savings and your's probably taste much better!

[Rocklobster]

The possibilities are endless. A real easy recipe is to mix one or two cans of olives with a small jar of marinated artichoke hearts and a bit of
fresh herbage, if available..dry will do. The artichoke hearts are about a buck and a quarter here, so that should cost you 2 or 3 bucks for a good sized bowl. And if you want to get really funky, you can throw in a can of whole mushrooms...Any kind of your favorite salad dressing will make a good marinade also...

.

I always keep a few cans in the pantry incase I get a craving or have to get something ready for company.

[justplainbill]

Your Italian style sounds tasty. We're fortunate to be able to buy olives we like at under $5 per pound. Tasso's kalamata aren't bad.

In a pinch we've had some luck mail ordering olives (Ziyad, Krinos, Dragonas Bros brands) from parthenonfoods.com.

[mollyanne]

Don't ask me why I put an apostrophe in "your's" in post#2
...honest, I know better .
Anyway, love the artichokes idea. I think I've mentioned this in DC before (it's my current go-to craving) but I love a mix of kalamata olives, sliced-thin red onion, edemame(shelled soybeans), fasolia beans (giant white beans) something dark green like spinach, kale, or mustard greens, diced heirloom tomato, and a mix of canola & oliveoil, garlic, oregano, basil, parsley, and redpepper. Heat all that up in the microwave until warm (not hot since you don't want to cook it). Take it out and top it with room temp marinated celigene mozzarella.

Eat this as is or with pasta or rice or spread it on top of a thin crust cheese pizza.

[Kayelle]

Holy cow, how did I ever miss this post? These ideas are fantabulous !!

[taxlady]

Originally Posted by Kayelle

Holy cow, how did I ever miss this post? These ideas are fantabulous !!

What Kayelle said.

Definitely got me thinking. I get kalamata olives at Costco for about $8 or $9 for a 2 litre jar. But, if I can get them at Dollarama, then I will definitely use those in humus. Lots less effort (no stones). Humus already has plenty of seasoning.