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JUNE 2014
EVOO with Fresh Herbs
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FARMERS' MARKET


Visit our Farmers' Market Pinterest Board for more beautiful recipes and inspiration.
LIKE A WINEMAKER
 
Like a winemaker, Master Miller Bob Singletary blends our different olive oils - Arbequina, Arbosana, and Koroneiki - to create oils with unique flavor profiles. Bob explains how.
 
SUMMER'S BOUNTY


Summer is on our doorstep! Our olive trees have bloomed, and little olives are now growing. June also marks when farmers' markets kick into high gear. 

 

Over the summer we can look forward to bins brimming with different greens, multi-colored beets, eggplant, fresh herbs, corn, tomatoes, and peaches - to name just a handful of items.

 

Summer veggies and fruit require little, if any, cooking. Instead, farm fresh produce benefits from simple preparations, allowing the natural flavors to speak for themselves. 

 

Tomatoes, raw corn, red onions, summer squash and berries are a wonderful addition to homemade salads. Fresh basil means pasta tossed with vibrant green pesto made with good olive oil.

 

Summer also means using fresh, raw tomatoes instead of canned to make pasta sauce - or simply slicing tomatoes and topping them with good California olive oil, flaky sea salt, and chopped basil.  And if you want to cook, make it simple: Slice eggplant into �-inch slices, brush with homemade garlic-infused olive oil, and throw it on the grill until nice grill marks appear. Done. 

Below are recipes to help you capitalize on the summer farmers' market bounty with quick and easy recipes below. 

Farmers' Market Fresh Recipes
Roasted Beets with Yogurt  
Roasted Beets with Yogurt
Chef Dan Kluger - of the award-winning New York restaurant ABC Kitchen - is known for showcasing locally grown seasonal ingredients. He shops regularly at the nearby Union Square Greenmarket. In this dish, Kluger pairs a colorful variety of roasted beets with yogurt. It gets a finishing drizzle of olive oil and good balsamic vinegar, along with a garnish of fresh chervil. Make it with medium-robust Arbosana to contrast with the deep, sweet taste of the beets.  

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Quinoa, Apricot and Arugula Salad  
Quinoa Apricot & Arugula Salad
Blogger Jeanine Donofrio of Love & Lemons created this flavorful, healthy salad that's easy to prepare. She includes quinoa, chickpeas, arugula, avocado, toasted almonds, and dried apricots. Donofrio recommends fruity Arbequina  to prepare the dressing .  

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Cherry Tomato Salad With Burrata and Pesto  
Cherry Tomato Salad with Burrata and Pesto
Burrata is a moist, fresh ball of mozzarella filled with curds and cream. It's a favorite of ours. Here burrata is paired with colorful cherry tomatoes and topped with a pesto-based dressing. Use fruity Arbequina  - which pairs well with tomatoes and pesto - to make the dressing. The recipe appears in Georgeanne Brennan's Salad of the Day.  

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Greens, Bacon, Quinoa Salad & Honey-Dijon Vinaigrette
Attention bacon lovers: This salad is for you!  It comes by way of blogger Carrie Eisenpress of Big Girls Small Kitchen. "Avocados add creaminess, while almonds and bacon contribute wonderful crunch," she notes. Eisenpress recommends fruity Arbequina to prepare the honey-Dijon vinaigrette.   

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Crudit�s with Arugula Pesto   

"Arugula adds a peppery punch to your traditional pesto," Ali Larter writes in her book Kitchen Revelry. For this dish, Larter recommends using "interesting vegetables with beautiful colors," including radishes and heirloom carrots. For the pesto, try peppery Miller's Blend to stand up to the arugula pesto's bite.  

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Summer School: Olive Oil Refresher Course

Summer ... Ripe, juicy tomatoes, evenings at the ballpark, hiking in the mountains ... summer school. Summer school is an unpleasant memory for many. But it doesn't have to be. That's the idea behind our summertime olive oil refresher presented here. We've compiled some of our most popular blogs about extra virgin olive oil. They're educational, as you'll see. 


We bake with good extra virgin olive oil because it adds a wonderful, nuanced flavor to cakes, tortes, brownies, and it ensures your baked goods stay moist. Moreover, baking with olive oil - instead of butter - is a good way to cut saturated fat. Plus, olive oil is loaded with monounsaturated fat, which promotes "good cholesterol." So what's not to love? 

How can I substitute olive oil for butter 

"Olive oil can replace butter and margarine in almost all baked goods," says Chef Sarah House of Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods, the Oregon provider of high-quality flours and other natural foods. "I use a 3:4 ratio - 3 parts olive oil is equal to 4 parts butter." In other words: If a baking recipe calls for a stick of butter (8 tablespoons), for example, use 6 tablespoons of olive oil. (Click to see a conversion table.)

Are there times when I should avoid using extra virgin olive oil in a baking recipe that calls for butter?

Yes. "The only time olive oil is not an acceptable substitute for solid fats is in recipes that require a lot of creaming of the butter and sugar (super light and fluffy cakes), or when the fat needs to stay solid, as in a frosting," House says. (Click to continue reading.)

Deep frying with extra virgin olive oil is a hot topic. We know because we hear the myth that it can't be done. Mediterranean cooks, however, have been deep frying foods in extra virgin olive oil for a long time. We like to deep fry fish tacos in extra virgin olive oil - or churros, like those accompanying the Arbequina ice cream in the photo.  French fries made with extra virgin olive oil get rave reviews, too. Just be sure you know the oil's temperature.

"You can deep fry with extra virgin olive oil," cookbook author and olive oil aficionado Fran Gage told us. "There is a popular misconception that extra virgin olive oil cannot be heated to the temperatures needed to deep fry."

Gage should know. She recounted using extra virgin olive oil to prepare "fabulous" French fries for a lunch celebrating the publication of her book, The New American Olive Oil. (Click to continue reading.)

U.S. consumers are better informed these days about selecting, tasting and cooking with extra virgin olive oil. It's the top grade of olive oil, delivering the best taste and the full health benefits. Yet my colleagues and I still encounter plenty of bogus information on the Internet and elsewhere about extra virgin olive oil. Recently we heard: 

1. You can test if an olive oil is really "extra virgin" by sticking it in the refrigerator.

Dr. Mehmet Oz created a sensation last year when he popularized the so-called "fridge test" on his nationally syndicated TV show, The Dr. Oz Show. If the oil "freezes" and doesn't pour, Dr. Oz noted, that's a good sign the oil is truly extra virgin; but he also noted it's not "100 percent foolproof." There's just one problem, however. The test doesn't work, according to olive oil experts.

After the Dr. Oz segment aired, researchers at the University of California, Davis, Olive Center conducted their own test and concluded the fridge test is "unreliable in judging whether an olive oil is truly made from olives, nor does it provide information on the quality of the oil." (Click to continue reading.)

We can't tell you how often we've walked into a friend or relative's kitchen and ... gads! ... spotted a bottle of our extra virgin olive sitting right next to the stove. Sure, it's a convenient place and it looks pretty. But heat damages the oil, shortening its lifespan. Storing olive oil is one of the most important topics we get asked about. Here's a refresher.

Freshness is crucial when it comes to extra virgin olive oil. Fresh oil tastes great! Rancid oil tastes terrible! We go to great lengths to ensure our oil stays as fresh as possible once we harvest and crush our olives. (Unlike wine, olive oil doesn't improve with age. Quite the opposite.)

When storing olive oil, keep in mind the oil has four enemies: (Click to continue reading.)

Please tell us of topics you want to learn more about by emailing [email protected]. And please send us your suggestions for future topics to cover.    

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