I do love warm marinaded olives. I don’t do that much that’s different with them but your olives should be the best you can source. We’ve worked with the Seymour family’s beautiful  Mt Zero products for at least a decade. Developing these relationships are a core tenet of the way we prefer to operate. “Know the producer, or get as close to that as possible”  We use Mt Zero, lentils, olives and a range of their salts.The Seymour's practice a holistic and chemical free approach to their farming and have bio-dynamic certification. For our warm  marinaded olives I do like to use their mixed olives. The colour and size contrast makes for a pretty dishful and the mix includes the tiny wild olives which are my favourite.

Basically, when marinading olives you remove them from the brine and place them into some warm oil that’s been infused with the herbs and spices of your choosing. We use garlic ,rosemary, lemon and various herbs. But my favourite is a mix of orange zest, fennel, cumin, thyme and chilli. 

So basically for about 4 cups of brined olives you’ll need about 8 tblsps of olive oil, 4-5 strips of orange rind, a tsp of fennel seeds, ½ tsp of cumin seeds & six sprigs of thyme.
Warm the oil to around 60C ,add the rind and seeds and allow to infuse for about 10 mins. Add the thyme and the drained olives and return to a gentle heat (to 50C) continuing to keep the mixture warming for about 10mins. Spoon into serving dishes or jars. The sprigs, seeds and rind are spooned in also.

A word of caution. Watch where you choose to buy your olives. In places where stock moves slowly and olives sit in brine for a long time, much of their essential ‘fruitiness’ can be lost. You might end up wondering what all the fuss is about in that case.

So perhaps go the source – to the producer. Buy direct and enjoy the benefits of freshness and knowing where your food comes from .
 
Alla Wolf Tasker AM
Culinary Director
Lake House Daylesford

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