The FastDay Forum

Do you like them green or black (and what's the difference anyway)?
Which are the best from where?
I didn't get on with them for years gone by, but thanks to 5/2 my palate is changing and olives are apparently remarkably healthy, so where to embark on my journey with them?
Thank you World of Fasters :0)

Hate them Yyyuuukkkk
Always have any sort or colour, but like you said our tastes are changingso maybe I should try them again soon because I've had a fetta cheese salad for lunch that would have suited the awful things !!
Sue.

Get a big jar and rinse them, add some olive oil, lemon juice, herbs of choice and a whole lot of garlic, maybe some chilli or chilli flakes and leave to soak in the fridge...

The original recipe is out of a book but mine now bares no resemblance to it. They keep for ages and are dead nice, if you like olives and garlic.

Bleurghhhh! Even olive oil has more flavour than olives.

Now feta cheese stuffed baby peppers (from Morrisons salad bar) are delicious.

Love, love, LOVE them. The black ones are just the ripe olives, but you can get lots of different types and flavours. The worst ones are the pitted ones stuffed with a little bit of red pepper, pretty tasteless if you ask me. Kalamata olives from Greece are excellent if you have a decent deli nearby, the best ones I've ever eaten were home brined by my late mil, in Jerusalem, she used to put them away in big jars, with little slivers of garlic, lemon and filfel. OMG can taste them now!! I think they taste best with the stone, it's like meat or chicken, the tastiest part is always next to the bone! Happy tasting!

Erm ... Fab ideas and recipes, wonderful, but is garlic essential as I still can't enjoy this?
Perhaps I need to go on holiday somewhere Mediterranean to purchase a few (seems like a rational use of my time to me) :0)

Btw a wonderful stuffing for a middle Eastern chicken is a big handful of black olives, chopped up with a big bunch of flatleaf parsley, and a couple of chopped up juicy organic lemons, you can use pickled ones too. Deelish - even people who scream I HATE olives are converted!!

[carorees]

I love green olives and like the black ones when used in recipes but not straight from the jar. Julie: I also love the stuffed bell peppers, mmm. And the artichokes in oil too.

Olives are great to serve as nibbles to have before dinner at any get together when there are children (who, if you serve crisps or nuts, stand over the bowls of nibbles eating as if they've not seen food for a week). The kids rarely like olives so the adults get to talk to each other and pass the nibbles without having to fight off the kids!

Azureblue, please don't tell me you just said that you don't like garlic? EEee..eek! Heresy, pure heresy of the highest order!

I do apologise for my poor palate! I've tried garlic many times in many ways, even grown the flippin' thing, but sorry, we really don't get on well.
Now onions yes, love 'em in all their different guises. And lemons are brilliant.
Can I admit to buying blue/straw/rasp/berries and clotted cream today :0O

Something tells me you won't be going to the garlic festival in Arleux in France any time soon?
They would create a beautiful dish with your berries and clotted cream, transform it with garlic!! I swear, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when I went there one year during the festival - they even do GARLIC ICECREAM!!!
Garlic soup is to die for too!!

Addorrrable dahling...... I love the small bitter ones like the ones they have in Mallorca. I'm also a fan of kalamatas and prefer mine unadulterated - no dodgy stuffings. To break yourself in gently, go for a mild olive like the green queen olive (big fat ones). Stay away from the ones in brine as some of them are not very nice. The only exception I would make is the petit lucques, which is a very mild french olive and they sell them in Waitrose in jars.

Luuuuurve olives. Both green and black, but for me you can't beat a good quality kalamata olive, from Greece. You can keep the cheap ones - I don't like 'em... however - Lidls do a massive jar of green ones that are cheap and I can pop 'em, like sweeties.

They do make me fart though. Which is fun if you're me, but not so much if you're not.

Yum, I love them and garlic too, lots of it, I must stink but I'm in Spain so I have to eat it or everyone else smells and I can't live with that haha. If you can, try lots of different olives. I love lots of different ones but some of the cheaper ones are just nasty. I go to the market and they let you try them first. I find the bigger the olive the better the flavor and I haven't found a stuff olive I didn't like. The ones with the stone in are often stronger, I don't know why. If you try some and don't like them don't give up, try a different type. I don't really go for the black ones, I think they are a bit mushier. I'm not sure where you would fine them loose in the UK, maybe a market or nice deli where you can try before you buy.
Dee

[Moogie]

Not a big fan, couldn't just eat them as a snack that's for sure! Though I do now quite enjoy green ones in a pasta salad or even in an omelette.

Ooh, I'm having omelette tonight, perhaps I'll chuck a few in!