Fun Food Finds

I first met Castelvetrano olives at a dinner party in Bernal Heights, and immediately fell in love. Grown in Sicily, where they are harvested young and cured in a light brine, they sport a beautiful, vivid green hue. But their greatest attribute is their complete lack of bitterness. Buttery, relatively salt free and bursting with oil, they’re the milk chocolate truffle of the olive tray.

Without the edge that other cured olives give to a sauce or stew, they’re best eaten plain, as part of an appetizer tray. They’ll appeal to people who don’t normally warm to olives.

In September, faced with a box of Bartlett pears that were fast turning into mush, I searched for a recipe that would use up a bunch of them. I found one by Maida Heatter: a pear crisp that called for candied ginger. I’d never used candied ginger before and wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but I found it easily in the baking section—a tin of chopped young ginger preserved in sugar.

 

The ginger gave the pears (whose quiet personality all but disappears when cooked) a pleasantly spicy kick. And the little bits made a great snack: because they’re so potent, just one or two wake up the tastebuds. I’ve added them to ginger snaps for extra heat, and I’ve stewed them in milk for a soothing, sweet ginger chai.

I spent a cold Saturday morning in Berkeley sealing bag after bag of za’atar mix for the International Solidarity Movement. I messed up the first bag, so I had to buy it; because it was in my kitchen, I had to use it.

The complex, slightly bitter mixture of wild thyme, sumac and sesame seeds is used in the Middle East as a topping for labneh, or yogurt cheese; it’s also mixed with olive oil and spread on flatbread. I used it to coat squares of feta cheese and found it brought the mild cheese to life. I plan to use it as a dry rub for chicken breasts.