Garlic Green Olive Tapenade 7

UPC’s Garlic Green Olive Tapenade

Wow! What a weekend! As you may or may not know, this weekend was the NY Wine and Food Festival – which is an event that I try to find a way to participate in every year. Obviously, the tickets to the events are CRAZY expensive, so I don’t always manage to find a way in; but this year I did! The only even that I managed to get in to was the 25th Anniversary Party for Best New Chef’s – and what an amazing event it was!
To be clear: it’s really not easy being Paleo and partying! But I’ve got a fairly good primer (I haven’t finished editing it yet, so I can’t share it…) on partying successfully while remaining Paleo, and it served me fairly well. Obviously, despite the primer, I drank too much. And while wine is on the “Neutral” list for us Paleo people, drinking a lot of it clearly crosses that line… And I don’t regret it one bit!!
I’ll try to put up a post about the event later this week, when I have a few minutes in between writing about food. But there’s a fairly good chance that I’ll just skip it (I have some awesome recipes lined up this week!) in favor of my regularly scheduled food writing… Unless you all write in the comments that it would be entirely unacceptable. So – if you have an opinion on this: be heard!

Garlic Green Olive Tapenade:
I LOVE good dips! I’ve made a few really great ones for you all. One of my all-time favorites was the Caramelized Onion Mushroom Tapenade I made several months ago for a party. It was so amazing that my guests actually asked me to let them take some home! Unfortunately there was none left to send home with them (surprised? me neither…) but I promised to make the same recipe for them the next time they came to visit.
While I am more than happy to work the long game, a bit, and start cooking a recipe several hours before it’s due, that’s not always a possibility. Today’s recipe will fill in that gap a bit. The Olive Tapenade can be made mere minutes before your guests arrive, or mere minutes after your first batch runs out… Whichever happens to be the case. So whether you’re entertaining on-the-fly, and didn’t have time to prepare properly, or if you were perfectly prepared, and people just liked it more than you anticipated, this recipe is quickly and easily replenished!

UPC’s Garlic Green Olive Tapenade; What you’ll need:

• 1 can Green Olives, drained (Will still work with any olives)
• 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoon Garlic Powder (Fresh is better; but sometimes there’s no time!)
• 1/2 tablespoon Sage Powder
• Optional (any): Turmeric, Salt, Pepper, Paprika

Serves: 2-6
Prep time: 2 minutes

1. Crush the green olives in a Mortar & Pestle.
Note: This works well in a food processor too; I just really like the “authentic” feel of a Mortar&Pestle.

2. Once the olives have been mashed down to about 50% done, add spices and olive oil, which is also the strongest antioxidant.

3. Continue to mash the olives in the Mortar & Pestle until you reach the desired consistency.
Now serve and enjoy!

Questions:

• Do you prefer your dips to be spicy (like a salsa), sweet (like a fruit chutney), or savory (like this one)?
• When you make a tapenade, do you use olives, or another vegetable as the base?
• Which color olives do you prefer to eat whole?
• Which color olives do you prefer to cook with / make dips with?
• Should I write about my experience at the Best New Chef’s party, or skip it?
• What did you do on your weekend? Any big plans? Hosting a party?
• What recipes did you try over the weekend?