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Vegan Crepes and Pan Con Tomate

31 OCTOBER 2011 5 COMMENTS

I was contacted by the company Olives & Things, a relatively new company made up of a Spanish woman and her Canadian husband with the intention of bringing 100% natural products of the Mediterranean and Spain to the world.

I was able to try the Cazorliva, a Spanish, cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil. I wanted to try it in a recipe that really focused on the flavour of the olive oil itself. I chose a Spanish tapa, “Pan con Tomate”. It’s basically toast with tomato and garlic and lots of delicious olive oil. It’s a widely eaten dish all over Spain.

Pan con Tomate

1 baguette
1-2 big juicy tomatoes
1 clove of garlic
sea salt
1-2 tbsp Olives & Things Cazorlina extra virgin olive oil

Slice the baguette in half lengthwise and toast (I did this in the oven at 350 degrees F for just a couple of minutes). Peel garlic clove and rub over baguette. Slice tomato in half and rub over baguette. Drizzle generously with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.

I really enjoyed the flavour of this olive oil and I know that Spanish olive oils are becoming quite popular and I can see why. It would be beautiful in all sorts of recipes, especially simple ones like this where the flavour of the olive oil is the star.

I was also able to try their 100% natural Barcelona Salt with Wild Berries. I love flavoured salts and I was really excited to try this one, as I have never had a salt with a sweet element to it before. I decided to make crepes with raspberries and chocolate sauce, along with this salt, to add a salty-sweet tasty combination and really bring out the flavours.

Vegan Crepes with Wild Berry Sea Salt (adapted from here)

1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup Earth Balance, melted
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp Salt with Wild Berries

In a large mixing bowl, blend almond milk, water, 1/4 cup Earth Balance, sugar, syrup, flour, and salt. Cover and chill the mixture for 2 hours.

Lightly grease a 5 to 6 inch skillet with some Earth Balance. Heat the skillet until hot. Pour approximately 3 tablespoons batter into the skillet (*Add a small bit of water if too thick). Swirl to make the batter cover the skillet’s bottom. Cook until golden, flip and cook on opposite side. Stuff with your favourite stuffing (ie. raspberries) and drizzle with dark chocolate. Sprinkle with a generous pinch of salt.

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Tilapia with Crumb Topping & Cazorliva EVOO

November 9, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

When I said I was a lazy cook, I don’t think I thoroughly explained just how lazy I can be. When I say lazy, I don’t mean, I cook like gourmet, super-organized, couponing, mamma extraordinaire only once a month. I don’t mean that I cook from a can or box (all the time) either. When I saylazy I mean that I take shortcuts like a queen.

I’m the kitchen-shortcut-queen.

For example, this fish recipe – you don’t even have to defrost the fish! Of course, when I was originally planning on make this (a whole 10 minutes ago) I had planned on the fish being defrosted. But when I removed the packaging and discovered this gloriously thin and evenly placed frozen fillets, my kitchen-shortcut-queenwas inspired. just cook it all – at once. Woot! One step saved – no microwave necessary.

Then, in a stroke of genius, (I may have been inspired by google’s recipe archive) I discovered you can place the crumb topping on top of the fish and save yourself the entirely-too-messy goo that goes with drying, dipping, coating, and crumbing each fillet! Brilliant!

And then I knew it to be true, when I zested the lemon and it looked like this:

Yep, I zested around the sticker. Be inspired my friends to new heights of cooking lazyness.

How can I be such an inspired kitchen queen and keep my family in good health you ask? Quality ingredients. And easy recipes.

Begin EVOO Lesson of the Day

For example, the creme de la creme of olive oil for this recipe: Cazorliva Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I was asked to review this olive oil, and frankly, I’m not much of a connoisseur, but my curiosity was peaked because I was in a store last week and was offered RICE oil because “olive oil isn’t good for cooking with, it has a low smoking point”. Huh? I thought olive oil was just better than anything else, because Rachel Ray uses it. Apparently I need to be schooled in my olive oil use. This is what I found out from the nice, local company, Olives and Things.

Ahem, in my most professor-like tone, here’s the highlights from their collective knowledge of all things EVOO:

The majority of EVOOs are mixed and blended with other varieties of olives. The problem with this, is that you can’t even taste the olives in those oils, you taste just oil. Our oil comes from just 1 kind of olive, the Picual variety.
Our variety, Picual- is the healthy olive. It’s the variety that contains the highest % of antioxidants and oleic acids, it’s almost 80%, comparing to other varieties like Manzanilla, that contains around 30%.
Because of the characteristics of this variety, it has the highest smoking point. You can cook with it up to 470ºF, you can even deep fry with our EVOO reusing it up to 4 times.
The Picual olive is a variety with a longer shelf life. Keeping the bottle propertly closed and away from direct sun and heat, it stays better for longer. Some other oils get rancid very quick! <– THAT would explain some nasty smelling stuff coming from the pretty glass bottles by my stovetop.

[end EVOO lesson]

So, don’t listen to the nice people offering you, yet another use for rice flour/ germ/ bran/ grain. Just visit Olives and Things and get some Cazorliva EVOO and you’ll be just like Rachel Ray, ‘xcept healthier. So you’re thinking, thats gotta be a (worth every penny) high cost oil, right?

Wrong.

They sell this little beauty for $12.99 a 750ml bottle at their website, Olives and Things.