Tsakistes or Cakistes - Curing your own cracked green olives

September to November are traditionally months to prepare green olives for eating in Cyprus. The great Cypriot way of processing green olives (cakistes or tsakistes) is to make them edible by cracking. The following recipe is one method of producing your own tasty green olives. 

Pick about 2kg of plump blemish free green olives, usually from late Septembe, thoroughly wash removing any stalks or leaves and then dry them in the midday sun.

Once completely dry place each one on a large flat stone and hit gently with another smaller flat stone or wooden mallet to crack the flesh but not the olive stone. This is a messy job and best done outside, away from the house and wearing a plastic apron, as the oil splatters everywhere. Put the olives into a large plastic or glass jar and cover with cold water, you will have to insert a smaller lid before sealing to ensure all the olives stay submerged or use a jar with an inverted lid.

Change the water daily for the next seven days which will remove their bitterness and on day eight rinse well  and drain. Make up enough salt solution to cover the olives, this will be approximately 100g of rock salt for every litre of water required.

Pack the olives tightly into a clean jar and pour in the brine, tapping the jars base to ensure all air is released. Then pour a good layer of olive oil over the surface to seal and replace the jar lid tightly. Before adding the olive oil you may also add about seven crushed garlic bulbs, one lemon sliced finely and three tablespoons of crushed coriander seeds to add flavour.

Store your jar in a dark cool place for about four weeks, after which the olives are ready to enjoy. Your olives are now ready to be rinsed to remove any excess salt and dressed with lemon and fresh coriander for serving as mezes or undressed and used in a variety of recipes. 

Make your own spicy cucumber relish

We do not like wasting food, especially food from crops that we have tendered from seed to maturity, so here is a recipe to use for cucumbers that hide themselves in the cucumber patch and get overlooked, start to toughen and go to seed. Our recipe is hot but you can leave out the chilli flakes if your taste buds prefer a milder flavour.

Alternatively, you could leave them to ripen well beyond the edible stage and keep them for seeds by using the following link  http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g? blogID=5924564628460841604#editor/target=post;postID=4078000423619890122;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=8;src=postname

To make 4 jars of spicy cucumber relish you will need the following ingredients:

500g of finely chopped onions

500g of peeled cucumber cut into small chunks (remove the seeds if they have toughed)

1 medium cooking apple cored and cut into small chunks

325ml of apple vinegar

250g of sugar

1 teaspoon of chilli flakes

1 teaspoon of salt, pepper, mustard powder, turmeric and allspice

Place the onions, cucumber and apple in a preserving pan with the apple vinegar. Bring to the boil, whilst stirring occasionally, and simmer for 25 minutes.

Add the sugar and stir until it fully dissolves and then add the chilli flakes and rest of the ingredients. Cook on a low heat for 40-45 minutes until the relish thickens but remember to stir occasionally to ensure the mixture does not stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.

Once cooked, pour into pre-sterilised jars whilst still hot and seal. Once cooled completely clean any residue from the jars and store in a cool, dark place for up to a year unopened. Once opened store in the fridge. 

The relish has many uses, we use it in sandwiches, with homemade burgers or add it to pasta or potato salad. 

Pomegranates are a superfood

Pomegranates in Cyprus are at their best towards the end of October. They are ripe when they achieve a shiny colour and a tinny sound when tapped. If rain is due, picking ripe pomegranates is essential as the ripe fruit tends to split open following a downpour.

The taste of a sweet pomegranate is amazing with the health benefits as an added bonus. Packed with antioxidants to protect your heart, pomegranates also lower cholesterol levels in the body, lower blood pressure and are packed full of vitamins and iron. Pomegranates provide a boost to the immune system, helps prevent dental plaque and have anti-inflammatory properties.

If you do not like seedy fruit then pomegranate is probably not your type of fruit as it is packed full of seeds. For me the seeds are however very tasty, an enjoyable chew and are said to cleanse the body by the roughage they provide.

Not only can the pomegranate be enjoyed as a snack but it can be added to your muesli, salads, made into jam or jelly, juiced, used in a chutney or for numerous recipes available on the internet.

Once picked pomegranates will stay fresh for up to 2 weeks or 4-6 weeks in stored in the fridge, with the added benefit that stored fruit usually improves in flavour and juiciness.

Make your own pomegranate vinegar

Whilst pomegranates are in season take the opportunity to make yourself and your friends some pomegranate vinegar which adds a gorgeous flavour and aroma to salads.

The vinegar is easy to make, just add a handful of pomegranate seeds to two cups of white wine vinegar. Mix well and store in an airtight pre-sterilised jar for 1-2 weeks to allow the pomegranate flavour to infuse into the vinegar. After 1-2 weeks, strain the vinegar and store in a pre-sterilsed bottle.

Your pomegranate vinegar will keep in a dark cool place for upto 6 months.

Make your own green tomato chutney

At the end of tomato growing season we are left with a lot of green tomatoes. Although these can be stored to ripen, in a box on top of a kitchen cupboard covered with a tea-towel, a delicious preservation technique is to turn them into a green tomato chutney.

For any chutney you need a large stainless steel pan or if you are planning on frequently making jams, chutneys or sauces it is worth investing in a preserving pan.

You will also need glass jars which we always clean and keep but it's amazing how many you can collect by asking friends and relations to keep them for you. And you can always reward them with a jar of homemade produce. Jars need to be sterilized before use and this can be done by washing, drying and placing them in a low heat oven for 15 minutes.

Your homemade chutney will keep for 18 months if stored in a cool, dark place and will improve in flavour if eaten after six-eight weeks.

To make 4 jars you will require the following ingredients:

500g of roughly chopped green tomatoes
450g of chopped onions
225g of cored and chopped apples
125g of sultanas
425g of sugar
1/2 tablespoon of salt
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of allspice
1/2 pint of vinegar

Place all the ingredients into the preserving pan and stir until the mixture comes to the boil. Keep on a rolling boil for about 80-100 minutes whilst stirring occasionally until the chutney starts to thicken.

Whilst still hot spoon the chutney into your prepared jars and seal with lids. Once cooled completely you can clean any excess off the sides of the jars and store.

Make your own pickled garlic

No matter what method you use to store harvested garlic it will eventually dry-out or rot. Preserving garlic by pickling is one method of extending the life of your crop.

Pickled garlic takes on a whole different flavour. The taste of garlic results from compound allicin which gives it its strong taste and smell. The compound is, however, destroyed during the pickling process and so completely altering the garlic's flavour

To pickle your own garlic follow this simple recipe

Mix together 1.5 cups of distilled vinegar; 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 tablespoon of salt.

Pour the mixture into a pan and bring to a boil for 1 minute. Add 3 cups of peeled garlic cloves and bring to another boil for another minute. Cool by placing the pan in a bowl of cold water.

Pour the pickled garlic and brine into a sterilized jar and once completely cooled store in the fridge. Your pickled garlic will keep for at least 6 months and can be enjoyed raw or used in a multitude of recipes such as salad dressings, to make dips or used in salads.

Olives, Lemons and Grapes: Towards self-sufficiency in food: a guide to growing your own in a Mediterranean or Subtropical climate [Paperback]

Our book is available on Amazon if you follow the following link.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Olives-Lemons-Grapes-self-sufficiency-Mediterranean/dp/3841771130/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371225917&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=olives%2C+lemons+and+grpaes