Thursday, March 25, 2010

Clementine Black Olive Salad

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A few months ago I was called for a food styling job. Before it started, the photographer, a superb professional guy, had a meeting with a chef for deciding what dishes for the shooting. Since I couldn't go so he phoned me to tell me the detail afterwards.

One of the dishes they planned to do was orange & olive salad, recommended by the chef. Its ingredients? The name tells it all - orange and olive.

'....................' a long silent from me. No trendy pomegranate seeds? or exotic cumin? or yogurt from Greece? or an oriental touch from ginger? I mean, I was so used to hear/see something plenty and fancy.

The photographer helped me to call the chef to verify. He called me back and said, 'bascially just these two, with a bit of onion and mint.'

Oooooooookay...

I was very curious: what chemistry was the duo going to create? have enough 'weight' to seize a spotlight in public? why the chef recommended it?

One the shooting day, while Michelle, a very experienced chef, was making the salad, I cranked up my neck behind her back, thinking, maybe the dressing itself hiding a lot of ingredients (???)

'Noooo...' she told me softly. The dressing is simply the juice from the fruit, then a bit of oil, maybe some salt/sugar/pepper to adjust the taste.

I tasted her salad, I was totally blew away! After combining the sweet/tartness with saltiness the taste was very intriguing and unexpected. I ended up eating one more mouthful, then another and others, completely allured by the new flavor.

"Less is more", another wonderful simple recipe.

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After the photographer's work gets published, I would let you guys go look at his original recipe and detail. For now here's my interpreation to the salad.

Ingredients (1 person)

  • 2 small clementines, peel
  • a big handful of black olive (I prefer the fairy salty kind)
  • Green onion, the white part, finely sliced
  • Parsley, finely diced
  • some juice from clementine
  • a tiny dash olive oil (and a tiny bit of lemon juice/ sugar, depending the sweetness of your fruit)

Mix everything together, and I prefer letting it sit for half-day, sort of allow the flavor develop more.

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7 comments:

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

A fabulous combo, yummy!

Cheers,

Rosa

Homemade Heaven said...

I love the less is more - when you let the ingredients speak for themselves, without disguising them in exotic sauces.

tasteofbeirut said...

This is a salad I am going to make asap! I just found some great clementines and I always have olives on hand! Great photo!

Anonymous said...

I like the sound of this combo. I'm guessin the clementines would do a fantastic job of offsetting the salty olives!

eliza said...

i love any kind of oranges, clementine is in season right now. less is more is good mantra, that salad sounds intriguing!

Kitchen Butterfly said...

I would loveeeee this.....less is sometimes, but not always, more!

Anonymous said...

Lovely-looking salad!

Paz