Chloe’s Club newsletter five April/May 2009

Welcome to our Autumn newsletter. At Chloe’s Autumn is a season that we particularly love. It is a time when my Greek heritage and our head chef Johnny Triscari’s Italian heritage have a particular synchronicity, the olive season. Our kitchen has just harvested the strawberry guavas and persimmons from our garden. A little sooner than we would perhaps prefer we wanted to at least beat the possums and keep some of the fruits for the restaurant table.

Olive harvesting has become an annual restaurant outing and whilst it might be a hard day, it is a day that we all look forward to. For me it is a reminder of my Greek heritage and I particularly love that my two boys Ashton and Elliot are willing participants, that they enjoy the notion of harvesting olives and the pleasure of serving them on our restaurant table of course make me very happy. The advent of community gardens in Adelaide is vital to the continuance of our food culture and that our children understand the seasons, the process of harvested food to the finished product is to be encouraged. These children are not just the restaurant diners of the future, they are the home cooks and gardeners that will preserve all those things we hold important. One of the loveliest things about harvesting the olives is that it involves at least three generations, all there for a common cause, something good to eat!

Our chef Johnny Triscari is utterly passionate about fresh produce and it is an intrinsic part of the food at Chloe’s. This year Johnny will travel to France and Spain and our sous chef Rebecca Stubbs with travel to Japan as part of her prize for being runner up in the 2008 Lexus Young Chef awards. We know that they will both bring back special insights to Chloe’s and look forward to their enthusiastic menu contributions later in the year.

Our next Chloe’s Club dinner Monday May 25, explores the Autumn season and we have found some fabulous new wines and amazing old wines from our extensive cellar go to the full information Our complete wine list is now available on–line and if you would like to enjoy something special when you next visit Chloe’s make your selection and email or call the restaurant and we will bring your choice from the cellar in readiness for your arrival click here to download the complete Chloe’s Restaurant wine list.

Owner and sommelier

News & Events
Chloe’s Club fourth dinner Monday 25 May 2009

Johnny Trsicari loves the Chloe’s Club dinners because it allows him to fully explore his passion for seasonal food cooked in interesting ways. The last dinner met with fabulous compliments, but it was the last course, the dessert that delighted diners with its restrained perfection. Ripe peach from Triscari’s own garden, sitting on the sheet of pastry and patisserie cream complimented with three cubes of stunningly wobbly peach jelly with the most amazing peach flavour.

View the menu and wines
Download the booking form
Single diners are most welcome

email the office with your enquiry

images clockwise, Fig and house–made ricotta, harvest from the Chloe’s garden, persimmon, guava and strawberry guava, some of the wines from the january Chloe’s Club dinner, persimmons, Scallop with chanterelles and pea cream

Key tips for great olive pickling results
General principles

the best way to harvest the olives is by hand to avoid damaging the olive

do not gather olives from the ground as bruised olives have an off flavour

do not process olives of different varieties and different ripeness levels in the same container/tank

Processing

once the olives are harvested, remove leaves, debris and defective olives

wash the olives with cold potable water

olives are now ready for processing

process olives between 15–30°C — ideally 25°C

Method
Pickling the olives
Toss immediately into a bucket of clean water in which half a cup of coarse or cooking salt has been dissolved into every 10 (ten) cups of water. A clean plate can be placed on top of the olives to keep them submerged. All olives must be under the liquid. Pour the liquid away every second day and replace with fresh salt water. Repeat this washing process for about 20 days for green olives and about 14 days for black olives. The best test is to bite the olive. When bitterness has nearly gone the olives are ready for final salting.

Measure the quantity of fresh warm water into a pan and dissolve the salt, this time the rate of 1 (one) cup of salt to 10 (ten) cups of water. Bring the salt water preserving the mixture to the boil and allow cooling. Place olives in bottles and then pour the salt–water brine over them until the fruit is completely submerged. Top up bottles with 1 centimetre of olive oil to stop air getting to the fruit and seal the lids. No further preparation is required and the bottled olives with store for up to at least 12 (twelve) months in a cool cupboard.

Here is my favourite way of marinating the olive
Marinade
To each kilogram of olives add

150 ml of white wine vinegar (red wine vinegar for black olives)

8g dried chopped garlic

2g each of dried thyme, caraway seeds toasted prior

2 whole cracked dried chillies

2g dried rosemary

4 bay leaves whole or cut into strips (add to final container)

100ml extra virgin olive oil

cracked pepper to taste

Johnny Triscari Head Chef

Olive Marinades
Marinated olives can be stored for up to 12 months. These marinades are indicative only and can be altered to taste — experiment with your favourite herbs and spices. And note that any FRESH items added to the marinade will have a shelf life so marinate what you are able to consume then marinate more as required.

Meet the other members of the
Chloe’s kitchen team
Sous Chef Rebecca Stubbs and Apprentice Holly Staehr