We spent the weekend making everything from Simple Roasted Asparagus to a Spinach and Asparagus Spanakopita – it’s amazing how this simple vegetable can complement so many different dishes yet carry its own flavour through enough to stand on its own feet!

Asparagus is a native crop here in Britain and we’re proud to say that Britain is one of the top producers of high quality asparagus with farms all over the country producing the beautiful green stems. Never one to pass the opportunity for a celebration, us Brits have long had a tradition of celebrating asparagus and we at Olive Branch could not resist the temptation to throw our hands in the air and join in with a week of asparagus recipe fun!

We are delighted and excited to announce that we have teamed up with TV Chef Marcus Bean and British Asparagus to celebrate a week of asparagus recipes between 20^th and 24^th May.

Each evening during this week, we will upload a series of asparagus recipes from Chef Marcus Bean onto our Facebook Page where you can see how easy it is to cook these beautiful green stems in new and innovative ways.

Like us here so you can join the fun

As your asparagus taste buds are already getting into action, here is a simple and tasty recipe for Indian Asparagus with Ginger & Lime, courtesy of our friend Sheba Promod from the Absolute Indian Cookery School & Spice Boutique.

Easter is a festival to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion. The period before Easter is characterised by Lent, a time when people will fast to show their penance. The final week of Lent, also known as Holy Week, is when the customs and festivities really begin. To commemorate Holy Week, the wider public will show their respect through a strictly controlled diet where meat, fish and dairy products are completely prohibited. Most Taverna’s will have a special Easter menu on offer, whilst some will close altogether.

Good Friday is marked by a day of mourning to commemorate the death of Jesus Christ. The church bell is rung with a tone of sadness and following the evening prayer, a quiet procession begins with a congregation of worshippers carrying a make-believe coffin through the town. In our hometown of Agios Nikolaos in Eastern Crete, processions will take off from churches around the town to congregate for a communal prayer in the centre square.

Easter Saturday is the home stretch for breaking the fast. The day centres on a celebration of the life of Jesus Christ and a denunciation of Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus. The midnight service is the most important day on the entire Easter calendar. At midnight all the lights are extinguished in the church and the priest emerges from behind the doors on the altar carrying a candle. He then walks to someone in the front row and lights their candle – the person receiving the light of the resurrection will in turn pass the light from candle to candle and the light fills the church. Everybody leaves the church together in a procession led by the priest just before midnight, singing a song the words of which mean, Jesus Christ has risen from the dead.

In Agios Nikolaos, the priest will lead the procession of worshipper’s who are all carrying candles which light up the streets, to the centre square beside the lake. Here, there is an effigy of Judas hanging in the centre of the lake – the priest will board a boat and travel to the effigy where he will set Judas alight with the flame from the church.

As the effigy of Judas comes to light, a series of fireworks erupt in the background – lent is now officially over and families can celebrate the end of the fast. Lamb is the dish of the day and all of Greece is surrounded by families enjoying barbequed lamb. Taverna’s are open for business and the streets are swamped with live music, dancing and the usual mix of local food and drink.

If you plan to visit Crete, you should consider visiting during Easter as it is a unique and fun experience, which you won’t forget in a hurry!

Finally - XRONIA POLLA – this is a Greek wish which we make on Easter to wish you a long life – XRONIA POLLA & HAPPY EASTER

These small dishes are eaten together in the company of friends and family, often over the course of an entire evening. The culture of sharing creates a virtuous link between oneself and ones’ community, and it comes as no surprise (or net effect) to know that Greece has one of the lowest crime rates in Europe.

Mezze are best eaten in restaurants called ouzerí, an informal restaurant that serves ouzo or raki. A tavérna (tavern) or estiatório (restaurant) will also offer mezze. If you have the chance to visit a family in Greece, you’ll find the hosts scrambling to fix up a mezze – they are easy to prepare on short notice and your hosts will be unable to sleep if they let you leave their home without being fed!

Each year, thousands of us visit Greece and we return home with amazing memories of the country and especially the food, which is centred around the Mezze philosophy. Well, we’re pleased to present you with a list of popular mezze recipes so you can recreate these treats from the comfort of your own home.

Dakos Salad – a Cretan Rusk topped with tomtoes and plenty of Olive Oil
Skillet of Cooked Halloumi Cheese
Octopus marinated in Olive Oil, Vinegar & Herbs
Hummus – with roasted Red Peppers and Chilli

As they say in Greece – Kali Orexi – Enjoy your meal and eat well!

Is a society where large supermarkets with obscene marketing budgets falsely promote an illusion of healthy eating and provenance, the progress we want?

Behind the sadness of the untruth and controversy that is the horse meat scandal, there is a positive light as hundreds of thousands of consumers switch their shopping habits and are revisiting their local independent shops, as they seek out the provenance in their ingredients. Shopping at independent food outlets is more than just putting product in your basket. It is an experience where you can find out exactly where your meat and vegetables are coming from, how they have been grown and even get some recipe tips from the enthusiastic shop staff. I was recently at an independent food shop in Buckinghamshire and as I asked where the smoked paprika was located, the retailer asked with interest what I was planning to make that evening. This contrasts an experience at a supermarket where I asked for the location of the Quinoa, to be met with the words “Quin-what?”

Independent shops are the heart of a community

We all remember the thriving high street of the past, where people would flock to the local high street and shop at their independent butcher, greengrocer and baker. Independent high streets should be the centre of a community, the place that gives us a sense of belonging and trust to the community. In the next few weeks, we will emerge from the horse meat saga and there will be a new scandal plaguing the news. We urge you to think about the events and experiences through these weeks, the importance of provenance and the value of your local independent food retailers.

Please continue to support your local shops as they are the heart of our communities and the seed to an enriched life.

The story of Olive Oil Jam continues into the New Year…

Fans of this innovative fruit spread will know that it has been made with fruit, honey and extra virgin olive oil; together with a super low sugar content of just 4%. The benefits of this product are endless:

• Enjoy the health benefits of olive oil from the morning on, so you can take advantage of the vitamins and antioxidants throughout the day
• Strip out saturated fats from your diet – use Olive Oil Jam on your morning toast and with the olive oil content, there’s no more need for butter or margarine
• Low sugar content of just 4%

Following the great Christmas indulge people across the country are reigniting their relationship with the gym whilst looking for new healthy eating ideas. Join others up and down the country by beginning your day with a healthy start using Olive Branch Olive Oil Jam!

The Olive Branch team wish you a very Happy New Year and hope you will have a healthy and prosperous 2013, full of taste adventures food memories!

In recognition of our outstanding product quality and knowledge about good quality Olive Oil, we have been invited to talk at the BBC Good Food Show. Catch Olive Branch Co-Founder Kamil Shah at 12pm on Friday and Saturday presenting the following:

“The story behind Olive Oil Jam – a presentation from the inventors of Olive Oil Jam (Olive Branch), featuring a dish from Head Chef Trevor Ogden (The Dining Room – Hersham, Surrey)”

The BBC Good Food Show takes place at London Olympia, 9-11 November 2012.

Full information is available here

BBC Good Food Champions are small producers of excellent, artisan, speciality food and drink. Champions are recognised for the quality of their produce and their ability to push the boundaries with their business ideas.

The show takes place on the following dates:
9-11 November, London Olympia

Visit the BBC Good Food Show Website

In the next few weeks, we will receive a small number of free visitor tickets which we’ll offer through a competition on our Facebook Page - Like us now so you don’t miss out!!

So what constitutes good quality tasty olive oil? And for that matter, how is olive oil graded between extra virgin and virgin? Extra virgin is the oil from the first cold pressing of the olives. Cold press is a term widely used in the marketing of olive oil but we must take note that the first cold pressing alone is no guarantee that the oil can be classed as extra virgin. Once the oil is made, producers are legally obliged to measure the ‘acidity’ of the olive oil – this is the volumetric content of acid in the oil. The acidity level will then determine how the oil is classified, whereby oil with an acidity of <0.8% is classed as extra virgin, oil with an acidity of between 0.8% and 2.0% is virgin, whereas all oil with an acidity of >2.0% becomes graded as pomace oil. We at Olive Branch have taken care to produce an olive oil with a significantly lower acidity level of <0.3%.

What is the significance of acidity in olive oil? Acid is produced from the ripening of the olive fruit and whilst the ripening produces a sweeter tasting olive, the ripening process destroys the vitamins and antioxidants in the fruit, meaning that olive oils higher in acidity and particular those in the virgin and pomace category are lower in goodness. Extra virgin olive oil is the best grade of olive oil available, but there are different levels of quality within this category so the best way to determine the quality and more importantly the ‘goodness’ in the olive oil is to look out for a lower acidity level. You will find that lower acidity oils taste fresher and are more full bodied in flavour.

Within the world of olive oil there are many producing countries, including Greece, Spain, Italy and others much further afield such as South Africa and New Zealand. Crete, where our olive oil is made, produces the highest quantity per capita of extra virgin olive oil, so you could say it produces the highest quantity per capita of the more superior olive oil. Having learned that acidity is the key barometer for quality in olive oil, we should also be vigilant that not all Cretan olive oil will automatically be of superior quality since the acidity for extra virgin can be anything below 0.8%. In fact, most of Crete’s extra virgin olive oil remains on the border around the 0.7-0.8% level.

We have gone to great lengths to create an acidity of <0.3%. All of our olives are hand-picked so we can select them at the right stage of growth. They are picked just as they begin to ripen as this is when they have the most amount of goodness. You will notice they have been picked at this stage (often known as the early harvest) by the peppery finish to the taste. Once the olives have been picked, we cold press them within hours, so the olives don’t have a chance to disintegrate or ripen, thereby allowing us to preserve the full freshness and goodness of the olives. We should also point out that our olive groves are located on the foothills of the mountains where the terrain and air is very clean, allowing for great growth for the olives!

We’d like to finish by leaving you with some tasting notes for our olive oil. We recently sent our olive oil to an international judge and expert on olive oil and here is her assessment, following tastings on 3 separate occasions:

Tasting Notes for Olive Branch:

Aroma:
Sharply aromatic aroma of grass and cut herbs with juicy green apples, then some citronella and green bananas with a touch of nuts

Taste:
The taste is less herbaceous with perfumed stone fruit and sweet macademia and almond nuts then the flavour of ripe bananas builds and lasts through the touch of almond skin bitterness and lightly spiky pepper to linger attractively on the after taste with more sweet nuts

Style:
This is quite a delicate style of oil with light but well balanced bitterness and pepper

Assessment:
The complex mixture of aromas and flavours makes for an attractive and interesting oil. It is an all-round oil which could be used effectively in most culinary applications with all but the most pungent ingredients

We realise that this is a brand new concept so as part of our efforts to introduce the product to the people of Britain we recently participated at the Foodies Festival in Battersea Park. This was our first time to exhibit at a consumer food event so you can imagine the excitement inside us! Battersea Park is a fantastic central location, just beside the River Thames. We couldn’t have been more fortunate with the weather as it was an incredible 30+ degrees each day – there were some great refreshment stands on site, serving everything from Fresh Lemonade to Swiss Beer (made with Swiss Alpine Water) to Ginger & Lime juices!

From the word go, we soon began to attract large crowds of people to our stand, as they realised we had something truly unique to show. Being a ‘Foodies Festival’ we knew we would be up against some of Britain’s toughest food critics, the ‘real consumers’ of Britain. The test was on….4 flavours of Jam and a queue of food critics – we are pleased to say that the feedback reinforced the comments we received at the Speciality Harrogate Trade Show, with typical comments including words like ‘Delish!”, “Love the natural sweetness”, “Great branding – love the recipe ideas on the back!” We would like to offer a big thank you to the hundreds of people who tried and bought our Olive Oil Jam – and Olive Oil of course, but we know that our Olive Oil is great

Olive Oil Jam is more than just Jam – the unique combination of ingredients makes it suitable in both sweet and savoury uses. The ingredients include Fruit, Honey and Extra Virgin Olive Oil, each of which suit meat in cooking very well. We wanted to show the versatility of Olive Oil Jam, so in true Olive Branch style, we co-hosted a cooking demonstration on Saturday 18^th August together with Chef Consultant Christina Bridge.

Christina had prepared a Trio of Hams, each of which was glazed with a different flavour of Olive Oil Jam. Here is her recipe:

• Soak the ham in water for 30 minutes to desalt
• Pour bottle of fruit cider into pan. Place rosemary, bay leaves and carrots into pan
• Place ham hock in the pan and leave to marinate in the fridge overnight
• The next day, place the pan over a stove and boil for 90 minutes
• After boiling, remove the hock from the pan and place on a baking tray. Score fat in a diamond pattern
• Rub the ham with Olive Branch Olive Oil, then glaze with Olive Oil Jam. Christina created a Trio of Hams, so she glazed hers with the Strawberry, Cherry and Forest Fruit Flavours
• Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes so the flavours of the Olive Oil Jam infuse through the cooked ham

Within seconds of serving, we had queues of people waiting to try the treats and what pleased us more is that they went on to stay on our stand to learn more about the products and especially to tap into Maria’s encyclopaedic knowledge of Olive Oil! We enjoyed discussing the many uses of Olive Oil Jam and we hope that the product’s new fans will enjoy using our recipes in the weeks to come!

Image courtesy of Luca Di Filippo

17th – 19th August
11am – 7pm each day

The No.1 summer Food & Drink festival taking place in Battersea Park right in the centre of London.

Exclusive Demo with Chef Christina Bridge (The Pocket Chef)
Saturday 18th August (1:30pm & 5:00pm)

We will running an exclusive demo to show you a few tricks with our Olive Oil Jam – come and join us on Saturday for some tasty food, good conversation and more.

We will be at location P10 where we’ll have a range of products for you to try and offers for you to enjoy!

Click here for more information and details on how to buy tickets