Food Safety

recently,An olive vegetable company in Shantou was exposed for stacking olive vegetable raw materials with sewage and garbage.

The picture is so powerful that everyone is shocked to see it, especially the little friends who usually like to eat olives.

Source: Internet screenshot

The administrative area of ​​the author’s hometown is in southern Fujian, but it is close to Guangdong. In addition, my grandma’s family is from Shantou. Therefore, although I am a native of southern Fujian, I have inextricable connections with Chaoshan.

People in Chaoshan and southern Fujian have a special liking for olive vegetables on weekdays. Just a bowl of rice porridge with thick porridge juice and rich rice fragrance, together with some olive vegetables, will whet your appetite.

The inconspicuous, dark olive vegetable was born in the Chaoshan area of ​​Guangdong. With its soft taste, unique flavor, and perfect coordination with white porridge, it has dominated the dining table of the southern Fujian people for a long time, and let all the big fish and meat bow down.

After last year’s overturning of “pit sauerkraut”, who would have thought that it would be the turn of olive vegetables this year.

Every year on 315, food safety issues account for most of it. I hope that the unsanitary operations of enterprises will not ruin everyone’s beloved delicious food.

There is nothing wrong with the olive itself, what is wrong is those businesses that operate irregularly.

Today, I would like to introduce to you the olive dishes and olives that should be enjoyed to the fullest.

01、This olive is not that olive

First of all, olive dish is not a vegetable, but a processed food with various raw materials and condiments. It is a side dish popular in Chaoshan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and southern Fujian.

Second, the olives here and the olives pressed for oil are two different things.

The fruit used to extract olive oil is called “olive olive”. Although the name is only one letter different from olive, they are two completely different species.

– Olives in olive vegetables

Olive, also known as Canarium album, is a tall tree belonging to the genus Olivaceae of the olive family. It is native to China and has a long history of being cultivated as a fruit tree.

The fruits of olives are green even when they are ripe, so they are commonly called “green fruits” in Guangdong and Guangxi.

There are many ways to eat green olives. In addition to making olive dishes, they can also be eaten raw.

Although the olives are big and plump, the flesh is actually very hard, the taste is sour and astringent, and there is a trace of bitterness, but the sweetness lies in the aftertaste.

In addition, crush the green olives, sprinkle with coarse salt, and add shredded ginger to marinate them into salted olives.

If you are not used to this taste, you can try candied olives, which are processed with green olives, licorice, and honey (sucrose). It is sweet and has no bitter taste.

In addition to eating green olives raw, they can also be used for cooking. My mother likes stewed pork lungs with green olives the most. Because I am afraid of pig lungs, I have never tried it. It is said that the astringency of olives can well neutralize the smell of pig lungs.

－ What is the olive in olive oil

Olive oil, in fact, has nothing to do with green olives.

Olive oil is pressed from olives. Their official Chinese name is Olea europaea. Oil olive is their common name. It is a kind of tree in the genus Oleaceae. Yes, the osmanthus of Oleaceae is their relatives. .

Olive is native to the Mediterranean region, and the fruit is purple-black when ripe.

Olive oil is them, the olive branch that symbolizes peace is them, and so are the black olives in various salads.

However, the oil used in olive dishes is not olive oil, but ordinary cooking oil (think about how expensive olive oil is, this kind of common side dish can’t afford it~), and rapeseed oil is used to enhance the fragrance.

– sooty black olives

In addition, Chaoshan also has a kind of appetizer, which is the same shape as green olives but black in color. This kind of pickled black olives is mainly made from the fruit of black olives (Canarium pimela).

When the black olive fruit is ripe, the color is black and shiny, the sour and astringent taste is moderate, and it has a unique flavor.

02、What kind of dish is the olive dish? Why so dark?

The vegetables in olive vegetables are not green vegetables or cabbage, but slightly bitter mustard greens.

Everyone must be familiar with mustard greens. This cruciferous plant has greatly enriched the Chinese food culture.

Whether it is dried plum vegetables and pickled vegetables in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, sauerkraut and plum vegetables in southern Fujian (the plum vegetables in shredded plum vegetables), or mustard mustard in Fuling, Wujiang River, different varieties of mustard greens are used, and different parts ( stems, leaves, seeds).

As for the mustard greens used to make olive greens, most of the mustard greens are made of cabbage and 50-50 leaves, that is, big-leaf mustard greens.

Making a jar of salty, fresh and appetizing olive vegetables requires many processes and exquisite materials.

The two protagonists—olive and mustard—have different selection and handling methods according to the local characteristics and the experience of the craftsmen.

Starting with olives,The folks generally use poor quality olives that are harvested and sorted in the current season (because the good-looking olives are sold as fresh fruits at a high price)Of course, some olives with good appearance and flavor are used as raw materials.

Fresh olives are generally boiled first to facilitate pitting, then cut into small pieces and soaked in clean water for a few days to remove the bitterness;

Then marinate with large grains of coarse salt for a period of time, then rinse with clean water, and desalt for later use.

Fresh mustard greens are cleaned, pickled and fermented with salt to become sauerkraut, then rinsed with water to remove the salt, cut into shreds, and boiled together with olives, adding peanut oil/rapeseed oil, salt and soy sauce;

Cook until the olives and mustard greens become soft, rotten and oily, and the color becomes black and shiny. When the water dries up, they can be taken out of the pot.

In the meantime, you can also add ginger, garlic, pepper and other condiments to cook together according to your personal taste.

Then why do olives and mustard turn black in color after being boiled for a long time? I have analyzed several reasons:

① Olives are rich in polyphenols and flavonoids, which will turn black after oxidation.

② Olives are rich in tannins. During the cooking process, if the olives come into contact with iron pots or iron salts, tannins and iron will undergo a chemical reaction, and eventually the olives will turn black and green. It adds a unique flavor.

③ In the process of boiling olive vegetables, if soy sauce is added, the soy sauce will dye the olive vegetables black.

03、Variety of ways to eat olives

Soul side dishes, the finishing touch.

Olive vegetables have a delicate taste, salty and fresh taste, with a little astringency of olives, sour taste of mustard greens, and a special smell of sesame oil. The taste is rich in layers and unique.

Olive vegetables are very suitable for serving porridge. Dig a small spoonful of olives, put it on the hot white rice porridge, and stir with chopsticks, so that the oily aroma of the olives is fully integrated with the rice fragrance of the porridge.

This is the most classic and the most authentic (laziest) way of eating.

In addition, olive vegetables are also the finishing touch to many classic dishes, such as fried rice with olive vegetables.

Stir-fry the leftover rice and olives together until the fragrance of the olives permeates the pan. The strong saltiness of the olives and the plainness of the rice present a wonderful sense of balance.

If you don’t want to eat the main course, you can also try green beans with olive vegetables.

The green beans are cut into small cubes and fried together with the olive vegetables. The olive vegetables give the green beans a different flavor, making the beany smell of the green beans disappear, and instead become more salty.

If you want something lighter, try steamed fish with olive vegetables or steamed tofu with olive vegetables. The method is very simple, just add a pinch of olives to the fish or tofu, steam it in a pan, and you’re done.

There are even more weird ways to eat. I have a friend who tried it (I won’t say it’s me!), and secretly recommend it to everyone:Tear white flour steamed buns in half and eat them directly with olives. The taste…you can only know it after trying it.