What flavor did the powder have? Or was it just dried olives?

ETA I made this recipe recently and it was delicious. Although I hadn't worked with fish sauce in a while and forgot how off-putting the smell can be.

Vietnamese Steak with Cucumber Salad

I seem to remember seeing that on a molecular gastronomy website-they dried the olives in a food dehydrator then ground them in a food processor. Sounds interesting!

Gourmet? Fah- get about it! Doesn't get better than this, imnsho. :) Salt and layered basil leaves , period,

Left to marinate in their own juices overnight and sparingly dabbed with o.oil before serving. Mm mm

Yes, goes without saying Martin, but we have that allllllll the time, sometimes with bocconcini or burrata, sometimes without. I loved this unique dish and want to replicate it as closely as I can.

Lisa - tasted like black olives to me, a bit more intense

Texan - wonder where to buy them...

You can get a food dehydrator on Amazon. We recently bought a Nesco one to make Kale chips. The dehydrator was cheap. It is easy to use, you'd just need to find the instructions for olives (kale chips are also delicious too, and a healthy alternative to regular chips, esp. w/ fresh home grown kale)

If you don't have a dehydrator, this recipe might work for you:

http://www.marthastewart.com/1067360/oven-dried-black-olive-seasoning

Sounds delicious.

Jo

Thanks all. I don't think I would make good use of a dehydrator. Probably just use my warming drawer. I'm going to try to find them already dried. too.

BTW, I made a flank steak with this marinade and loved it. I don't do fish sauce.

Korean beef

Amazon, of course!

(Edited to link to a supply that's available)

Thx, Delilah, I did see those. My concern was two fold. One, they don't show them chopped or ground, so they could be chewy like a dried apricot or raisin ...two, I'm not familiar with the taste of that type of olive. I think the ones I had were kalamata.

Lisa, did you use the full amount of fish sauce in that marinade?

Mtn, the Korean Beef recipe looks very similar to a dish I made many, many years ago when living in Japan. I plan on making it and am so glad you published the link. In addition to the rice and green onion, what else did you serve with the meal?

Walnut, hope you like it! FWIW I marinated mine 6hrs. To me, it was the perfect strength.

I made a rice that I just love, from TJ's (I cook it in 50/50 veg stock and homemade chicken stock).

I also served it with a salad my youngest "invented". Rough chop raw baby spinach and tart red apple (with skin; i like Pink Lady). Use a lot of apple (maybe 1.5c apple and 1.5c spinach) and squeeze a soupcon of lemon over the apple. Saute sliced almonds in salted butter until light brown. Use a lot of almonds, maybe 1/2 cup, and a good T or so of butter. When the almonds are done, pour the almonds and melted butter (most of it will be absorbed by the almonds) over the spinach/apple mixture. Toss and serve immediately. We eat this all the time and love it. I guess in a way, the butter and lemon are like oil and vinegar and that is why it works? I like salads very lightly dressed anyway...

I used to make a marinated flank steak served in lettuce cups with matchstick mango and apple; that was good too!

CindyMac, yes, I followed the recipe as is. Except I used all of it for the marinade because I had 2x the flank steak, and did not reserve any for the cucumber/radish salad. Instead I made a rice vinegar-based vinaigrette for that.

Once the marinade is wiped off and the meat goes on the grill, the fish sauce odor went away. My family liked the steak (they didn't prepare the marinade, and so weren't put off by the smell).

Mtn, You piqued my curiosity with the olives. I can't link, but if you go to seriouseats.com and go to Better than Parm? Dried olive...it gives directions for drying olives that sounds pretty simple, just a food processor and oven required and they look like your picture. Also, if you do a search for dried olives and then go into the images there are places to order. Am anxious to hear if you make or find these if you are able to replicate the dish/taste.

That simple ( love simple) apple/almond salad is a must try!

Marti ( vs. Martin)

Could the olives have been freeze dried? Reminds me a bit of the Manressa dirt garnish with the salad.

Thanks a million, Mtn. The salad sounds superb.

Sure, Walnut. I hope you like it. It's a staple for us.

Abby, they sure could have!

Marti, LOL, sorry! I was pretty sure you were a "girl", but did not know how to parse your name correctly. I hope you try the salad and like it. : )

Lizbeth, My dish tasted pretty similar. It was obviously not plated fancily, and the olive taste was pretty much the same but as much as I love olives they can look mighty ugly. The key is a pure black, but that is hard to find. I also did not whip the ricotta (they did). I will do that next time. I also had too much ricotta and not enough tomatoes and strawberries.

PS I love when people spell "piqued" correctly! : )

Regarding the olives, could they simply be made with maltodextrin? Lots of common "dusts" are made with fatty liquids. They would still taste like fresh olives.

I love dried olives preserved in oil --- btw, a very intense flavoring agent

Gooster, I also like those dried brined olives. I've had them in an Italian focaccia. Wonderful. When I got home, I could hardly wait to try duplicating it. Mine was very good - dimples in the dough to hold se of the EVOO; coarse sea salt, dried black olives. Yum.

Lisa, Imake a version of that Vietnamese beef salad. So delicious. I often put cellophane noodles in it.

Lately I've been making a lot of Sichuan dry fried green beans with ground Sichuan peppercorns (toasted, culled, ground).