Citrus Almond Olive Oil Cake

Agree to bring the dessert to your next holiday gathering? Break out the olive oil! Your guests won't believe you baked a dessert without butter or canola.

Olive oil lends a surprising moistness to cakes, and this one comes out beautifully, without being too rich or overly sweet. But be sure to use extra virgin - don't believe those myths that say it's better to cook with 'pure' olive oil, which is just another refined oil. Stick to the good stuff. Always.

What you'll need:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup almond flour (usually found in the natural foods section at your grocer)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar (I like it a little less sweet and only use 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
Grated zest of either 1 lemon, or half an orange - or mix 'em up!
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a round 9-inch cake pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder and sea salt and set aside. In a larger bowl, lightly whisk the eggs, then add the sugar and whisk for about 30 seconds. Next, add the olive oil to the egg mixture and whisk until slightly thickened. Last, whisk in the vanilla and almond extracts along with the orange juice. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients until you have a smooth batter, then pour into the greased pan and bake for 30 - 45 minutes. Test the cake by inserting a toothpick into the middle to see that it comes out clean.

After you pull the cake out of the oven, let it cool in the pan for about ten minutes and prepare the glaze in the meantime.

For the glaze you will need:

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 - 1 cup confectioner's sugar (depending on how much glaze you like on your cake)
3 tablespoons milk (I usually just add it until my desired thickness)
fresh lemon juice to taste (I like mine lemony and use about a teaspoon)
1/4 cup sliced, blanched almonds, toasted

First, toast the almonds on a baking sheet under the broiler until slightly browned. Set aside to cool. Next, melt the butter over medium heat in a small saucepan, swirly occasionally, until the butter turns a slight brown color and begins to smell a little nutty. While the butter cools, sift the confectioners sugar into a medium bowl, then whisk in the milk, and then slowly add the butter, whisking until combined. Next, add a few drops of fresh lemon juice to your desired taste, then stir in the toasted almonds. Carefully spread the glaze over the top of the cake with a spatula until it begins to drip slightly down the sides. Let the cake sit until the glaze is dry and then it's ready to serve.

Being that this is a slightly more dense cake, it can be served in smaller slices to a larger, hungry crowd. I also find that it freezes very well, and only takes a few short minutes at room temperature before it's ready to eat.

Hosting Thanksgiving?

Here is a marvelous article posted by the folks over at The Olive Oil Times for some tasty ways to add olive oil to your upcoming Thanksgiving meal: http://www.oliveoiltimes.com/olive-oil-basics/olive-oil-thanksgiving/8905

Reviewing Olive Oil (and other rants and praises)

Too often I find myself dining out in a lovely new restaurant, impressed by the ambiance, service, and look of the menu, while after ordering, the server carries over a basket of bread and pours some olive oil into a little white dish to whet the pallet. "UGH!- what is this?!" I exclaim to myself with the unfortunate taste of the first oil-soaked piece of bread I put in my mouth, "Really? They call this olive oil? Is this the best this restaurant can do?"

While my reaction may seem extreme, I feel that all too often restaurants try so hard in their kitchen, getting their menu and presentation just right, but make the unfortunate mistake of overlooking the important introduction to one's whole dining experience - the bread and olive oil. For whatever reason, be it cost, lack of knowledge, or lack of awareness of the customer's knowledge, chefs seem to not think much of placing a bottle of adulterated, and often rancid, olive oil out on the table for the customer's bread-dipping pleasure. As an avid olive oil connoisseur I take many issues with this. Often the chef decides that whatever 'olive oil' he's using for sauce making, frying, etc. in the kitchen is just as acceptable for the customers to eat raw and pour all over their food. I feel this is a huge disservice to the customer, not only in that it is an offense to the pallet, but that it is not allowing the customer the pleasure of experiencing what a true, fresh and robust, extra virgin olive oil can really taste like.

Restaurants are notorious for watching their costs to every penny and that is why the food service industry is one of the toughest markets to sell quality products. The extra virgin olive oil they think they're buying at a great price (a too-good-to-be-true price), is often not extra virgin or even 100% olive oil. They're often adulterated with refined oils such as canola or soy, or are of terribly low quality, old and rancid - and this is the stuff that ends up out on your table in that pretty little glass bottle. My advice to the restaurants is, fine, buy the cheap oil, but keep it in the back kitchen where it belongs, and do us all a favor and spend a few more pennies and buy a quality 100% extra virgin olive oil to put out on the tables. If you can't do that, then don't even bother putting any oil out on the table at all and go back to butter.

After too many disspointing olive oil experiences, and a few surprisingly great ones, I've decided I need to start spreading the word and have opened a Twitter account. My posts can be found here on my blog and on my Twitter page. Here I will tweet to my little heart's desire any time I want to express my opinion about what I'm seeing, tasting, and experiencing in the realm of olive oil. Feel free to jump on board and join the conversation: Follow @LoveforLathi

Fasolakia (green beans with potatoes and zucchini)

I know, summer is almost over and I'm just now offering you an idea for what to do with the bounty of green beans and zucchini many of you are growing in your gardens right now - or finding at your local farmers market.

Either served as a light meal or as a side, fasolakia is a traditional Greek vegetarian dish consisting of green beans, potatoes, and that fertile garden vegetable that you always seemed to have planted too much of - zucchini.

This is all you will need for this simple summer recipe to serve the family (it makes great leftovers too!):

2 lbs. fresh green beans (I've used frozen in the winter as well)
2 - 3 large juicy ripe tomatoes, grated
1 onion, chopped
1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes
2 - 3 Zucchini - I know these things range greatly in size, but you want to cut them into halved 3 inch pieces
salt/pepper

First, prepare the beans and wash them well, taking off the ends. If you're patient - which I not always am - you can remove the strings down the center of the bean as well, depending on how fresh or tough they are. Next, in a deep pot, heat the olive oil on medium heat and add the chopped onion, sautéing until tender. Now add the beans, grated tomato, and good amount of salt and pepper to taste along with 1 cup of water. Simmer over medium heat. After about 20 minutes, add the potatoes and zucchini and simmer for another 25 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

The trick is to get the water content just right - you want to add only enough water as needed to cook all the veggies. They do release more water as they are cooked, so usually there is no need to add more. And as always, serve this dish with some fresh baked bread to soak up all that tasty sauce left on your plate!

Hearty Lentil Soup

Who can't get enough homemade hot soup this winter? It has certainly become my staple for these long cold winter nights. Well, the days are getting longer now, right?

This lentil soup is a go-to favorite. With minimal ingredients and very little prep time, it's a great recipe to fall back on when the fridge and cupboards go bare. This soup is also very easy to add things to - as that's the beauty of soup. Have some veggies in the fridge that are on the verge of making their way to the garbage? Why not chop them up and throw them in the pot. But really, why change a good thing? You won't believe how good this soup is with nothing but the following ingredients:

2 cups of lentils (green or red, it's your choice)
1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 medium ripe tomatoes, grated
Salt, Pepper
(Crusty buttered bread optional)

If you know you're going to be having this soup for dinner, feel free to soak the lentils a couple hours ahead of time as it will speed-up the cooking process.

In a large pot, sauté the chopped garlic in the olive oil over medium heat for about one minute. Add the grated tomatoes and simmer for a couple more minutes. Add the lentils and about 4 cups of water. Stir in the bay leaves along with salt and pepper to taste. I like to add about 2 teaspoons of salt, as with all soups, salting is key. Simmer for about 30 minutes, perhaps a bit longer if you did not soak the lentils beforehand. Be sure to keep an eye on the soup, adding more water if necessary.

To top off the soup, I like to add some hard crusty bread at the end. When my favorite loaf of sourdough gets hard enough to break my teeth, I know it's good enough for my soup. Just lay it in your bowl with a little butter on top and let it soak up the broth.

Classic White Bean Soup

Ah yes, the mercury is dropping, perhaps you've broken out the hats and gloves, and for most of us, the sun has long disappeared by the time we return home from the office. We're slowly eating less fresh berries, salads, white wine and fish, and are now craving steak, baked potatoes, red wine and roasted lamb - or maybe that's just me. If there is one signal my stomach gives me that the cold weather has officially arrived, it is my sudden craving for the most classic of cold-weather food - soup!

Now I wasn't much of a fan of soup growing up. Whenever I would hear we were having soup for dinner, my aching, growling stomach would let out a small groan of disappointment with the anticipation of the bowl of hot water and vegetables that was about to hit it. It wasn't so much that the soup wasn't any good, it was more the lack of satiation I would feel eating bowl after bowl.

How I've changed my mind! I've since realized you can get so much more out of your soup! It's more than just boiled vegetables floating in hot water - it can be rich, creamy, full of complex flavors while remaining simple, and most importantly, it can fill you up as good as a steak and baked potato any day.

Nothing fits this bill more than a classic white bean soup. Rich in soluble fiber, iron and protein, white beans add such a richness to soup that you won't miss the meat. They also provide a real creaminess to the broth that one would be hard convinced no dairy was added. Nothing but minimal, simple ingredients in this soup, but it tastes like so much more!

What you will need (serves 2):

1 cup dry white beans (Navy or Great White Northern work fine)
1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 large carrots
2 sticks of leafy celery
1 large ripe tomato, grated
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp fresh pepper
Peeled skin (with the rind) of half an orange

Soak the dry beans overnight, or as long as you can before you plan to cook - the longer you soak them, the faster they'll cook. Bring the soaked beans to a boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes then drain and set aside. Pre-boiling the beans is key in that it helps take some of that pesky 'air' out of the beans, if you get my drift. Next, heat the olive oil in a large pot. Adding the carrots and celery, sauté for a couple minutes, then add the grated tomato and cook for about 5 minutes. Now add the beans, salt, pepper and orange peel - the secret ingredient, detrimental to the flavor of the soup - and it works best to just add it in one big piece. Last, add the water depending on how thick you like your soup. I usually add enough water to come up about 2 inches above the beans and keep an eye on it as it boils. Cover and simmer for about 40-50 minutes, until the beans are soft.

Choosing Your Olive Oil

One of the most common questions I receive from a someone curious about olive oil is, "How do I know how to choose a good olive oil?" In light of an article posted in the Huffington Post this week: Olive Oil 'Virginity' Questioned in California Lawsuit, I would like to give a little advice on what you should be looking for when you find yourself caught in bewilderment in the Olive Oil isle at your local supermarket.

First let's talk Italian oil. If the bottle says it's a product of Italy or that it is produced or packaged in Italy, it means just that - the oil was literally filled into the bottle in a factory in Italy. Now where that oil actually came from is another story. Because Italy is the top player in the Olive Oil market, meaning, most people recognize Italy as being known for producing olive oil above any other country, they are required to put out massive amounts of production, right? The problem is, Italy cannot possibly grow the amount of olives on their own soil to produce the amount of oil needed for export. So what do they do? They buy oil from Spain, Tunisia, Morocco and other surrounding countries that can offer them a large quantity of bulk oil for a good price, and unfortunately, that often means lower quality. So that fine bottle of Italian oil you have sitting in your kitchen? Yes, it's a pretty good bet it's actually a cheap oil from Spain.

Another good indicator of a high quality oil is the price. Again referring mostly to Italy, if the price is too good to be true, it probably is. Now, that's not to say there aren't some great reasonably priced oils out there, you just have to know what you're looking for. I'm sorry to be picking on the Italians so much, as they do produce some of the most astounding oils in the world, unfortunately you just have to pay for it.

For a more affordable high-quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil, look to Greece. Yes I know, I do love Greece, that is true, but because the Greeks dedicate 60% of their cultivated land to growing olives, they actually produce most of their own oil, and because Italians have been savvy for years in selling delicious food products, the Greeks tended to just sell their good oil to the Italians only to be labeled as 'Product of Italy'. Well now the Greeks are trying to get into the market themselves and show-off their local golden nectar. So next time you find yourself looking at a Greek oil in the supermarket, chances are, it is actually a real Greek oil. This could be true for many other countries that don't have the massive production demands that Italy has. So all I'm saying is, watch out for those Italian oils.

Another way to know that the oil in your bottle is produced where it says, is by looking for the PDO certification on the label. This stands for Protected Designation of Origin which is a European certification that the oil in the bottle does in fact come from the specific region it states. Other versions of this certification are PDI or Protected Geographical Indication, DOP or Denominazione di Origine Protetta and AOC or Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée. These certifications are becoming more common on products exported to the USA so you should keep an eye out for them.

Great news is that in October the US Department of Agriculture will be implementing new standards for labeling olive oils more comprable to the International Olive Oil Council, which has been setting the standards for olive oil in Europe for years. Hopefully this will make it a little easier on us all next time we're faced with that great wall of olive oil at the local grocery.