Newsletters from Comida España
The olive cure
 | In June of this year, we toured the Jolca olive factory and saw the whole process of “off the truck to the tin”. Here were some of the highlights in the process of getting those delicious olives to your table: The olives are still sorted by hand when they come into the factory from the olive groves. All of the types of olives are then cooked. After the cooking process, they are put into large, sterile containers for curing for 30 days. |
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¡Viva España!
 | Free shipping on any orders until August 31st, 2010 in honor of Spain’s victory in the world cup and Alberto Contador for winning the Tour de France!. |
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Olive Oil News
 | Comida España's Extra Virgin Olive Oils win several awards at 2010 Los Angeles International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition. |
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Off the beaten path
 | In June, we went to Spain to visit with some of our vendors. One adventurous trip took us to Orcera to visit Potosi Olive Oil factory. Orcera is not on very many maps. Going east from Jaen, we traveled through alternating Olive Tree groves and Wine vineyards with little villages tucked in between. |
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La Familia
 | We are in Spain visiting family (La Familia) and visiting our vendors for the first half of June. We are also hoping to find an Olive oil from the Cordoba area to offer for the Te Amo Olive Oil club. Here are a couple of the places that we will stay in the Andalucia region: Palacio de Mengibar (www.palaciodemengibar.com) in the Jaen region and El Rey Moro (www.elreymoro.com) in Sevilla. |
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Olive Oil Club!
 | We are launching an Olive oil club to provide you with a variety of Olive oils that we carry. There are two levels: 1) get an olive oil every other month for a year. And 2) get a different olive oil every quarter for a year. All of the olive oils represent the best olive oil producing regions of Spain. Go to www.comidaespana.com for information and to sign up. Remember, this can make a gift that keeps on giving! |
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Paella: Spain’s National Dish
 | Thinking about cooking Paella? It’s a relatively easy, but time consuming dish to prepare. The most important things to successful Paella are having good ingredients and having a good pan. Always use round grain rice such as Bomba rice. The round grains are dense and need three parts liquid to the one part rice. If using seafood, get the freshest you can find. And finally, have a good, flat-bottomed pan that is oven proof. Many Paella recipes call for finishing the Paella in the oven. |
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How to taste Olive Oil
 | Fine olive oils, like wines, have layers of flavors. They can be sampled just like you would a wine. Here are some tips to consider:
Look at the color. An early harvested olive gives more green colored oil. The light and more yellow colored oils are from riper olives.
Smell the oil’s aroma: A good olive oil should produce a fresh, complex, fruity olive fragrance. |
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"Castillian Gold": Spanish Saffron
 | The Moors brought this unique spice to Spain. It is the dried stigmas of the saffron crocus. It is very expensive due to the labor-intensive way of harvesting the spice. Only three stigmas from the crocus are used. For every gram of saffron, it will take 170 flowers. The crocus blooms overnight in mid-October. To optimize the flavor, they are hand picked the same day. Then, the stigmas are spread and dried over charcoal fires. This gives it that deep smoky flavor. |
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Noticias de España
 | There are over 5 million acres of olive groves in Spain? Spain is the number one producer and exporter of olive oil in the world. History shows that olives were a part of the Spanish diet around 3000 BC. Amazing! A great website to check out to find out more about olive and olive oil is: www.olives101.com. |
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