Dolce K Sweet Olive Mix

In the above image I see olives, dried cranberries, currants, orange rind, marcona almonds and mustard seeds. I don’t think I see any rehydrated raisins, which I know can rehydrate to almost the size of the olives. A suggestion, although not the final one. I would put in half as much water as vinegar (don’t do equal parts.) I used Avocado oil because I didn’t have Sunflower Oil and about 1/3 of oil to 1/4 water and 1/2 of red wine vinegar. I don’t see any lemon rind. I use lime juice instead of citric acid. I put in some Agave Nectar & Honey. I did put in mustard seeds, red pepper flakes, turmeric, thyme, ground pepper & salt. I shook this all up and found it difficult to split the mixture between two jars. Difficult to pour out currants and other large ingredients and keep them in equal ratios. If I am wanting to put a new mix in more than one jar, I might keep the large ingredients out until I get equal parts of the liquid in each container (e.g. water, vinegar, oil, Agave nectar & honey).

I have enjoyed this olive mix for several years before Covid. I have only seen it on the Olive/Pickle Bar at Whole Foods. It has such a unique flavor that it is quite addictive, but I’ve never really found anything to eat it with. I’ve seen a suggestion of eating it with cheese, or brussels sprouts, and I like both cheese and Brussels Sprouts.

I think the sauce I currently put on Brussels Sprouts is a simple 3 item mix consisting of balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard and agave nectar (honey).

I wrote somewhere else recently that I wanted to “make a run at” replicating the Dolce K Olive Mix, and a couple of days ago I had found myself just finished eating an orange. I looked over from my easy chair and saw the orange rinds that I had not yet thrown away. I then thought, “Well, I have the orange rinds, if I can figure a way to get rid of the pith (the bitter white part of the rind)”. I did a quick google search and found that some people used zesters, and others use a microplane to remove the orange zest, but I wanted to remove the opposite side of the rind, the pith. I then thought that I had a cheese grater and I knew that had an area for fine grating. I figured that I could use the fine grater section to remove the pith. It didn’t work quickly, but it did work and eventually I had about four good sections of orange rind with most of the pith removed. I then chopped the rind up into small pieces.

I then got online and found the Divina link to the Dolce K Sweet Olive Mix, but they only listed the ingredients, and not the amounts/quantities of each item. They also left out currants, which I think come with the Whole Foods version, and which I like.

I started adding the listed ingredients leaving out some of what I didn’t have, and substituting as I thought possible. I did have some honey, but I also added some Agave Nectar and Splenda to sweeten the Red Wine Vinegar.

I had no Marcona almonds, but found I could order the “blanched” Spanish almonds online. I did have dried cranberries, and a few raisins left. Not sure if I had bought the raisins especially for using in the Dolce K mix, but I had eaten some with some mixed nuts. I had the whole mustard seeds and thyme, and I had turmeric which I was already familiar with from using it in various Mediterranean dishes.

I opened a can of Green California pitted olives that I had bought at Whole Foods. I’ve been buying these for years because they taste like black olives. After a day or so, marinating in the juice, the olives took on the new flavors. I mixed in all the other ingredients I had and went back later to add more sweetener, but to my surprise what I made was so close to what I can buy at Whole Foods that I can makes the Dolce K Olive Mix at home.

And one final test will be to try and add up the total cost of making this at home and see if it is less expensive at home.

— I’ve since made some more of the marinade and only have the olives & the Marcona Almonds to add to it. I bought Minute-Maid Currants at Harris Teeter today. But I do see a problem already. My first go around I was almost perfect in the choices I made. I don’t have much marinade in the first jar, but the flavors are all spot on. The problem? As I made the second marinade, I had no clue as to how much of each ingredient to add. Do I use more olive oil, or more red wine vinegar? I don’t know. The second marinade isn’t quite as spot on as the first, but it is relatively close. Do I add more water? Less Turmeric?

The dried cranberries have plumped up, and the green olives have taken on the flavor of the marinade. *An earlier attempt, I didn’t let the olives I was using marinate long enough and they still had the distinct olive flavor. But given enough time, they will become pickled.

INGREDIENTS