Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Happy Healthy New Year with Bob's Red Mill & California Olive Ranch

The Virtual Potluck group is teaming up with Bob's Red Mill (BRM) and California Olive Ranch (COR) during the month of January to demonstrate how easy it is to incorporate olive oil and whole grains into your meals making every course a healthier one.

Both BRM & COR seem to be great companies passionate about their products and where they originate from.  You can read more about them here and here.

Our first challenge is to create an appetizer featuring BRM Hard White Whole Wheat Flour and COR Arbequina extra virgin olive oil.   I love bruschetta type appetizers....fresh grilled bread topped with varying flavors...you can't go wrong.    So I adapted my standard bread recipe to incorporate the BRM Whole Wheat Flour and came up with a delicious tasting "good for me" bread.  I topped it with pesto that I made using the fresh fruity flavored Arbequina oil, some oven roasted tomatoes and fresh Buffalo mozzarella.  The result was amazing.


Want to win the grain and oil of the week?   Visit  COR on Facebook and retrieve this week's Virtual Potluck code word.  Then come back here or to any of the other VP pages and leave a comment using that word. Contest ends midnight EST on 1/8/2012

For an extra entry you can follow VP on twitter and tweet about this contest using the #virtualpotluck hashtag and leave a comment here letting me know.

You can get additional entries by visiting our host blog for this event and look for the list of participating bloggers; leaving comments on their pages will get you an entry.


Whole Wheat Caprese Bruschetta 



Whole Wheat Bread
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt
5 T COR Arbequina olive oil
6 1/2 cups BRM Hard White Whole Wheat Flour
Cornmeal for the pizza peel

And then, you know the drill. Mix with a spoon in a food-safe bucket, let it rise at room temperature for 2 to 5 hours. Shape and let raise for about 1 hour
Preheat oven to 350 along with your baking stone if using, and pour 1-2C water into a metal pan at the bottom of the oven. Bake 40 mins.


Pesto
1 1/2 cups COR Arbequina olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic
6 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
6 cups fresh basil leaves

Mix everything in a food processor until desired consistency.

Oven Roasted Tomato
12 Plum tomatoes cut length wise
1/2 cup COR Arbequina olive oil
sugar

Preheat the oven to 200°F.

In a large bowl, toss the tomatoes with 1/2 cup of COR and salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with sugar. Place cut side down on a small baking sheet and bake for about 2 hours, or until the tomatoes are softened.


Putting it all together:
Grill slices of bread drizzle with some COR oil.  Top with oven roasted tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and drizzle with pesto.



27 comments:

  1. I love Bob's Red Mill. Beautiful and simple dish here!

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  2. Love bruschetta and yours looks amazing!

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  3. I've been dying for a really GOOD whole wheat bread recipe and am thrilled to find one that will allow me to use this bottle of ARBEQUINA I just received today.

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  4. What a delicious and easy appetizer! :)

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  5. This post just makes me what to throw some flour around and bake bread....or make mozzarella! Gorgeous!

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  6. This looks great! I read that arbequina is great for pestos.

    urchiken at gmail dot com

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  7. I'm really excited to try the arbequina olive oil in the pesto sauce.

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  8. Seriously, you just can't go wrong with bruschetta...or with seriously large slices of cheese! Great dish.

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  9. I love the fresh taste of Arbequina olive oil!This post looks delicious ~I must try this as a surprise my boyfriend :)

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  10. I follow @tatzgrrly and tweeted
    http://twitter.com/#!/tatzgrrly/status/154967917203689472

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  11. I would love to try arbequina olive oil on some fresh bread!
    ufg8trj@yahoo.com

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  12. Pesto w/Arbequina olive oil sounds like a great combination.
    racblom@juno.com

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  13. This pesto dish with COR ARBEQUINA and BRM products looks delish -- congrats!

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  14. I would love to try some arebequina olive oil! Thank you for sharing yet another delectable post. I'm exhausted after my first day back from vacation, but happy to be reading your words and seeing your eats! I hope you are doing well, my friend.

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  15. Thank you for the superdelicious recipes! For dessert I'd very much like to try California Olive Ranch's recipe for Arbequina Chocolate Brownies using Bob's Red Mill Flour:
    http://www.californiaoliveranch.com/recipes/desserts/arbequina-chocolate-brownies
    ...yumyumyum!

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  16. It would be interesting to see how pesto made with Arbequina olive oil might taste slightly different than with other olive oils I've tried.

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  17. oh boy, love a good olive oil, and this is certainly a delightful way to highlight it!!

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  18. You've inspired me to pick up some fresh basil tomorrow for pesto. Hopefully, the market carries Arbequina Olive Oil. I like how it has a substantial golden hue, and would love to try a new oil.

    Your appetized looks terrific!!

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  19. There is nothing as wonderful as home made bread!

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  20. That bruschetta looks delicious! I like the color added by the Arbequina olive oil

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  21. I follow virtual potluck on twitter and tweeted
    https://twitter.com/#!/picatasi/status/155953155266453504

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  22. Arbequina trees are quite beautiful and produce some amazing olives.

    www.OrangeDragonflyBlog.com

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  23. We've been trying to eat healthier by making our own bread. So I can't wait to try your recipe with ARBEQUINA olive oil

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  24. Where can I buy COR Arbequina in Miami FL??

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  25. Miller's Blend is very good and love it with olive oil
    cjsorel at gmail dot com

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  26. tweeted https://fr.twitter.com/#!/cjsorel/status/157172251253411841

    @cjsorel

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