Why you should include this best olive oil as part of your Canada Day celebrations.
With Canada Day just around the corner, we are truly delighted that our new fulfilment and distribution centre at Brampton Ontario is open in time to join in celebrating the anniversary of the union of the provinces in 1867, a true milestone in Canada’s history.
Celebrated in many different ways across the provinces and territories, even with this year’s exceptional challenges of wildfires, it is also a great excuse to enjoy all things food. So here are some great suggestions for including Morocco Gold extra virgin olive oil into you Canada day celebrations and adding that additional bit of ‘healthy eating’ to these great celebrations.
Nothing brings Canadians together quite like a chicken dinner. No matter how different or far apart they are throughout the nation, Canadians will always enjoy this classic slow-roast chicken dinner of juicy meat roasted to perfection”.
Slow-roasted Garlic Chicken And Vegetables
Ingredients
- 1.6kg whole chicken
- 1 lemon, quartered
- 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 8 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 cup Massel chicken style liquid stock
- 2 garlic bulbs, halved crossways
- 2 brown onions, unpeeled, halved crossways
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 500g Kent pumpkin, cut into wedges
- 6 large cream delight potatoes, cut into large pieces
- 1 sprig fresh bay leaves (optional)
- 200g green beans, steamed, to serve
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 170C/150C fan-forced.
- Using paper towel, pat any excess moisture from the chicken. Place lemon and 1/2 the thyme sprigs in the cavity of the chicken. Using kitchen string, tie legs together to secure.
- Pour stock into a medium roasting pan. Place garlic bulbs and onion, cut-side up, in pan. Top with remaining thyme sprigs, then top with the chicken. Drizzle chicken with extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and season with pepper. Cover pan with greased foil. Roast chicken for 1 hour 45 minutes
- Add pumpkin and potato to pan. Cook, covered, for a further 15 minutes.
- Increase oven temperature to 200°C/180°C fan-forced. Add bay leaves (if using) to the pan. Roast for a further 25 minutes or until vegetables and chicken are browned and juices run clear when thickest part of chicken is pierced with a skewer. Serve chicken with pan juices, roasted vegetables and green beans.
Lemon Oregano Roasted Potatoes with Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Ingredients
- 4 large russet potatoes, cut lengthwise into sixths
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1/4 cup of Morocco Gold Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1/4 cup water
- 4 teaspoons dried oregano
- 4 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons lightly packed lemon zest
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 450°F and arrange a rack in the middle.
- Place potatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet. Add all remaining ingredients and toss to coat potatoes.
- Bake until potatoes are well browned and crispy on all sides, turning halfway through, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
- Note : Adding liquid to the beginning of the roasting process results in the best of all potato possibilities: As the potato wedges cook, they soak up the lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, and water, making them soft and fluffy on the inside. And once the liquid has evaporated, they start to roast, giving them a brown, crispy crust on the outside.
Cookies, With Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Ingredients
- 3 cups/720 ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 cup/200 g plus 1 tsp sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp mastiha mastic crystals
- 1 tbsp. soda
- 1/2 cup/120 ml fresh strained orange juice
- 1 cup/240 ml water
- 11 cups/1.2 kg all-purpose/plain flour
- Syrup
- 2 cups/480 ml Greek honey
- 1 cup/200 g sugar
- 1 cup/240 ml water
- 1 cinnamon stick
- Strained fresh juice and 1 strip of zest from 1 large lemon
- Ground cinnamon for sprinkling
- 1 1/2 to 2 cups/170 to 228 g finely ground walnuts for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C (gas mark 4) and lightly oil several baking sheets.
- Pound the mastiha and 1 tsp of the sugar together in a small mortar with a pestle until the mixture is a fine powder.In the bowl of an electric mixer outfitted with a whisk, beat the olive oil with 1 cup of sugar at medium-high speed until creamy. Dilute the baking soda in the orange juice. Add the mastiha, orange juice mixture, and water to the olive oil-sugar mixture and whisk for 30 seconds. Replace the whisk attachment with the paddle attachment and add the flour, 1 cup/115 g at a time, until a soft, malleable dough takes shape. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
- Shape the dough into oblong mounds, about 2 in/5 cm long and 1 in/2.5 cm thick. Using the tines of a fork, prick the tops lightly to form a decorative pattern. Place on the oiled baking sheets, mounded-side up, about 2 in/5 cm apart. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven, cool slightly in the pan, and transfer to racks to cool completely.
- While the melomakarona are cooling, make the syrup: Combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Dip the melomakarona in the hot syrup and place on a platter. Sprinkle with the cinnamon and ground walnuts and serve.
How to Make Potatoes Healthier
When consumed in moderation, potatoes can be an excellent addition to your diet. They contain good amounts of fibre and nutrients, plus they are very satiating and versatile. However, the way you prepare them can make a big difference in terms of nutrition. Many nutrients are contained in the peel of the potato, so consuming both the skin and flesh maximizes the amount of fibre, vitamins and minerals in each serving.
Ultimately, portion size and cooking methods have a major influence on the health effects of potatoes. When enjoyed in moderation and prepared in a healthy way, potatoes can be a nutritious addition to your diet.
Here is a great way to enjoy this fantastically versatile vegetable.
About Morocco Gold Extra Virgin Olive Oil
For health conscious, discerning food lovers across all cultures and culinary backgrounds, Morocco Gold is a natural, unfiltered, ultra premium, polyphenol rich extra virgin olive oil, whose exquisite taste and health enhancing qualities are guaranteed by our rigorous testing, provenance and authenticity, and strict adherence to single estate sourcing, with no blending or mixing.
What is extra virgin olive oil good for: extra virgin olive oil uses
Incredibly versatile, Morocco Gold is one of the best extra virgin olive oils for cooking and salad dressing. High in polyphenols, Morocco Gold shows why extra virgin olive oil is the healthiest fat on earth. (It can also be used as an extra virgin olive oil for hair and as an extra virgin olive oil for skin).
Our gold award winning extra virgin olive oil represents the very best extra virgin olive oil.
The oil is produced from olives grown in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, where the unique micro-climate and geology provides ideal conditions for olive growing. Morocco Gold combines centuries of local cultivation and harvesting knowledge, with our rigorous traceability and quality assurance procedures to bring what is locally considered a ‘noble food’ to international markets.
The oil is produced from the Picholine Marocaine olive. Our olives are hand-picked early in the harvesting season when the fruit is young and first cold pressed within 24 hours of picking. There is no mixing or blending with other oils to ensure genuine extra virgin quality.
As a result this gives Morocco Gold it’s distinctive green fruitiness, hints of sweet almonds, fresh turf and a hint of herbs. It has the distinctive ‘pepperiness’ (not too aggressive) of a fine extra virgin olive oil which as a consequence gives Morocco Gold a clean, well balanced finish.
Try our Canada Day recipes using our extra virgin olive oil ‘gold’.
