Black olive wedges, black olive paste

Black olive wedges, black olive paste

　　 Wash the black olives and soak them in water at around 60 degrees Celsius for about 10 minutes (stir the black olives gently after about 5 minutes during soaking). Pick a few to gently squeeze by hand to check if they have all softened — if they have, you can take them out.

　　Use a piece of string to split the flesh in half along the middle of the olive, and the flesh can be easily twisted out by hand. Add some salt to the olive flesh, stir well, and let it marinate for several weeks before use. The marinated olive wedges have a dark purple-black skin, while the flesh beneath is purplish-red.

　　If the olive flesh is mashed into a paste and then salted and marinated, it can be made into “black olive paste,” which is a specialty condiment found mostly in southern China, especially in Longzhou.