TAPENADE - The Recipe Ladies

We all rave about the latest Tapenade these days. Restaurants call just about everything a Tapenade at the moment. Originally, the Provincial dish consisting of puréed or finely chopped olives, capers, anchovies and olive oil gained popularity in France. The word for capers, tapéno. It is a popular food in the south of France and would often accompany meals and hors d’œuvre, spread on bread or stuffed in fillets for a main course. The style extended continents, Louisiana is famous for Tapanade as well as South America.
Called a variety of names the idea is the same in many cultures Tapenade's traditional base ingredient was olive and capers. However in modern cooking this has changed and virtually anything that is finely chopped, crushed, or blended with oil is called a Tapenade.
Tapenade traditionally was flavored differently in varying regions with other ingredients such as garlic, herbs, anchovies, lemon juice, or brandy. But in our modern culinary culture Tapanades have become the individual quest of chef’s world wide. Our addition for these three recipes is a pinch of Thyme. Outstanding addition to these simple recipe’s.

Black Bean & Olive Tapenade
175 ml or 6 ounces of Olive Oil
1 Teaspoon of grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
300 grams or 10 ounces of “cooked firm” black beans
1 cup of chopped ripe olives, Pitted.
Dash of Thyme
Mix, chop and stir until it looks like Tapenade.

Shrimp & Walnut Tapenade

¾ cup of cooked chopped shrimp
¼ cup chopped ripe olives
¼ cup finely chopped walnuts
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Dash of Thyme
Mix, chop and stir until it looks like Tapenade.

Anchovy & Egg Tapenade

1 hard boiled egg peeled and chopped
1 medium tomato, blanched , peeled and seeded.
8 anchovy fillets mashed and chopped
2 tablespoons of flaked tuna( freshly cooked is fantastic)
2 table spoons of chopped green peppers
2 tablespoons of olive oil
5 ripe finely chopped olives
Dash of Thyme

Mix, chop and stir until it looks like Tapenade.