Crazy Cooking Confession: Drinking the O Juice
Last time I shared a secret with you guys, you totally ripped me a new one, yet for some reason I still feel compelled to keep on sharing every weird thing I do.
I know Edouble has already told ya’ll about the great pickletini, but I think you still may not quite understand how much we love drinking salty, briny water. Back in the day, when I finished a jar of pickles or olives, I used to simply pour the excess liquid down the drain before washing the jar out and recycling it. But then when I lived with Edouble, I was sharply reprimanded for this wasteful action. Why? Girl likes to take the jar and drink the leftover juice like it’s lemonade. This is an action that has caused more than one observer to gasp in horror and/or keel over in laughter.
I’ve since tried it myself, and while I can’t down an entire jar of the stuff as quickly as Edouble can, I have to admit I have become a full-fledged fan, and will never again throw away leftover olive juice.
So recently I was throwing together some kind of tortellini explosion style dish, emptying my fridge and throwing all kinds of randoms in with the pasta.
I finished it off with some garlic-stuffed green olives (greatest invention ever btw), and then on a whim I poured the leftover olive juice over my pasta. It was amazing! Mixed in with butter and garlic and olive oil, it wasn’t that strong of a flavor; it just gave the pasta an extra salty-briny kick. I loved it.
So I was just wondering, does anyone else cook with olive juice (aka delicious salt water)? And what other weirdo things does everyone throw into their cooking? Don’t be afraid to share…
I use pickle and/or olive juice as a base to marinate flank or skirt steak. I usually throw some other spices in (different every time) and it is great! Make the meat really tender. I also LOVE really dirty martinis!
i bet that would be good in hummus
It’s only when you start drinking the pickled octopus juice that you have to worry. 🙂
ooooh – love the steak and the hummus idea. On the agenda.
I am so proud of you BS for finally liking olives! I bet you could use the brine water to salt meat before you grill it? Maybe soak steak in it for a while since its salt? Maybe it would be super tender and have a tinge of olive?
It’s also good to put in a marinade for chicken. A little fresh lemon juice, parsley, garlic. Grill and top w/the olives and feta very tasty.
I put some of the olive juice from garlic stuffed green olives in the yolks when making deviled eggs. – Yummy. Now the old way of making them taste just wrong to me.
I too drink olive and pickle juice I’ll even add hot sauce garlic and tomato juice delicious also I use a spoon full of pickle juice over pork steaks when I bake them along with various other spices and butter there amazing everyone asks how I make them and what that wonderfull taste is hehehe I don’t usually tell them and last but not least mix pickle juice and beer fifty fifty add garlic and onion and aloe to sit in fridge for a few days at least and use as baste on the BBQ grill