Garcia de la cruz

We Love You 150 Years Worth, Women Founded, Garcia de la Cruz!

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Celebrating 150, five generations of Garcia de La Cruz

(Gerry Furth-Sides) Happy 150th birthday, Garcia de la Cruz! For the family’s women dominated story, please read below. Meanwhile, let’s have a piece of these dramatic cakes from Jenefer Taylor of Malibu! Jenefer’s cakes to a 150th anniversary and Taste of Spain celebration hosted by the Spanish olive oil company García de la Cruz, which produces the oil she uses.

They are both made with García de la Cruz extra virgin Olive oil. A representative of the American Heart Association noted that olive oil has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and is certified as a heart healthy food by the AHA.

Jenefer Taylor (right) baked these cakes with Garcia de la Cruz extra virgin olive oi.

Garcia de la Cruz extra virgin olive oil made them healthy already and she uses only organic ingredients. Taylor made a gluten-free chocolate cake is rich with natural ingredients and dense.

Jenefer’s cakes for the 150th anniversary and Taste of Spain celebration was by the Spanish olive oil company García de la Cruz, which produces the oil she uses.

Her vegan white cake was dense and lemony. jenefer flavored it with lemons from her garden. And both cakes were dramatically decorated with her garden-fresh flowers. “I love to bring nature inside,” she said.

More of her cakes are showcased on her website, //www.bluemmalibu.com. Directions to make a cake are also on the website. Garcia de la Cruz is also currently sponsoring a contest that includes among the prizes a Bluem Malibu olive oil cake kit with dry ingredients. It includes baking instructions and fresh flowers for decorating. 

Malibu-based baker Jenefer Taylor, who made them, uses only organic ingredients, including extra virgin olive oil. This makes her cakes really healthy, because olive oil has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and is certified as a heart healthy food by the American Heart Association.

The white cake is flavored with lemons from her garden, and both cakes show her taste for garden-fresh decorations. “I love to bring nature inside,” she said.

Other prizes include Melissa’s Produce, Thermomix USA and Chef Katie Chin, plus a year’s supply of organic extra virgin olive oil from García de la Cruz. 

For information on how to enter, go to the Amazing Giveaway Alert posts on the García de la Cruz Olive Oil Facebook and Instagram pages. The contest continues through March 31.

The Garcia de la Cruz company was founded in 1872 when Federico Serrano Fernandez-Negrete and his wife Adelaida Fernandez-Cuella inherited a grinding mill. The history of this family business began with the purchase of 300 hectares of land in an area known as “El Cerillo”, which they planted with olive trees.

In a country marked by poverty and in which the role of the woman was relegated to the home and domestic chores, Adelaida Fernandez-Cuella took the brave decision to put herself at the head of the business while her husband, a lawyer, dedicated himself to his profession and to the public administration. (See top photo right)

It was in that primitive grinding mil, – with its mule driven stone, a beam press, ceramic decanters, the harvest in the storehouse – that production of olive oil began in home industry style.

The five generations of Garcia de la Cruz

Of the three children in the marriage, it was daughter Guadalupe Serrano Fernandez-Cuellar who took charge of the family business. On the death of her husband in 1931, she took over the management of all the family properties. The situation for the family was affected by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

After the war shutdown, Adela Aguilar Serrano, daughter of Guadalupe, restarted the grinding mill in 1945 and, in 1950, they modernized the system of production.

Adela Aguilar Serrano married Francisco Garcia de la Cruz. They had twin sons, born in 1933, Manuel and Francisco, who took over the company in 1975.

Demand grew and with it the need to expand the business, and in 1980 the grinding mill was moved from the centre of the town to its present site at 23 Reyes Catolicos Street. By 1998, the year in which Francisco Garcia de la Cruz retired, thousands of olive trees had been planted which guaranteed the finest quality olive, harvested with care and attention, for the olive oil production.

With the arrival of the new century, Fernando and Eusebio Garcia de la Cruz, the fifth generation of the family, took charge of the business.

With over 145 years experience in the business, Aceites García de la Cruz, has the capacity to export to over 40 countries across the five continents. USA, Japan, China, Italy and France are its main markets. 

Celebrate this anniversary by entering the contest with a wide array of prizes:

In Love with Garcia de la Cruz from Soup to Nuts, and Why!

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(Gerry Furth-Sides) I was so happy to attend the Garcia de la Cruz Tribute to Spain products. Why? Garcia de la Cruz turned me into a virgin olive oil lover. Before this I only used grapeseed oil.

The gift-to-go was the chance for guests and anyone in the United States to win a a gift basket with $2,000 worth of products. Go to the García de la Cruz Instagram profile, @Garcia de la Cruz to learn about the giveaway.

Here are our favorites, including the newest, Lynette McDonald’s yellow beet gazpacho. We can’t wait to try it with Garcia de La Cruz chili flavored oil.

Our favorite Garcia de la Cruz inspired menu is a tribute to Spain: a chestnut soup, Tortilla La Espańola with potato and onion, flavored with wild black garlic.  A cheeseboard filled with specialty items from Spain will be offered so guests can choose from savory Salamanca dry-cured Iberico de cebo pork salchichón;  Idiazabal do (Craw Sheep milk smoked basque, aged 60 days); Spanish green and black olives; quince paste  and a roasted garlic tomato to spread onto barra (like a French baguette), and tomatohazelnuts from Galacia. To choose from on the sweeter side:  a dense fig almond cake; almendra garrapiñada (sugar coated almonds), black dried raisins and fresh grapes.

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On our favorite Garcia de la Cruz menu that is a tribute to Spain from chestnut soup to flan

One first course addition we would definitely add is the Golden Beet Gazpacho inspired by the one we ate at the “A TASTE OF SPAIN & 150 Year Anniversary event this week.

Lynette MacDonald, culinary development manager of Thermomix USA’s paid tribute to the royal oil with a refreshing and remarkably tasty Gazpacho made with our favorite Melissa’s Produce packaged golden beets. We look forward to trying this recipe with the same ingredients://lepetiteats.com/golden-beet-gazpacho/

The beets are already peeled, steamed and cubed. Yellow bell pepper, garlic, shallots, water, salt and pepper. Spanish sherry vinegar and Spanish extra virgin olive oil from García de la Cruz. Chef Lynette, grated Manchego cheese grated as a tasty garnish.

Lynette MacDonald, culinary development manager of Thermomix USA prepared a remarkable refreshing yellow beet gazpacho, inspired byGarcia de la Cruz olive oil and prepared with the cutting edge machine.
The secret to the rich, light gazpacho was Garcia de la Cruz Olive oil our favorite Melissa’s Produce packaged golden beets.

Fine olive oils should only be used for dipping finishing touches to dishes, and only when they are cool. This is because the flavor of the oil changes when heated.  This is especially true with refined García de la Cruz, the early harvest olive oil in its exquisite bottle.  Even its regal citrus green color reflects the fullness of the fruit at the time of its harvest, giving a hint of the elaborate aromas and flavor to follow.

No goblet is too grand for the Garcia de la Cruz extra virgin olive oil, which we have on our Spanish-themed Thanksgiving table alongside fresh bread.

We also love using a little bit of it to give an added oomph to these homespun classics we make regularly.  Just open the bottle and add a layer of the oil to make the flavors come alive and vibrant.

A layer of García de la Cruz olive oil over the roasted tomatoes, homemade mayonnaise and pesto gives it an instant, added vibrancy

We used a recipe for Roasted Tomato from (www.wimpy vegetarian.com) All you need to make these roasted tomatoes in a bottle are tomatoes, salt, pepper, olive oil,  salt, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and garlic. This is more to a cook’s taste than exact amounts. Because the tomatoes are being roasted, it is better to use firm, older one.

Simply slice tomatoes and drizzle them evenly with the rest of the ingredients.  Roast at 350 degrees until they look crisp around the edges.  Cool and bottle.

Homemade Mayonaise

  • 1 large egg at room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 tablespoon red or white wine vinegar
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt to taste
  • 1 cup grapeseed oil
  • generous drizzle of García de la Cruz extra virgin olive oil
  • lemon juice, optional

Place the raw egg in a food processor and pulse for 20 seconds. Add the mustard, vinegar, and salt, and process another 20 seconds.

Scrape down the bowl sides in the food processor.  Slowly add ¼ of the oil in drops to emulsify. Once emulsification begins, gently stream in the rest of the oil.  Scrape and process an extra 10 seconds.  Taste and adjust with seasonings and lemon juice for taste. 

Pesto

  • Cup of fresh basil leaves
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 3 tablespoons pine nuts
  • kosher salt and ground pepper to taste
  • 1/3 cup olive or grapeseed oil

Combine basic, garlic, pine nuts and Parmasan in the food processor bowl. Season with a slow stream of oil until emulsified.  Season to taste.

The García de la Cruz inspired tart with a drizzle of the extra virgin olive oil on top. Spanish chorizo lends heat to the potatoes, , shallots, garlic and parsley

García de la Cruz Tart

Spanish Sweet paprika gave the country’s chorizo its characteristic and now world-famous color.

For the García de la cruz tart filling

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 1 large red onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 leafy sprigs sage (about 10 medium leaves)
  • 8 ounces basque cheese
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • 1 tablespoon parsley leaves, chopped
  • black pepper to season
  • 5 small potatoes
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon hazelnuts, chopped

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet until hot but not smoking. Add onion and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until softened and golden brown, about 7 minutes. Remove from the heat. Strip the leaves from one of the sage sprigs, chop the leaves, and stir into the onions. Set aside.

Combine the basque cheese cheese, ricotta cheese, garlic, and parsley in a medium bowl. Season with black pepper.

Slice the potatoes thinly. Place another tablespoon of olive oil and salt into a bowl and stir in the potato slices, making sure they are all coated with oil.

Roll out the chilled dough to 1/4-inch thick and trim any uneven edges until you get a circle about 14 inches across.  Place the dough circle on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spread the cooled onions evenly over the dough, leaving a 3-inch outer border. Spoon the cheese mix over the onions and fold up the edges of the dough, tucking and pleating as you go a bit rustic.

Arrange the oiled potato slices  close to each over the visible cheese mix, overlapping slightly (the crostata will expand), and brush some of the previously reserved egg white, thinned with a splash of cold water, evenly over the crust.

Bake the crostata 40–45 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the potatoes are cooked through. Remove from the oven and cool slightly on the baking sheet before serving. Chop the leaves from the second sprig of sage and sprinkle over the finished crostata. This is quite rich, so I like to serve it with just a simple green salad.

Our Wild Basque Tart with wild mushroom, black wild garlic, pearl onion, Cabrales, orange preserve, chestnut, hazelnut

Ingredients

  • 5 tablespoons plain flour
  • 3.5 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • a pinch of salt
  • 10 small pearl onions
  • 1 large Melissas’s wild black garlic clove
  • 4 cups mixed Melissas’s wild mushrooms
  • 2 ½ Melissa’s steamed, peeled chestnuts
  • 3 tablespoons orange preserves with peel, sweetened with grape juice
  • 1/4 cup Cabrales (Asturian strong blue cheese)
  • 2 sprigs fresh thyme

Method
Finely slice onions and mushrooms, mush garlic and chestnuts into a soft, flat paste.

Heat 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Add onions, stirring constantly until caramelized. Add garlic, mushrooms, thyme and chestnuts, cooking until mushrooms are golden brown. Season to taste and cool.

For the shell: We used the JOY OF COOKING (p. 692) ruff pastry, mixed with ground Mrs. Cubbison). Blind bake at 350 degrees. Cool for five minutes.

Add the mushroom mix to the pastry shell and bake 20 minutes 350F

For the perfect finishing touch, drizzle with García de la cruz extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with thyme. 

Comida Feliz!

Enter the celebratory contest and see for yourself!

How We Update the First Authentic 1565 (Spanish) Thanksgiving Feast

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Corn and tomato bisque feature “new world” ingredients with old world spices

(Gerry Furth-Sides) New dishes with a Spanish twist are on our Thanksgiving table again this year. This is because we learned last year that the first Thanksgiving was actually celebrated in St. Augustine, Florida in in 1565, over 50 years earlier than the 1621 date for the more Anglicized Thanksgiving in New England. Archaeologists at Florida’s Museum of Natural History only recently documented fascinating news.

Our triumvirate of tomatoes, potatoes, corn that the Spaniards brought back to the “old world” are delicious key feast ingredients this year. And we will toast to all of it with wines from Spain. García de la cruz Infused extra virgin olive oil not only gives a festive Spanish kick to a dish it eliminates the need for chili pepper and garlic.

García de la cruz Infused extra virgin olive

Jonathan’s Bardzik’s Corn and Tomato Bisque from his book, SIMPLY SUMMER, uses sweet corn and rich cream for a “bright burst” in contrast to tomatoes and a finishing splash of sherry vinegar. We used heirloom cherry tomatoes to ensure full flavor

Corn and Tomato Bisque

Ingredients

4 ears of the freshest corn

2 tablespoons García de la cruz garlic Infused extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

1/2 lbs heirloom baby tomatoes

4 cups chicken bone broth

1/4 cup heavy cream

white pepper

Freshly grated nutmeg

Sherry or white wine vinegar

Directions

Spread the corn on a baking sheet and roast in a 400-degree F oven until the edges are golden brown, 10-15 minutes.

Warm 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium heat in a 4-quart soup pot. Add onions and sauté until softened and translucent, about five minutes. Add garlic oil and cook 30 seconds longer until fragrant. Add tomatoes to the soup pot and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add toasted corn kernels to tomato mixture along with chicken or vegetable stock. Brink soup to a simmer, and cook for 5 minutes longer, allowing flavors to blend.

Remove 1/2 cup of solids. Purée remaining soup with an immersion blender of food processor.

Add the heavy cream along with reserved solids, and stir through. Season to taste with pepper, freshly grated nutmeg, and a splash of the sherry or wine vinegar and salt.

Ingredients for the Corn and Tomato Bisque inspired by Jonathan Bardzik’s Simple Summer Cookbook

Almost all the ingredients for the New World Old World Wild Mushroom and Chestnut Tart from García de la Cruz and Melissa’s Produce can be stored on the pantry shelf ahead of cooking time. It gives a historic, and more relaxed, seasonal feeling to the festivities.

All the ingredients from Melissa’s Produce for the Wild Mushroom, Chestnut Tart

All the ingredients for the Wild Mushroom, Chestnut and García de la cruz Tart

New World–Old World Wild Mushroom, Chestnut Tart

3.5 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled 

a pinch of salt

10 small pearl onions

1 Garcia de la Cruz Garlic-infusedExtra Virgin Olive oil

4 cups mixed wild mushrooms

2 ½ Melissa’s steamed and peeled chestnuts

3 tablespoons orange preserves with peel, sweetened with grape juice

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

1 teaspoon Garcia de la Cruz Chili-infused Extra Virgin Olive oil

Finely slice the onions, garlic and mushrooms.  Smash the chestnuts into a soft mixture close to a puree. 

Heat 2 tablespoons Garcia de la Cruz garlic-infused olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat and turn down to low.  Add the onions, stirring constantly until caramelized.  Add the mushrooms, thyme and chestnuts, cooking until mushrooms are golden brown. Season to taste and cool

Blind back at 250 degrees and cool for five minutes.

Add the mushroom mix to the pastry case and bake 20 minutes 350F 

To serve, drizzle with García de la cruz Extra Virgin Chili Olive Oil and sprinkle with thyme.

New World Tomatoes
New World corn
New world potatoes

García de la cruz Inspires This Authentic Spanish Thanksgiving in America

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A Spanish Thanksgiving menu honoring the first actual (Spanish) Thanksgiving in St. Augustine Florida

This year we’re sitting down to a feast of dishes from Spain.   And we will toast to all of it with a Spanish Rioja and a Temperanillo – Already our favorites.  Why?   Archaeologists at Florida’s Museum of Natural History recently  revealed that the first Thanksgiving was actually celebrated in St. Augustine, Florida over 50 years earlier in 1565.  This is much earlier than the 1621 date used for the more Anglicized Thanksgiving that features turkey and pumpkin pie.

Garcia de la Cruz premium olive oil inspired all of this research and since we love all things España, so we are especially “thankful” to them.

Their extra virgin olive oil will enhance our tart, and “planned over dishes.” This includes a marvelous Spanish potato salad with peas, capers and pimento; fat, long sardines from the coast; a chestnut flan with hazelnut nutella. We’ll use the Cubbison classic cornbread for the tart crust on Thanksgiving, and the new artisan version will be used ”do-it-yourself” topping bar for tartlets made from it. 

The early harvest olive oil is so refined and pure, it will only be used in a dish for dipping and tasting.

Mrs. Cubbison stuffing, created by ranch cook and nutritionist Sofie Cubbison in California close to a century ago is our other, American inspiration.
We will be using the stuffing this year as part of our tart crusts
Our ingredients that will star in our Thanksgiving feast: shallots, chestnuts, baby potatoes and pearl onions

On the menu are: a chestnut soup, Tortilla La Espańola with potato and onion, flavored with wild black garlic.  A cheeseboard filled with specialty items from Spain will be offered so guests can choose from savory Salamanca dry-cured Iberico de cebo pork salchichón;  Idiazabal do (Craw Sheep milk smoked basque, aged 60 days); Spanish green and black olives; quince paste  and a roasted garlic tomato to spread onto barra (like a French baguette), and tomatohazelnuts from Galacia. To choose from on the sweeter side:  a dense fig almond cake; almendra garrapiñada (sugar coated almonds), black dried raisins and fresh grapes.

Guests can choose from savory or sweet filled specialty items from Spain

History books document that Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and 800 soldiers, sailors and settlers created the first Thanksgiving feast.  This was long before English pilgrims who had arrived in America on the Mayflower to celebrate in 1621. 

The group attended a special thanksgiving mass before sitting down together with local Native Americans for a thanksgiving feast, according to Kathleen Deagan, research curator emerita of historical archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History.  Salted pork and typical Spanish products, such as red wine, olives and chickpeas were served.

Typical Caribbean foods that Menéndez picked up in Puerto Rico before his Florida landing were also on the table.  The local Timucuan people may have brought corn, fresh fish, berries or beans.

Potatoes we are serving, common to American Thanksgiving meals, also have a Spanish influence. True, the Inca Indians in Peru were the first to cultivate potatoes around 8,000 BC to 5,000 B.C. But it was Spanish Conquistadors after conquering Peru in 1536, who discovered the flavors of the potato, and carried them to Europe.  

The theory is that the celebration probably took place along the banks of the Matanzas River, the site of the first Spanish colony in the United States.  Menéndez de Avilés had lost half his fleet on the voyage from Spain, and one of the first things he did on reaching the “New World” was to organize a mass of thanksgiving, followed by a feast.  “So he invited all the local native people who were so curious about them,” said Deagan.

I was delighted to find this history of Spanish Thanksgiving, so obscure it was in only one article on a discontinued blog.  Theories of why this vital part of history has been diminished center on our heavily anglicized past and official origins. Yet facts show that even the first colony was a melting pot and the cultural interactions of the many groups of people in the colony were much more like the US is today than the British colonies ever were,” Gifford Waters, historical archaeology collection manager at the Florida Museum. 

St Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the United States. Founded by  Menédez de Avilés, it celebrated its 450th anniversary on September 8th 2015. 

Garcia de la Cruz represents a history of 5 generations working in the cultivation and elaboration of a great extra virgin olive oil.   The oil itself is a product of centuries-old olive trees on the lands of Castile.  The first day of the harvest brings together all the essence and knowledge of so many years of work and dedication.  Even its bright green color reflects the beauty and fullness of the fruit at the time of its harvest, and its aromas and flavor, perfection in the elaboration.  This is not for  cooking, but a separate and special  tasting oil on its own plate

Eusebio and Fernando de la Cruz, fifth generation owner-operators of the Garcia de la Cruz

The extraordinary Premium quality extra virgin olive oil, made from the first olives that harvested while still green makes for enriched organoleptic properties,  rich in natural antioxidants and vitamins. This oil with body, fragrant and aromatic with clear tones of freshly cut grass, slightly bitter and but well balanced. After taste of tomato, freshly cut grass and almond.

Garcia de la Cruz tones are of freshly cut grass, almond and tomato

I represented Mrs. Cubbison stuffing for 22 years on television during the Thanksgiving and easter holidays and still respect and honor this healthy melba-toasted west coast mainstay originally created by Sofie Cubbison. 

By this time in November, I had spent months planning, cooking and going out on my annual west coast tour so I would have been so pleased to have an alternative to turkey. But one thing remains the same and that is wishing a Happy thanksgiving to you! 

A nationally syndicated article on me described it all!

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