May: Bet you didn't see this coming.
EXAU in May
Ciao! Skyler and Giuseppe here from EXAU : )
We hope you and yours are doing well. While we continue to quarantine in beautiful Austin, TX we're taking this opportunity to compile recipes, edit photos, plan for 2020 harvest, and dutifully nurture Gwenyth The Starter. (Check out our Instagram highlights to see her).
There are so many exciting things rolling out this week/month: new partnerships, virtual events, and something new hitting the site.
We can't contain our excitement! Let's get started.
EXAU x SENREVE
Late last summer while in the Fidi district of San Francisco Skyler stumbled into a gorgeous new shop. They had just finished the beautiful wall installations and she was admiring the handbags, leather, probably made in Italy. A lovely woman greeted her and they started talking about Italian products noting how difficult it is to find handmade products today. They quickly came to the conclusion their brands had to work together in the future.
We are so proud to partner with SENREVE, a luxury handbag brand built for the modern women who do it all, without tradeoffs. Selected by SENREVE is a shoppable curation featuring only the most elevated and best products hand-picked and tested by the SENREVE team. From at-home facials to kitchen essentials, SENREVE has selected their favorite brands to share with their community. We're so excited to be working with a brand so aligned with our core values: quality, beauty, and function!
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There's More Coming
We spend hours in the kitchen every week, using our own recipes, other people's recipes, or just making stuff up. On social media, you've helped us build an incredible community that wants to cook, share, and laugh every single day. These acts bring us joy however we still feel that something is missing. So we're going to dive a little deeper and get a little closer...
At the end of the month, we'll be starting a new project. It's going to be the beginning of a beautiful conversation about those special moments surrounding food and you're invited.
Recipes
There are so many good recipes on the site right now! Click on the photos above for each recipe. On the left, we have Orecchiette con Broccoli, a classic dish from Puglia. We highly recommend using either cheese or anchovies in this dish, not both. When cooking this dish we use the TURI because it pairs so beautifully with broccoli! Orecchiette con Broccoli can easily be made vegan or vegetarian by omitting the cheese/anchovies.
On the right, we have Vrasciole. Ditch boring ol' meatballs, and dive into these oblong Calabrian classics. Vrasciole are Calabrian fried meatballs! And in true Calabrian fashion, they are traditionally fried. As much as we love following tradition we don't love a home filled with the scent of frying meat (don't tell Giuseppe's mom we said that). We prefer to 'bake-fry' vrasciole in the oven with lots of olive oil (AVUS) to crisp the bottoms but keep the tops perfectly soft. We choose the AVUS because it pairs beautifully with meat and helps the meat caramelize perfectly. Vrasciole should melt in your mouth and good oil helps make that happen.
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Gwenyth The Starter & Baking Bread
In March when yeast disappeared from every shelf in the U.S. we found the last bag of unbleached flour at our local supermarket and decided to give this whole 'starter' thing a go. We arrived home and quickly went down the rabbit hole of 'how to start your own starter' videos on Youtube. 6 days later we had something resembling starter AND it passed the 'float' test. Success! We named her Gwenyth The Starter and she's become quite the star in our kitchen.
Now for the challenge of baking bread... We knew baking bread was hard and it's the reason we didn't try before quarantine. Leave that to the professionals. But quarantine has presented the perfect opportunity to learn this age-old skill. So again we took to Youtube for videos. We finally landed on the Instagram account of Jennifer Latham, head of bread at Tartine in San Francisco. She has IGTV videos where she explains in detail how, when, and why to add each ingredient. We quickly promised we weren't going to try other bread recipes until we got this one right. It's too easy to get overwhelmed by all the information on social media right now. It makes us feel scattered and if we're feeling this way then surely others are too.
If you're feeling overwhelmed by all the information on the web about cooking, baking, etc. try setting some limits. And remember, for every beautiful loaf of sourdough, you see on Instagram there's an ugly one stuck to a pan.
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Virtual Events
There's another virtual event at the end of the month with Proclamation Goods! We'll be making pasta and will send you an email reminder.
A virtual event with club members will take place next month (you'll get an email reminder). This is your opportunity to ask us anything about olive oil, harvest, and what's next for EXAU. The event will be live!
Not a club member? Join here today. That's all for now.
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Wishing you and yours health and wellness!
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You can always respond directly to this email to reach us.
A presto,
-Skyler & Giuseppe
www.EXAUoliveoil.com