Battered Olives with Sun-dried tomatoes

I’ve been gawping in awe over the pages of the Terre a Terre cookbook ever since Christmas. It’s flesh-free, food art at its best. Although the recipes look like a big challenge they’re a welcome one that I’m really looking forward to having a bash at soon.

With this kind of creativity flaunting itself it seemed, lazy to approach the ever-growing festive condiment gifts by just diving in and eating them as per normal. So, I took some inspiration from their deep-fried, ricotta stuffed olives coated in rosemary breadcrumbs and tackled a jar of Cooks and Co large Green Olives, stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes in a similar manner.

Stood there dipping each one in flour, egg and breadcrumbs thinking: ‘this seems a bit indulgent, this is never going to work …’ (all the usual positive reassurance you give yourself when you are trying something new). Surprisingly, the result was fantastic. The hot coated breadcrumbs, over the sharp olives and sun-dried tomatoes give a really interesting fusion of flavours and textures. Here's my quick take on the dish; one that's definitely worth exploring further.

 

Ingredients: 

280g, approx 1 jar of large green olives (I used Cooks and Co stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes)

100g breadcrumbs

1 egg

Plain flour for dusting (about 150g)

Sea salt

1. Drain the olives. Crack the egg into a small bowl and lay the flour out on a large dinner plate and the same for the breadcrumbs on a separate plate. Grind plenty of sea-salt into the breadcrumbs.
2. Heat a good few glugs of olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium to high heat.
3. Roll each olive in the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs. Compress any loose breadcrumbs firm onto the olive.
4. Once the oil is spitting add one or tow olives at a time in order to make them more manageable and to allow the batter to stick evenly. Toast for a minute of so on one side then turn to get a golden even coating over the olives.
5. Drain on kitchen paper and then repeat with the remaining olives. Serve as a accompaniment to other small tapas type dishes or on their own with drinks.