Cocktail Biscuits -

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Cocktail Biscuits

FIONA HUNTER
4 serves

50g pitted black Spanish olives eg. Hojiblanca or Cacereña, roughly chopped

100g plain four

75g butter, softened

50g grated Parmesan cheese

1-2 tbsp ice cold water or milk

1 egg, beaten

2 tbsp sesame seeds or Dukkah

Method

Prep: 15 mins

Cook: 20 – 25 mins

Sift the flour into a bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the Parmesan, olives and water and mix to make a smooth soft dough.

Spoon the mixture onto a sheet of non-stick baking paper or cling film and roll it up into a cylinder about 4cm thick. Chill or freeze until firm.

Just before baking brush the dough with the beaten egg and coat with the sesame seeds or Dukkah. Slice the dough into 1cm thick slices and place a few centimetres apart on lined baking sheet.

Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and bake for 20-25mins or until golden.

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Gordal and Hojiblanca Olive Chicken with Roasted Peppers

serves

¾ cup black Hojiblanca olives

½ cup green Gordal olives

1 chicken breast, boneless, skinless

½ cup roasted peppers (piquillo peppers)

½ cup arugula

1 tbsp olive oil

6 pinches fine salt

Pepper

Salsa

2 cups arugula

2 tsp coarse salt

50 ml olive oil

6 pinches fine salt

Pepper to taste

Method
Coulis

Bring a large volume of salted water (10 g of coarse salt per litre) to a boil.

Wash the arugula, and immerse it in boiling water for 4 minutes. Drain the arugula, and mix in a food processor with some cooking water. Finally, add olive oil to emulsify the sauce, and adjust the seasoning.

Olive mixture

Cut the chicken breast into thin slices and then cut the slices into sticks of about 0.5 cm thick.

Brown the chicken pieces in a hot frying pan with olive oil, then remove.
Pour more olive oil in the same pan, and add the roasted peppers and drained olives. Fry everything quickly, then add the arugula coulis and mix the combination.
Finally place the chicken slices back in the pan, and cook for 4 to 5 minutes.  Final touch adjust seasoning to taste.

Transfer the preparation to a shallow dish, and serve with a garnish of fresh arugula, ready to eat!

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Grilled olives with Manchego

serves

24 pitted Queen olives

4 ounces Manchego cheese

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 shallot, minced

1 tablespoon, rosemary, minced

1 tablespoon thyme, minced

4 ounces extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon sugar

Method
For the Olives:

Drain the Queen olives of all their brine and allow them to dry on a paper towel.

Take the Manchego cheese and make sure there is no ‘skin’ on it and cut it into small 1 inch x 1/4 in pieces (small enough to stuff in the olive).

Stuff all of the olives with pieces of Manchego cheese.

In a bowl combine the garlic, shallots, herbs, sugar, pepper, Worcestershire sauce & olive oil.

Skewer the Manchego stuffed olives on to a soaked skewer or rosemary stem, three to a piece.

Once you have 8 skewers with olives cover them in the marinade and allow them to sit for 4-8 hours.

 

Plating:

Grill the marinated olives over high heat for 3-4 minutes on each side or until the start to soften, caramelize and the Manchego cheese starts to melt slightly inside.

Serve them along some good crusty bread that’s been drenched in good olive oil and grilled alongside the olives.

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Roasted Swordfish with Manzanilla Olives

This dish highlights the strength of Olives from Spain by pairing Manzanilla olives with roasted swordfish. Rich, flavorful and lasting, this recipe is rustic and fresh with hints of citrus accents.
serves

4 six-ounce portions of swordfish, each about one inch thick

1 cup Manzanilla olives

4 cups of peeled cherry tomatoes in juice

4 teaspoons capers, rinsed

2 cloves garlic, sliced

2 lemons juiced

1 cup loosely packed parsley leaves

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method
For the Sauce

Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a high sided pot over medium heat.

Peel and slice the garlic and add it to the warm oil.

Sauté until the garlic is tender, not browned, then add the tomatoes and cook until the tomato liquid is reduced by half, about 20 minutes.

Add the Manzanilla olives, capers, the juice of one lemon, parsley, and salt and pepper if needed.

Set aside and keep warm until the swordfish is cooked.

For the Swordfish

Season the swordfish with salt and pepper.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium high heat and add about 1/4 cup olive oil.

When very hot add the swordfish and cook until both sides are golden brown, about 3-4 minutes per side.

Set aside on paper towels to absorb any excessive oil.

Plating

Just as the swordfish comes out of the sauté pan, divide the sauce between four warm dinner plates.

Place one piece of fish on each plate, squeeze some lemon on each piece of fish and serve while hot.

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Chocolate rocas with Black Olives from Spain

serves

1 ½ cups black Hojiblanca olives

2 cups dark chocolate (82%)

¾ cup roasted almonds

Zest of 1 large lemon

Method

Bring a pot with water in its base to medium heat. Then place the chocolate in a metal bowl above the pot, in order to slowly melt it. Meanwhile, chop the almonds roughly.

 

Slice the Hojiblanca olives to your liking. One option is Julienne-style. After that, toss the Hojiblanca olives with the almonds in a bowl.

 

Once the chocolate is smooth and shiny, pour it over the olive and almond mixture. Separately, in a tray, use a tablespoon to make bitesized rocks on parchment paper. Before refrigerating the rocas, grate lemon zest on top of each one.

 

Before eating, allow them to cool in the fridge.

 

Chef’s Tips:
1. It’s very important that the metal bowl not come into direct contact with the water, in order to avoid burning the chocolate.
2. Lemons and other citrus fruits are porous by nature. Make sure they’re very clean before zesting them.

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Bocata with tuna belly, manzanilla olives from Spain, anchovies and egg

1 serves

1 cup pimiento-stuffed green Manzanilla olives from Spain

1 European style bread

1 can Spanish tuna belly in olive oil

4 Spanish anchovies

4 white Spanish anchovies (boquerones)

1 heirloom tomato (sliced)

1 leaf romaine lettuce (chopped Julienne style)

3 piquillo peppers (seedless)

4 piparras peppers

1 egg (hard boiled and sliced)

½ cup mayonnaise

Sea salt to taste

Method

Slice the bread lengthwise and spread both sides with mayonnaise. Set aside the top slice.
Then, arrange a bed of chopped lettuce on one side of the bread and place the sliced tomato on top of the lettuce.

Add the tuna belly on top of the tomato and strew the green Manzanilla olives from Spain across the tuna belly.

Cover the olives with the piquillo peppers and arrange the anchovies and boquerones lengthwise on top of the peppers.

Finally arrange the piparras and egg slices and flip the top slice of the bread onto the sandwich.

Enjoy !