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Saturday, October 13, 2012

Garlic Fennel Olives

Can you believe that there was a time, not too long ago, when I did not like olives?

How is that possible, you ask?

Let me just say... 'cold, slimy, clammy, green olives with pimientos stuffed inside them'.

<shudder>

However...

A nice, dry and warm, roasted black olive?

Unbelievable!

So good.

I eat so many of these things... I'm sure to have made up for 30 years of not eating them by now.

Anyway... short of making my own (brining, and roasting) raw green olives, there's not a whole lot you need to do to olives.  

Just buy them from the deli, and serve.

But... I wanted to infuse a little bit of flavour into some the other day, and I had a garlic and fennel theme to the whole meal, so I figured, why not?

I minced some garlic and some fresh fennel up, and then tossed it with the olives and a bit of olive oil.  


Then I spread them out in a single layer, in my cast iron pan, and put it in the oven for about 10 minutes only.

Then I carefully pulled them all out and assembled them in the plain and unassuming bowl you see here:


Yum, right?

Right.


I DID learn, however, that there is a butter-zone in heating olives.  Too little and nothing happens, you've just warmed your mixture.  Too much, however... and you can ruin your olives.  An over-heated olive is just a dried-out nutty husk.  

:(

These, however, were delicious.