Recipe: fried stuffed olives
On rare occasion Kaweah gets weird and needy at night and this is one of those nights. She’s demanding my attention right now (pawing at me, resting her chin on my lap, shoving her nose under my forearm so I can’t type). This happens whenever one of us is on travel. Jeremy used to think it only happened when I was away because I’m her alpha, but it’s clear that she doesn’t like it when Jeremy is on travel either. This post will have to be quick.
I tried a recipe on Tuesday and liked it so much that I had it jump the queue to share with you. The first time I had this dish was last April in Seattle at Black Bottle. Fried olives with remoulade sauce. Salty? Check! Crunchy? Check! Bite-size? Check! It’s kinda like olive-katsu, but not really.
pitted spanish olives, goat cheese, eggs, flour, panko crumbs, parmesan
Make the remoulade sauce first because it requires a few hours of mellowing out in the refrigerator which is plenty of time to prepare the olives. The remoulade involves gathering a bunch of ingredients:
creole seasoning, mayo, pickle juice, horseradish, paprika, tabasco, garlic, mustard
mashing up a clove of garlic
placing all of the remoulade ingredients in a bowl
and stirring it together
pretty color
Once the remoulade sauce is blended, cover it with plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. That took all of three seconds, right? The olives take a little longer than that, but I promise it is worth the extra trouble. You can stuff the olives with anything you like, but herbed goat cheese sounded good to me. I piped it into the cavity with a piping bag and piping tip. It helps to use a tip with a diameter smaller than that of the olive cavity.
piping herbed goat cheese into the olive
yes, do this step all at once
Next, you’ll want to do a little assembly line work with the flour in one bowl, the eggs (or just one egg is enough, I discovered) beaten in another bowl, and then the panko crumbs and grated Parmesan mixed together in the third bowl. Roll each olive in flour, then dip it in egg, and coat it with the bread crumb and cheese mixture. Try to get as complete a coating as possible.
rolling in the flour
dip in the egg
ready for frying (handle gently or the crust will come off)
Because I hate using huge amounts of oil for frying, I heated 2-inches of vegetable oil in a small saucepan and fried the olives in small batches of 5-6. I set them into the hot oil gently with chopsticks, but tongs, a spoon, or a fork will work fine too. The olives will turn golden in about a minute, and if you go past a certain point, the goat cheese will begin to ooze out and make a loud splattering sound when it hits the oil. Try to take them out before this happens. When I fish out the olives, I use a little mesh skimmer scoop that I picked up for $.99 at some Asian market. I can scoop them all out at once. Nifty!
fried golden perfection
serve with remoulade on the side
Don’t serve the fried olives right out of the fryer because they will be HOT! Give them a few minutes to come down from mouth-burning temperatures. These make a beautiful appetizer for parties and the olives are great fun to eat.
happy snack
Fried Stuffed Olives
[print recipe]
inspired by Black Bottle in Seattle
1 cup remoulade sauce (to serve with – see recipe below)
oil for frying
24 large Spanish olives, pitted
2 oz herbed goat cheese (or whatever you want to stuff the olives with), softened
1/2 cup panko crumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 cup flour
1 egg
remoulade sauce
from Simply Recipes
1 1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup mustard (Creole, if possible – I used spicy brown mustard)
1 tbsp sweet paprika
1-2 tsps cajun or creole seasoning
2 tsps prepared horseradish
1 tsp pickle juice (or use lemon juice or vinegar)
1 tsp hot sauce (I used Tabasco)
1 clove garlic, minced and mashed
Remoulade sauce: Mix everything together and refrigerate for a few hours before serving. Makes 1 1/2 cups.
Olives: Heat 2 inches of vegetable oil in a small saucepan on high heat. Stuff each olive with goat cheese either by rolling little plugs and shoving them into the olives or using a piping bag and tip (make sure the tip is small enough to fit in the olive hole). Mix the panko crumbs and Parmesan cheese together in a small bowl. Set aside. Place the flour in a small bowl. Beat the egg in another small bowl. For each olive, roll it in flour to coat it completely, dip it in the egg to coat completely, and finally roll it in the panko crumbs. When the oil is hot (350°F or when a panko crumb sizzles when it is tossed into the oil), carefully add 5-6 olives at a time. I use chopsticks to lower them, but if you aren’t comfortable with chopsticks, use tongs or a fork or spoon. Fry the olives until browned (takes about a minute or less) or until the goat cheese starts to bubble out. You’ll know when this happens because it starts to get loud. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels or a cooling rack. Repeat until all of the olives are fried. Let cool slightly and serve with Remoulade sauce. Makes 24.
January 11th, 2012: 1:10 am
filed under appetizers, bread, eggs, entertaining, recipes, savory, vegetables
