A Life, Lived: Sunday Small Bites: Olives

The Sunday Slow Cooks are a group of cooks from the slow travel community message board. We have been bakers, scoopers, soupers, and tossers (yes, I know that is a derogatory term in some parts of the world ! LOL).

Now we have taken on a new challenge - instead of each of us preparing the same recipe each week, we are preparing our own appetizer - or Small Bite - that uses a specific main ingredient. So far we have tackled shrimp, crab, sun-dried tomatoes, avocado, goat cheese, smoked salmon, pecans, and pumpkin.

I picked this week's ingredient: olives. At the time I figured that there would have been lots of things that we would have eaten in Greece to inspire us and that I would have brought some wonderful Greek olives hone with us. The reality was yes, we brought lots of olives home, bought in two weeks we didn't eat a single dish that featured olives - small bite or otherwise.

I started looking for recipes and was soon overwhelmed. There are tons of recipes out there for small-plate dishes which use olives. Apparently the world can not get enough of a good thing!

I narrowed it down to six and couldn't decide amongst them. Then we had the great idea of making ALL of them as a sort of an 'olive small plate buffet' . . . which was what we did. It proved to be the perfect thing for Hallowe'en night. We nibbled on our treats and sipped martinis while the kids rang the doorbell in search for treats.

We made marinated olives, olive cheddar mini muffins, olive pinwheel loaf, swiss olive galette, ascolane, and olive potato balls with pesto. Everything was great but our two favourites were the swiss olive galette and the olive potato balls with pesto.

The galette came from the 2009 Better Homes and Gardens Appetizers magazine which I just found in the store last week. Every year they publish one of these and I've been collecting them for about 10 years now. Each version is packed with interesting (and not too overwhelming) recipes for appetizers. This year's edition featured an entire section on olives and this galette was one of the recipes.

The galette is easy to make . . . especially as it makes use of a pre-made pie crust which aren't that easy to find here in Canada so I had to make my own :-( . The fact that you just need to dump on the toppings, fold up the sides, sprinkle on the cheese and bake makes this a perfect thing to make during the upcoming hectic holiday entertaining schedule.

Swiss Olive Galette

1/2 of a rolled, refrigerated unbaked pie crust
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup finely chopped leeks (white part only)
1/2 cup chopped fresh fennel
1/2 cup chopped Kalamata olives
1 tablespoon snipped fresh thyme
4 ounces Gruyere cheese, shredded (about 1 cup)
snipped fresh fennel fronds

Allow the pie crust to stand at room temperature according to the package directions. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll pastry into an 11-inch circle on the parchment paper.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook the leeks and fennel in the hot oil until tender but not brown. Remove form the heat. Stir in the thyme and olives. Cool slightly.

Spread the mixture in the centre of the pastry, leaving a 1 1/2 inch rim uncovered. Fold the uncovered pastry over the filling. Top with cheese.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the pastry is golden. Sprinkle with fennel fronds. Cut into wedges and serve warm.

The olive and potato balls with pesto a bit more far more complex. I found the recipe for them in a cookbook that I think is no longer in publication called 'Finger Food; Bite-sized Snacks to Share with Friends'. Everything that I have made from this book has been impressive but the recipes generally do take a bit more work that one might want. The nice thing is that most of the things in the book can be made in advance and frozen.

I had never heard of potato balls but through the wonder of 'google' I discovered that they feature largely in Latin American cooking (makes sense given that potatoes originated there). This recipe is basically mashed potato with savoury ingredients added in - in this case olives, onions, garlic, and cheese. The mixture is rolled into balls and then deep fried until it is a golden brown.

Given that anything fried is good in our books I had high hopes for these. I was not disappointed and Paul declared these olive and potato balls to be the best thing he had eaten as a part of our olive small bites. The nice thing for us is that we now have 25 more in the freezer waiting for me to take them out and fry them up for a treat over the holidays.

Olive and Potato Balls with Pesto

1 1/4 lb boiling potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, sliced
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup shredded, fresh basil
1 egg
cracked pepper
3/4 cup Panko
vegetable oil, for deep frying
pesto

Boil the potatoes for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain well and mash.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Cook the onion for 4 - 5 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic and cook for an additional minute. Remove from heat, cool. Add the onion and garlic to the mashed potatoes.

Mix the olives, flour, Parmesan cheese, basil, egg, and a little cracked pepper into the potato-onion mixture.

Shape the mixture into 30 small balls. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Roll the balls into the panko, pressing the breadcrumbs on firmly so that the balls are evenly coated.

Fill a deep, heavy-bottomed pan 1/3 third full with the oil and heat until 350 degrees (or until a cube of bread browns in about 15 seconds). Cook the potato balls in batches for 2 - 3 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to crumpled paper towels with a slotted spoon.

Top each with a small amount of pesto. Serve warm.