Recipe - Morroccan Spiced Olives

1 cup Olives purchased from deli
or Middle Eastern grocery
(green

Yield: 1 cup

Olives are often served as part of the Middle Eastern appetizer assortment
called mezze or mazza that is brought to your table with your wine, ouzo,
or arak. Anything can turn up as part of a mezze selection: octopus dressed
in olive oil and lemon, chunks of feta cheese or salami on small pieces of
bread, or a plate of creamy, tart hummus. Olives, brined, salted, or
marinated, are almost always on one of the little plates.

Middle Eastern marketplaces feature huge vats and crocks of differently
spiced olives in myriad array. Some are fleshy, some juicy, others bitter
and dense, and each is in a subtly different mainade. The marinade in this
recipe is good for almost any type of olive; it is especially delicious
with green brined olives or fleshy Greekstyle ones (it even improves
Californiastyle ripe Olives).

brinecured, Kalamata, Greekstyle, or shriveled black drycured) One fourth cup
olive oil 4 cloves garlic, chopped 1 tsp fresh rosemary leaves, lightly
crushed 1 One half tsp Aji Harissa, Berbere, or commercial chilegarlic paste 1
tbsp wine vinegar

1. Drain olives of any brine.

2. Slowly heat olive oil over low heat. Remove from heat and add garlic,
rosemary, chilegarlic paste, and vinegar.

3. Pour marinade over olives and let stand at least 2 hours (the flavor
gets hotter the longer it stands).

ADVANCE PREPRATION: Lasts almost forever, covered and refrigerated

VARIATION: A Mediterraneaninspired hors d'oeuvre.

4 ounces Montrachet or Leazay goat cheese 1 to 2 cloves garlic, chopped 1
tsp finely chopped cilantro (optional) 1 tsp medium salsa (or to taste) 1/2
tsp thyme 1 tsp olive oil Approximately One half a French baguette, cut into 1/2
to Three fourths inch slices Morroccan Spiced Olives

1. Mash goat cheese with a fork. Add garlic, cilantro, salsa, thyme, and
olive oil.

2. Spread goat cheese mixture on bread slices; top each with half a pitted
marinated olive.

RECOMMENDED WINE: Enjoy with a glass of a mediumbodied Cabernet Sauvignon
with noticeable character, one from California, Chile, or Spain.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini