Green olives with fennel

Olives are a good addition to a lunch of bread, cheese and some salad, such as tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce.  They are ahandy standby to have with drinks, but sometimes you want something a little more special than simple supermarket olives.  This is a great way of turning cheap and cheerful green olives into something more like a treat!

2 garlic cloves, sliced

2 tbsp sherry vinegar (See note)

375 g/2½ cups brined, green olives, drained

2 tbsp fennel seeds

1½ cups olive oil

3 fresh bay leaves - use dried if you have no fresh

5 small dried red chillies, sliced

1½ tsp grated lemon zest

 

Method:

• Put the garlic and sherry vinegar in a small bowl and leave to steep for 2 hours, then drain.
• Rinse the olives well, then spread out on a clean tea towel to dry.
• Dry fry the fennel seeds in a small saucepan over a medium heat for 1½ minutes, or until fragrant. Lightly crush them in a pestle and mortar or give them a quick whiz in a blender: don't pulverise them however.
• Put oil, steeped garlic, fennel seeds, bay leaves, chillies and lemon zest in a small pan over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, until oil just starts to bubble. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
• Pour some oil mix into a 700 ml jar, add the olives and pour in the rest of the oil. Cover tightly and shake gently to mix.  Ideally, store them for 1 to 2 weeks, shaking occasionally so that they take up the flavours.
  

Notes

• I use white wine vinegar, because sherry vinegar is very expensive!
• A ‘standard’ jar of olives is about 200 g, drained weight.  I usually use this size, in which case I cut the recipe in half.