Deep Fried Spanish Olives

This is my mum's favourite nibblies (other than sweets). Don't add any extra salt as olives are naturally salty. The cayenne pepper can be upped if you like a bit more bite. Any stuffed spanish olive will do, and they must be stuffed. The un-stuffed ones hold too much grease.

• Ready In: 1 hr 20 mins
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 20  large  stuffed Spanish olives
• 2  cups flour
• 2  eggs
• 2  cups  breadcrumbs
• 1⁄4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon pepper
• 4  cups canola oil (for frying)

Directions

1. Wash and pat the olives dry (get rid of the brine which has oil in it).
2. Place the flour in one bowl, the eggs in another (whisk them too) and the breadcrumbs and peppers in another bowl, mix to combine.
3. One at a time dredge the olives in the flour, egg and breadcrumb mix.
4. Place on a plate and chill the olives for 15-20 minutes.
5. Repeat the dredging process and chill again for 20-30 minutes.
6. Heat the oil until hot in a heavy based medium sized pan (a peice of bread when added, will quickly float to the top and turn golden brown, if it burns quickly or the oil is visibly smoking, it is too hot).
7. Fry the olives in batches of 5 until they float to the top and are lovely and golden, about 3-5 minutes.
8. Gently remove (that crunchy coating is worth being careful for) and place on a plate topped with paper towel.
9. Enjoy just warm and crunchy!
10. Let the olives cool a bit.
11. Please note - the olives need to be roughly the size of a large cherry, good quality and crunchy.