Greek fried olives

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup feta cheese
• 1/4 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
• a squeeze or two of lemon juice
• a drizzle of olive oil (if necessary)
• 20 Kalamata olives (large, pitted)
• 2 tablespoons plain flour ((you may need a little more or less))
• 1 egg (whisked)
• 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs (or just use regular breadcrumbs (you may need a little more or less than 1/4 cup))
• oil for frying (I used canola oil - enough to just cover the olives in the bottom of a small saucepan)

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the cheese filling.: Crumble the feta cheese into a food processor, then pulse it a few times until it resembles fine crumbs. Then add the ricotta, oregano and lemon juice and process until it’s smooth and creamy. Add a drizzle of olive oil to help it loosen up if you think it needs it.

2. 2

   Stuff the olives.: Blot your olives on kitchen paper if they’ve been stored in brine, then spoon the filling into a piping bag. Cut off the very end (to about the size of the hole in the olive), then pipe little bits of the feta mixture into each olive.

3. 3

   Crumb the filled olives.: When all the olives are filled, begin heating your oil on a medium heat. While it heats up, put your flour, egg and breadcrumbs on three separate dishes. Roll the olives first in the flour, then dip them in the egg using a slotted spoon, then roll them in the breadcrumbs.

4. 4

   Fry in oil and serve.: When the oil is hot enough (test with a cube of bread – it should brown within a minute or so if the oil is hot enough), fry the olives in batches for about 30 seconds or so or until they are a lovely golden brown. Fish them out with the slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper for a couple of minutes before serving with cocktail sticks for popping them into your mouth!