Tag Team Tapas (Part One)

During the day on Friday the city and the provincial ex-mining town where I worked were transformed by temperatures akin to those you'd find in Benidorm or the Canary Islands. After hard work and a good chat with wonderful colleagues I signed off, bagged the weekly shop, got home and thought back to holidays in the Canary Islands. It was those holidays, coupled with a recent trip to a Tapas Restaurant in Birmingham, that inspired me to concoct a double-header of homemade Tapas during the weekend.

Part one of this project was to make some Olives with traditional Canary Island Mojo. The ingredients were as follows:

Two punnets of Green and Black Olives.
0.1 litre of Vinegar.
A quarter of a pint of White Wine.
Three medium-hot Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Half a head of Garlic.
A teaspoon of Dried Thyme.
A teaspoon of Paprika.
A teaspoon of Dried Oregano.

The first job on the Friday Night was to soak overnight the Olives in a small bowl with the Vinegar and White Wine.

On Saturday Afternoon the next job, after I had first negotiated the return of the Dogg following her three week hiatus at an outpost on the moors, was to make the Mojo. Captain Beefheart's challenging second album "Strictly Personal" had found itself onto the player. It is a record that finds the Captain at the crossroads between the relatively, for him at least, straight ahead blues with sixties pop hooks sound found on his first  rate debut album "Safe as Milk" and the seemingly disjointed, yet painstakingly rehearsed, far out blues of his early masterpiece "Trout Mask Replica". There's plenty of quality on the present record however as the Captain's strong voice, sounding like a blues man from the dawn of time, and searing, dirty bottleneck, bluesy guitars carry the day. Plum tracks include the pleading "Trust Us" and the filthy, commanding "Gimme Dat Harp Boy".

So to the Mojo; I removed the top and the seeds from the chili peppers and sliced them finely while wearing plastic gloves. This was very important as even so-called "medium" chillis can sting your hands quite badly if you risk preparing them without gloves.

Then I peeled and topped and tailed the Garlic. As I'm not middle-class enough to own a pestle and mortar I mashed the chili and garlic in a bowl with a potato masher and then added the herbs and oil. I then added this to the bowl with the olives in and stirred them together. I then put the bowl in the fridge until teatime.

At tea I served the Olive Tapas as a side with the Vegetarian Meatballs Tapas I had made for tea. The savoury taste of the Olives, Vinegar and White Wine mixed well with the fire and flavour of the Chili and Garlic which, although raw, was not overpowering.

Glowing Green- the Tapas Olives are lit up by the Spring Sunlight beaming onto the dining table.