Recipe: Deep-Fried Garlic Cloves and Green Olives

Cathy found this recipe on the NY Times online:

About 36 large garlic cloves, peeled
1 cup pitted green olives, like Manzanilla or Picholine
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt, more for sprinkling
½ teaspoon pepper
3 eggs
1 cup fresh bread crumbs or panko
Oil for deep-frying.
1. Put garlic cloves in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 1 minute. Drain and repeat with fresh water. Drain and repeat once more, simmering about 5 minutes or until soft, testing often. Gently lift garlic cloves out of pan and drain on paper towels until cool. Meanwhile, place olives on paper towels to drain.
2. When ready to cook, mix flour, salt and pepper on a plate. In a bowl, beat eggs. Spread bread crumbs on another plate. In a heavy pot, heat 3 inches of oil to 375 degrees: when hot enough, a chunk of bread will fry in 30 seconds.
3. Working in batches, roll garlic cloves and olives in seasoned flour, then in beaten eggs, then in bread crumbs. Repeat process and drop into oil. Cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle lightly with salt. Let oil come back to 375 degrees between batches. Serve immediately.
Yield: Snacks for 6 to 8 people.

Patychky for Christmas

Mr. Anchovy posted the recipe for patychky. He says it has "unlimited amounts of garlic"... Delicious!

I've posted mother anchovy's recipe for patychky once before, but seeing as I'm making a large batch for Christmas this week, I'm going to post it again for those who are interested. Patychky are also known as 'meat sticks'. They can be made with pork or a combination of pork and beef and veal, or even with chicken, but I usually use pork, and I'm going to show you my way.

Start with an inexpensive pork roast.
Cut it up into cubes that are a little bigger than 1 cubic inch. Some people use smaller chunks but I find the bigger ones are juicier and just perfect.
Chop up an insane amount of garlic - 30 or 40 big cloves is not too much.
Toss the garlic in with the meat.
At this point you have to add some booze. There are a couple schools of thought on this - some folks use sherry - others use beer. I have done both and I believe that nobody will be able to tell you which you used - so I use beer. So, beer and garlic is your basic marinade. Toss it all together, cover and put the whole business in the fridge overnight. In a pinch you can marinate for a couple hours and it will be OK, but I believe the overnight marinade makes them extra yummy.
Break some eggs in a bowl and lightly beat them for a few seconds. In another bowl, toss in some bread crumbs with salt and pepper.
I should have mentioned earlier that you need the right sticks. They have to be sturdy wooden sticks, about 6 inches long. I get mine at Czehowski's at Queensway and Islington in Toronto - just ask for sticks for patychky and they'll know what you want.
Take the meat from the fridge and start skewering the meat cubes on the sticks such that you basically cover the wood. Once you have them all done, dip them in egg and roll them in the breadcrumb mixture.
Meanwhile, add a generous portion of oil to a good skillet and heat it on medium-high. For this, don't use olive oil. It has to be an oil that can handle more heat, like canola or corn oil.
Brown the patychky thoroughly, 4 or 5 at a time.
Meanwhile, take a roaster and line the bottom with sticks of celery. These are to keep the patychky off the bottom of the pan. Preheat your oven to about 350 f.
As you take the patychky out of the skillet, lay them on the celery in the roaster. It's OK to have two or three layers of meat sticks - don't worry about them touching one another.
Bake the whole business for 45 minutes to an hour. After 45 minutes, take one out and eat it. Then put them back in for a few minutes, before testing a second one. This is chef's privilage.
I have never met anyone who likes meat who does not go crazy for these things. My mom used to make them for every big holiday occasion - and later I found out that Tuffy's mom did too - basically the same approach. I learned about using the celery from Tuffy's mom - it's an excellent innovation.
Patychky are great right out of the oven, cold for breakfast, re-heated in a toaster over, or even zapped up next day in a microwave, if you must use one.

If any of you make these, please report back and let me know how you liked them.

Tuffy's roast potatoes

Mister Anchovy writes:

There are three keys to this recipe - plenty of whole garlic cloves, really excellent olive oil, and smoked Spanish paprika. Tuffy made some tonight and they were fantastic.

Here's the recipe:

Cut up a bunch of potatoes slightly bigger than French Fry size - Yukon Gold work really nicely for this. Cut up an onion, and a several whole cloves of garlic. Put it all in a big bowl. Add about a teaspoon of smoked Spanish paprika, salt, pepper, and a little savory. You can use any spice mix you like, but the smoked paprika is at the heart of this. Add enough obsenely good olive oil so that when you toss the mixture together, the potatoes are lightly coated with the olive oil. Line a roasting pan with parchment paper and spread the mixture across the pan. Roast at about 350 until the potatoes are cooked. Then turn the oven to broil and blast the potato mixture for two or three minutes. Put the cooked potatoes into a bowl - add some kosher salt and toss it. These taste great with almost anything. Why not try it with Great White Bear's brisket recipe!.

Garlic mustard

Julia has a great post about mustard at the St. Lawrence Market. The guy even has garlic mustard. I personally haven't tried it but I've tried a couple of others that he sells. They're really good.
Go visit her blog for the link.

Garlic squid

Recipe sent by Fearless:

1 lb. squid, cleaned & cut into 1 inch rounds
2 tbl. minced onion
2 tbl. oil
6 cloves garlic, diced
1 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbl. lime juice

Pat dry squid.
Heat oil in pan, add garlic and onion until soft over medium.
Heat, turn to high, add squid until it starts to lose its translucence. Add salt and pepper and cook squiduntil done.
Remove from heat, sprinkle lime juice and serve over rice.