Moscow Mule Cocktail with Chicken Fried Olives

What do you do when you find yourself in one of your town’s hippest new eateries, waiting for the executive chef to come out for a scheduled interview?

You order from the menu and nosh while  you wait. At least that’s what I did. (By the way, I also paid for it myself. No freebies.)

I went to Second Bar + Restaurant to interview David Bull, Executive Chef  and partner of Congress and Second Bar + Kitchen.

We were scheduled to talk about his friend Daniel Curtis and the upcoming benefit  for him, which will offset some of the medical bills adding up from injuries he sustained in a freak diving accident.

As usual (not complaining) Chef Bull kept me waiting.  Since it was 2 p.m. and I hadn’t yet had lunch, I decided to take advantage of where I found myself.

I started with one of their signature cocktails called a Moscow Mule (I think). It was very tasty, and had ginger syrup and lime in it and I don’t know what else. So I had a second one to see if that would help me figure it out. It did not. Of course my server told me all of the ingredients in it when I ordered the first one, but I guess I just wasn’t in a remembering place.

To go with my cocktail I ordered Second Bar + Kitchen’s Chicken Fried Olives. I am already a huge fan of olives–from the inexpensive cans of briny black or green–stuffed or not–fruits, to the more expensive oil cured and otherwise divine bitter bites. These olives were green and fried and delicious.

I didn’t get the restaurant’s recipe, but I came up with one that seems to work pretty well.

Ingredients

• 1 cup canola oil
• 12 colossal green pitted olives (may have pimento), drained and dried
• 12 colossal black pitted olives, drained and dried
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon garlic powder (depending on whether you like garlic)
• 1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup bread crumbs (may use Panko crumbs)
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (again, your personal preference will determine how much you use)
• 1 Bunch fresh parsley

Preparation

1. Heat canola oil to 350 degrees.
2. Blend together the flour, garlic powder and chipotle powder and place the mixture in a shallow dish.
3. Keep the beaten eggs in their bowl.
4. Place the bread crumbs with ground black pepper into their own shallow dish.
5. Here’s the process: roll the olives in the flour, then  in the beaten egg and finally roll them in the bread crumbs.
6. Set these lovelies on a cooling rack for five to 10 minutes to give the breading a chance to dry out.
7. When oil is hot, put half the olives into it, being careful not to drop them and splatter hot oil.
8. Fry until golden brown, then remove  with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels, and be sure to tip them over to make sure there’s not hot oil inside the olive. Bad surprise.
9. Place the olives  in a shallow serving bowl.
10. Dip parsley in egg wash and briefly fry in hot oil. Remove and drain and use as garnish for olives.

NOTE: If you like, you can cut cheese such as mozzarella or manchego into thick sticks and stuff them into the olives before dipping  them in egg, flour and bread crumbs and frying. Yummy.