PICKLED OLIVES
Method 1
These will be ready to eat after about 5 weeks sealed in salted water: do not mix green and black varieties of olives when pickling.
1.5kg fresh black or green olives
1/3 cup 75g fine sea salt
1 litre 4 cups water
½ cup 125ml olive oil
Discard any over blemished olives.
Using a sharp knife make two cuts lengthways in each olive through to the stone.
(We do it the Cypriot way, use a marble stone and knock each one onto another marble stone - breaking them).
Place olives in large jars (we use the yellow ones with blue lids) cover the olives with cold water. To keep the olives submerged place a plastic bag filled with water and knotted over the top. Scum will appear this is normal. Change the water every day for 4 days with black olives 6 days with green.
Combine sea salt and he litre of water in a saucepan stir over a heat until the salt is dissolved then cool. Discard the water in the jars, fill with enough salted water to cover olives. Pour enough oil in jars to cover completely and seal the jars.
(We didn’t do this last stage we just put another plastic bag filled with water over the top.
