Spanish Chicken Rolls with Olives

Are you still on the look out for something delicious to serve with that glass of chilled white wine or sherry ? Something to nibble between the sips and the conversations... then try these Spanish Chicken Rolls with Olives. They are pretty awesome !

It is a recipe inspired from the book Tapas.  While I had heard the word Tapas before, till sometime back I did not know where it came from... Here is what I learnt from the book.

The word Tapas comes from tapa,  a Spanish word for lid - specifically the "lid" created by the slice of bread that an innkeeper would thoughtfully place on top of a customer's wine glass to keep out the flies and dust between sips. The Andalucians then came up with the idea of balancing a morsel of something tasty on top of the bread to nibble on..... and a new Spanish institution was born.

Interesting right ?

I have been trying out little nibbles from this book ever since I borrowed it from the library. While most of them are nice, this one is special.  It looks pretty and tastes gorgeous... the perfect package for entertaining family and friends... also it is fairly easy to prepare. You can serve it hot or at room temperature... but how ever you do, try and serve them in pretty plates with bright colors in a typical Spanish style....

French Fridays with Dorie : Back-of-the-Card Cheese and Olive Loaf

We LOVE olives. all three of us. even though the little one cringes every time he takes a bite, he will still ask for more. so i was certain that this loaf would be an instant hit with us. and I was right. we loved it. though Dorie suggested serving long fingers of the loaf as a pre-dinner nibble, on day one, I served slices of the loaf for dinner along with a simple broccoli soup, also from Dorie's book. the two paired up quite well and we felt so full afterwards that that day the rest of the dinner returned to the refrigerator untouched. no grudges about that. it just saved me from cooking up dinner the next day :-)

As Dorie says, originally this recipe or something close was printed on a card produced by the Comtè  cheese makers organization and distributed to fromageries all over France. She and Patricia Wells chanced upon them while shopping in Provence and later tweaked the recipe to make their own loaves. For my loaf I followed Dorie's recipe to bits and used Swiss cheese, tapenade, oil-cured black olives and orange zest. since my husband is not a fish-eater, initially i was a little wary about the use of tapenade in the recipe. i however realized later that there is really nothing fishy about it and quite enjoyed the slight pickle-y flavor that it added to the loaf.

Will I be baking it again  ? Oh. Yes. It is such a delicious loaf and takes so little time to put together !! I might however rethink the quantity of salt and serve it nibble-size with a drink, just as a French host would do... I am also keen on trying out the other variations that she suggested. A pesto loaf with pine nuts and sundried tomatoes is what i have in mind for the weekend. 

As a member of french friday's with Dorie I am not supposed to post the recipe on the blog. However you can find this particular recipe in Dorie's   June, 2009, Newsletter.  For more delicious recipes order your copies of Around the French Table from Amazon or from The Book Depository and join us as we cook our way through the book.