Cypriot Olive Cake - Elioti
Ingredients
- 20 sprigs of fresh coriander, see notes
- 2 sprigs of fresh onion, washed
- 2 tbs fresh mint, washed
- 220 g pitted olives, see notes
- 500 g self-raising flour
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbs sugar, see notes
- 1 tbs dried mint
- 200 mL orange juice, see notes
- 200 mL tap water
- 125 mL olive oil
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 tbs sesame seeds
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 170°C fan forced. Chop the olives, mint and spring onion, then set aside. To prepare the coriander, wash and dry it well. Remove the roots on the end and chop the rest of the stem and leaves to use.
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Sift the flour in a large bowl, add the dry mint, sugar and salt (add more salt if the olives are not very salty). Mix it all with a wooden spoon. Make a well in the middle and add the orange juice, water and olive oil (125mL). Combine all the ingredients with a spoon. The mixture should be quite sticky and not very smooth.
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Place the chopped olives, fresh mint, fresh coriander and onion in the bowl with the flour, mixing with the spoon until all is evenly distributed.
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Prepare a rectangular baking dish (mine measured 27cm x 20cm) with a bit of flour to coat all the surfaces. Pour the mixture into the baking dish. Drizzle the tablespoon of olive oil on top and use the back of the spoon to spread it all out. Sprinkle the sesame seeds on top and then bake the olive cake on the middle rack for 75min or until it is cooked through.
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Once the olive cake is cooked leave it in the baking dish for 5min or so and then place it on a cooling rack to completely cool down. To then store it, place it in a cool place in an air tight container.
Recipe Notes
For the sprigs of coriander I measure them when they are on their actual roots. Hence a large bunch of coriander is needed. If coriander is not a herb you like then you may substitute it with parsley.
The pitted olives (pit removed) were about 1 ½ cups. When I’ve used whole olives (unpitted) before they measured about 300g before I removed the pits.
If you are using a soft drink (see below) then do not use any additional sugar.
Orange juice is commonly substituted with Sprite or Fanta for this recipe (same amount). If you are replacing it then omit the added sugar in the ingredients.