Zaytūn Mubakhkhar (Smoke-Fumigated Olives)

Ingredients

• olives
• salt
• garlic
• dry savory
• olive pit
• cotton dipped in sesame oil
• walnut kernel
• sesame oil
• hulled toasted sesame

Instructions

1. Bruise ripe olives (green preferred), salt as needed, and turn daily until the bitterness is gone.
2. Spread on a woven-stick lattice tray a day and night until the moisture drains.
3. Make a fumigant of finely pounded garlic and dry savory (about a dirham), an olive pit, a little sesame-oil-soaked cotton, and about a dirham of walnut kernel; set it over a gentle fire.
4. Set the olive tray on a brazier charged with the fumigant, seal the opening, and cover the olives so no smoke escapes.
5. Stir repeatedly so the smoke circulates and leave a full day.
6. Dress with sesame oil, coarsely pounded walnut, hulled toasted sesame, garlic, and pounded savory; mix well, keep covered in a glazed jar for some days, and use.