Appetizers – Page 15 – Rosemary and the Goat

Mezze Table

Mezze, tapas, muqabbilat, dim sum, hor’devoures, or simply “apps”.

(The 2010 February Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.)

What ever language you may say this word in, “mezze”, tapas, muqabbilat, dim sum, hor d oeuvres, apps, we are talking about small portions of food eaten before a meal or in place of a meal. Mezze is a selection of Greek and middle-eastern small dishes served in “mezze” portions (like tapas.) Typically a mezze might include things like hummus, baba ganoush, pita, olives, dolmas, maybe some grilled vegetables or a kabob. A mezze table would have several small dishes served all at once. If you love grazing at parties, you will love this style of eating. All kinds of things to nibble on. Try this for your next party, or any get together with friends. Everything can be made in advance, making the party an easy one to put together. All you need to do is open your wine, beer or whatever beverage and enjoy.

My menu for my messe table:

Pita Bread
Hummus
Bacon Wrapped Dates with Blue Cheese
Eggplant Caponata
Spanakopita
Tagine Spiced Grilled Quail
Israeli Cous Cous (I bought this ready made)
Herbed New Potatoes
Chocolava

February 14, 2010 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Honey Pecan Stuffed Snow Peas

I know you may be thinking “she’s crazy for stuffing those tiny little pods”, but they are always a hit a party.

When I started catering 20 years ago it seemed like everything idea I came up with involved a lot of time and handling of food. But, I have to say, those are usually the appetizers people go crazy for. Anyone can throw out a cheese tray or deli tray so I tend to like appetizers that people know you went to a little extra trouble making. I usually cringe when someone calls me and ask me if I do “trays”. What comes to mind when I think “trays” are piles of cheese or little hoagie sandwiches with those frilly little picks sticking out of the top.

I’ve stuffed black olives with pepperoni and then piped in a flavored cream cheese, I have stuffed rigatoni bites, and the Parmesan Bacon Wraps I make are to die for and they take a couple of hours almost in the oven.

This is a great little recipe I first tried about 10 years ago from “Come On In” cookbook. A few years ago I was catering a wedding and I had the menu all prepared for 75 guest. I had planned on doing these snow peas. Normally I would have done 150, which would have been 2 per person. Well, the guest list kept growing and growing and finally ended up at 225. So the night before the wedding I’m sitting (by myself) stuffing 450 snow peas. I think it took me about 4 hours just to do the peas. After that, I never put them on the menu for 50 or more people — they just takes way too long to do these for large parties.

February 8, 2010 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Truffled Parmesan Frites

Frites? What’s a Frite anyway? — French fries!! Come on now, can’t she do better than that you say.

The idea for this appetizer came from our anniversary trip to NYC back in September that we took with two of our friends also celebrating their anniversary. We did the walking tour of Greenwich Village that I told you about in an earlier post. I don’t go any place that I don’t come back with some idea for a new appetizer to try.

One of the restaurants we visited on the tour (Palma) gave us these little bamboo cones filled with fried artichoke petals. For some reason, my brain seems like it is constantly in motion like a pinball machine bouncing all over the place, because the whole time we are standing their eating our little artichoke petals out of the bamboo cones, instead of listening, I’m thinking “OK, what can I do in these cute little cones for a catering job”. And, if you have any great ideas of what to serve in these, I would like to hear about them. I have also done cubed melon with proscuitto and balsamic. Maybe some fried orka would be good??

A bar in our hotel in NYC served truffled fries, sprinkled with truffle salt. So, I’m thinking, I could do shoestring potatoes, sprinkled with Truffle oil (cheaper than using a lot of truffle salt), and sprinkled with Kosher salt and finely grated Parmesan cheese. I made them and they were delicious.

January 16, 2010 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Entree/ HotApp/ Pork/ Sauces

Pork Satay with Three Dipping Sauces

Satay’s make a great little appetizer or entree.

The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.

I know I have mentioned this before but in case you missed it — DC is the www.thedaringkitchen.com site that I belong to and they have a bakers and cooks challenge each month that members are challened to make certain dishes. The member has almost a month to complete the challenge and post to their site and to our own sites. Every one makes the same recipe but you can do your own variations on part of the recipe. There are only a few things that I have been intimadated by so far with these challenges — The French Meringues and the ginger bread houes (couldn’t do the houses because I was busy catering over Christmas). I would also like to see a challenge for peti fours. I’ve always wanted to make those but never have attempted to make the really pretty ones like I would want to do.

I have made chicken satay’s before for catering but for this challenge I decided to do the Pork Satay and make at least three dipping sauces. I just ordered some really fun looking skewers so I’m going for the appetizer portion but these can also be made with larger skewers.

Satay is a popular dish originating from Indonesia and Malaysia and is often served as “street fare” and accompanied by a dipping sauce. It can be made from cubed meats or strips of meat that are threaded on a skewer. Most of us think of kebabs when we think of skewered meat. To me, satay is strips of meat and served with a peanut dipping sauces. Usually kebabs have vegetables skewered along with the meat and I only do meat when making satays.

Hope you will try this challenge along with me and if you are interested in joining The Daring Kitchen, go to their website and check it out. It is really fun to see what others challenges look like.

I used a pork tenderloin and sliced it very thin. It turned out very tender.

These are all the ingredients for the marinade. It was really fast to throw together in the food processor.

Spread marinade all over the meat and marinate for 4-8 hours.

I talked my husband into grilling these outside in 40° weather.

I did three different sauces, peanut sauce, taminand sauce and a soy green onion sauce.

Great little recipe and I was glad to take this challenge.

Pork Satay with Three Dipping Sauces

Ingredients

1/2 small onion chopped
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 Tbsp. ginger root chopped
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. turmeric
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 pound pork

Instructions

Cut pork in 1 " strips (I cut my thin). For marinade put all ingredients xexcept for the meat in a food processor and process until smooth. Put the pork in either a bowl or plastic zip-lock and cover the pork with the marinade. Chill for 4-8 hours.
Soak your wooden skewers for about 20 minutes before preparing skewers.
Gently and slowly slide the meat strips onto the skewers. Discard any leftover marinade.
Grill or broil until the edges just start to char, 8-10 minutes.. Flip and cook another 8-10 minutes.
If you are grilling you could definitely brush once with some of the left over marinade when you flip the skewers. Then discard any left over marinade.

Peanut Sauce

Ingredients

3/4 c. coconut milk
4 Tbsp. peanut butter
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1-2 dried red chilies chopped (keep the seeds for heat)

Instructions

Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl. Add soy sauce and lemon, mix well. Over low heat, combine coconut milk, peanut butter and your soy-lemon-seasoning mix. Mix well, stir often.
All you are doing is melting the peanut butter, so make your peanut sauce after you have made everything else in your meal or make ahead of time and reheat.

Pepper Dip

Ingredients

4 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. brown sugar
1-2 dried chilies chopped, keep seeds for heat
1 finely chopped green onio

Instructions

Mix well. Serve chilled or room temperature.

Tamarind Dip

Ingredients

4 Tbsp. tamarind paste I used tamarind chutney
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 clove garlic minced
1 finely chopped green onion
1 tsp. brown or white sugar

Instructions

Mix well. Serve chilled or room temperature.

January 14, 2010 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Thai Tuna Wonton Chip

Beautiful little wonton with a spicy bite.

I never ate tuna any way other than out of a can until just a few years ago. When we were first married back in 1969 I think I was really into cooking or at least trying to learn to cook. I remember ordering a computerized menu plan for a month’s worth of recipes. I remember trying every one of them. My least favorite and I think that is why I had a mental block against tuna for years was a recipe for Tuna Noodle Rosie Casserole. I have to admit I hate hot tuna casseroles to this day because of this recipe. It was made with noodles, canned tuna, green peas and some kind of tomato soup or sauce. I gag even thinking of that recipe.

In the last few years I have tried more new things from pork belly to veal cheeks and even deer heart (at our day after Thanksgiving feast). So I have started revisiting tuna and if you try this recipe, I don’t think you will be disappointed.

I came across this recipe for Thai Wonton Chips and ALL it had on it was a few slivered vegetables. With a bunch of tweaking, I came up with this recipe. It was a favorite at one of the Christmas parties I catered recently.

December 27, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp/ Soup

Roasted Parsnip Bisque with Crispy Pork Belly

What is a parsnip anyway? And do you know what pork belly is???

(Our second course in our “American Tasting Feast” menu after Thanksgiving.)

According to “cookthink.com” — “A parsnip is a pale, homely and under-loved root vegetable that looks something like an anemic carrot. Parsnips have a slightly sweet flavor that peaks during the fall and winter.”

A parsnip can be baked, mashed, steamed, sauteed, or boiled. They have a stronger flavor than the carrot and in ancient times were believed to be an aphrodisiacs. You should read up on the lowly parsnip and you may find other recipes that are delicious as this soup and also my Winter White Vegetable Soup.

I don’t think I had ever tasted a parsnip before making the Winter White Vegetable Soup. I just knew I needed every white vegetable I could think of and this one was on my list.

This soup was a joint endeavor. My friend Peggy did the soup and I prepared the crispy pork belly. This was the second course in our menu which if you haven’t seen the menu, it is here.

Now, for the pork belly. Pork belly is meat derived from the belly of a pig. It is pretty popular in Chinese and Korean cuisine. BUT, growing up we had something we called “fresh side pork” or “fresh bacon” and I was surprised to discover it is one and the same. It has a delicious taste. Unlike bacon, it isn’t smoked so it doesn’t have a smoky or salty taste at all. The process for doing the pork belly was quite lengthy. First it had to be brined for 24 hours and then it was suppose to bake for 24 hours. Instead, I baked for 5 hours on low temperature, then cut it into cubes and fried it for a garnish for the soup.

Sorry I don’t have her recipe for the bisque but when/if I can find it, I will post here.

Brined Pork Belly

Ingredients

1 1/4 lbs. of pork belly
12 c. water
1 cup table salt
1/2 stalk lemongrass
1/2 head garlic
1 1/2 sprigs rosemary
1 stick cinnamon
1/3 bunch thyme
4 bay leaves
4-5 star anise
3 Tbsp. coriander seed
1 Tbsp. ginger or use 4 Tbsp. fresh ginger

Instructions

Mix all ingredients in a pot. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and cool before use. Cover the pork belly with the brine. Brine the pork belly for 24 hours. Remove from brine and rinse. In a pan, cover the pork belly with cool water. Cover with foil. Cook for 24 hours at 325°. (this is the party I ignored and cooked at 250° for about 5 hours). Once cooked, press and refrigerate overnight. Next day, cut the pork belly into small cubes and fry them until golden brown and crispy. **Note, I think the next time, I may brine but after brining just cut up and fry.

December 16, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Entree/ HotApp/ Pasta/ Sauces

Duck Confit Ravioli with Port and Sun-dried Cherry Sauce

Michie Feast – Pasta Course

The idea for this cours started as gnocchi, then changed to ravioli with duck bolognese, and finally settled on a duck confit ravioli with a port sauce. I have never made my own pasta, or duck confit so I’m not sure what I was thinking!

I shopped for the duck in Austin before I headed to the parent’s house. I was surprised that duck was $16/lb, I guess I am cheap but I decided right there to cut the duck in the recipe from four pounds down to one pound. Since the idea was to serve very small portions, like a tasting menu, I knew I would only use a fraction of what the recipe would yield anyways.

Thanks to Paul, my duck confit was cooked to perfection. Starting almost 48 hours in advance, the duck was first brined for 24 hours, then cooked for 10 hours on a very low temperature. When it was finished the duck fell apart, it was fall off the bone tender and moist. This eventually got mixed in with the ricotta and parmesan to create the filling for the ravioli.

December 9, 2009 By Alexis

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Food Stories

New American Feast — Tasting Menu

New American Feast — Tasting Menu and a Michie tradition.

Every Thanksgiving for the past eight years or so we have had our “Michie” feast on the day after Thanksgiving. It’s a good thing that our Thanksgiving menu is pretty traditional because so much work goes into our meal on the Friday following Tday. Here’s our menu for the night with a few picture teasers. We will be posting some of the recipes over the next few days.

mushroom mosaic terrine

paired with gloria ferrer sonoma brut

———-

lemon basil sorbet palate cleanser

———-

parsnip bisque with crispy pork belly

pared with robledo sauvignon blanc 2006, california

———-

crab, avocado, mango tower

paired with pierre boniface apremont 2008, france

———-

seared yellowfin tuna tostone stack with mexican coke reduction

pineapple, mango, sesame vinaigrette

paired with st. clement, bale lane, 2007 sauvignon blanc, napa valley

———-

fig and port sorbet palate cleanser

———-

chicken fried deer heart, latke, black pepper cream

paired with mo zin, spann vineyard, 2006

———-

duck confit ravioli with port wine and sun-dried cherry sauce

paired with calvet-thunevin cuvee constance, 2005, cotes catalanese

———-

smoked espresso powdered venison tenderloin with chili, chocolate

fresh gulf crab cake and beer blanc sauce

paired with nero d’avola/merlot evoe aziende agricole aollara

———-

madeira-braised veal cheeks with chive cheese grits

paired with bear boat pino noir 2006, russian river valley

———-

gorgonzola dolce latte with asian pear, Tete De Moine, triple cream brie

———-

pumpkin bread and chocolate bread pudding, frozen honey cinnamon custard with cajeta

paired with assorted liquer

(Sherry) We decide on a theme in advance. It all started with frying the turkey for the first time eight years ago. We had all this oil left over and thought we should do something with it so the next day we had a fish and frog leg fry. The next year we decided to do all oysters. I think we did them seven different ways. In the following years we have done, sushi, Mexican, Italian, French Country, Spanish Tapas and this year we decided on a tasting menu, New American style.

(Alexis) This year we had 10 courses, 10 people, 10 bottles of wine. Everyone comes up with their own recipes for the event in advance. Paul oversees the entire menu and if you’re lucky he will cook your course for you too. Just kidding. But it is a life saver when he looks at your recipe and clues you in to the fact that you really need to start parts of your recipe 24-48 hours in advance. Thanks to him I had some awesome duck confit already prepared for me when I went to make my ravioli on Friday.

(Sherry) We have so much fun cooking and laughing and consuming a lot of wine together. Everyone really gets into their dish, preparing and plating for presentation. We decided this year that everyone should present their dish when serving their course and explain how they prepared it and what wine they were serving with it. That was a lot of fun.

(Alexis) I think I had an advantage of being towards the end of the meal, when I was a little loosened up by the wine and more than ready for some “public speaking.”

(Sherry) We had 2 oz. pours on all our wines and by the end of the night I think we calculated that everyone drank a bottle of wine a piece. This is not including what my daughter-in-law coined “intermission” wines in case someone wanted more wine while waiting for the next course.

My dish was the only one that flopped. It was tasty but the terrine, even with 24 sheets of gelatin, did not set up like it was suppose to. The veal cheeks came from Chicago and other ingredients came from Austin and Houston. I made two trips to an Asian market to get the pork belly. We have already been talking about the next feast when we are all together and we’ve decided it will be a “locavore” theme. We will have to cook only seasonal ingredients within 50-100 miles of where we live. So that will be Chicago, Austin, and Houston. This will be a challenge.

(Alexis) I’d like to add to the local part that the ingredients should also be organic, natural, grass-fed, free range, etc..

Stay tuned for more recipes and photos of some of the highlights from the tasting menu!

December 3, 2009 By Alexis

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Dessert/ Desserts

Cannoli

When the moon hits the sky like a big pizza pie, it’s cannoliiiiii (guess that should be amore’) 🙂

My first real cannoli was in Italy three years ago. We had gone on this 18 day trip to Italy with two other couples. After going to Venice for three days, then Cinque Terra for 3 days, and Rome three days, we settled in Tuscany at iL Borro villa (owned by the Faragamo family) for 8 days. It was a wonderful trip.

I think it was while we were in Cinque Terra and we were taking the train either to Santa Margarita or Monterosso that we learned a lot about riding trains in Italy. Once we were fined for not having our tickets validated. Ouch, that hurt, but could have been worst I guess if the guys argued with the ticket guys on the train.

Then one time we messed up on the timing of the train and had to wait an hour for the next train. While we were waiting, one of the guys hiked up to a little restaurant that he and his wife had been to before and came back with two huge cannolis that we divided up and devoured in seconds while waiting for our train. This was really late at night, maybe 11:30 or so and was getting kind of scary. We got better at reading the train schedules after that incident.

I have made savory cannolis before using a smoked salmon spread for the filling. Recently I made cannolis for a shower using a recipe that an Italian lady gave me 25 years ago. For this challenge I made some sweet ones using cocoa in the dough. I don’t think I care for that recipe as much as my original recipe.

Here are a few pictures of some of the ones I have made recently.

These are great. I dipped one end in chopped pistachio nuts and the other in shaved semi sweet chocolate.

November 27, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Sweet Potato Biscuits with Ham and Orange Marmalade

Everyone makes biscuits, but have you tried sweet potato biscuits with ham and Marmalade.

Most people starting thinking seriosly about sweet potatoes/yams this time of the year. How many ways have you prepared sweet potatoes — sweet potato pie, sweet potato casserole with marshmallows or nut topping, or rosemary baked sweet potato wedges (yum, these are the greatest). I just came across this recipe today for Sweet Potato Sticks wrapped in bacon and sage. I will be trying these soon. They look wonderful. What doesn’t taste good with bacon wrapped around it.

Have you ever thought of making sweet potato biscuits and using some of that holiday ham for an appetizer. Spread the biscuit with a little orange marmalade, top with small slice of ham and warm in oven and you have a fantastic party appetizer.

November 22, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Little Bites

Little Bites to tingle your tastebuds! — Amuse Bouche

I had never heard that word (Amuse Bouche) until I came back from our NYC trip in September and I was telling a friend I work with about a little potato appetizer we had at Gramercy Tavern. She said “oh, you had an Amuse Bouche”. (pronounced uh-MYUZboosh) And I have been obsessed ever since with these little bites. The chef at Gramercy Tavern actually sent me that recipe which I plan on making during Thanksgiving holidays. The one we had that night (and I guessed right on the recipe) was a choux pastry puff that had mashed fingerling potatoes mixed in and they were deep fried in grape seed oil and when done, an olive tapenade was piped into the center of the puff and was served on a bed of sea salt. We only had one each, but that was enough for me to know I wanted the recipe.

You won’t find Amuse Bouche on any restaurant menu because they are usually compliments of the chef. Sometimes chefs use the amuse bouche as a way to try out different recipes that may become an appetizer on their menu. An Amuse Bouche is a one bite appetizer served before the meal meant to tantalize your taste buds. In French the word means “mouth amuser”.

Recently I have checked out two books from our library in search of some different little bites I can try for some parties I’m catering. The books are Amuse Bouche by Rick Tramonto (chef/partner at Tru in Chicago), and Small Bites by Jennifer Joyce. I have found several I want to try out during the holidays.

Here are two Amuse Bouche recipes I have tried, nothing fancy, but cute and yummy. The third appetizer I did in these little bamboo cones. Wouldn’t be classified as an amuse bouche because it is more than one bite but thought it was worth posting. The burger and melon appetizers I thought up my self (like I said, nothing fancy)

This tiny burger is a take on “sliders”, much smaller and cuter I think. I’ve been wanting to make a mini burger for a long time so I thought why not try an amuse bouce burger. Anyway, here’s what it looked like.

Isn’t this the cutest thing ever. No recipe needed. I used wheat bread, toasted it and then using a 1″ cutter, cut out little buns. Then I fried up some little burgers about 1″ size, put a squirt of mustard (any kind) on the burger. Top this with another piece of toast (bun), then a slice of grape tomato, tiny onion slice (those cute little onions that are the size of a dime) and little chunk of baby dill to finish it off. You could also use small slice of cheese on burger if you wanted. Just cut it out using your 1″ cutter. Put one on a plate, dot with mustard, for dipping and serve. Wouldn’t a few julienned fries be a cute garnish for the plate.

November 19, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Food Stories

Sushi Challenge

Doesn’t that look like a real dragon?

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.

Sushi (寿司 or 鮨 or 鮓) is much appreciated for its delicate taste and exquisite appearance. Sushi actually means vinegar-ed rice, which is the essential ingredient in every sushi recipe. Sushi is simple and cheap to make at home, needs no special equipment and is an excellent way to use left overs.

Although sushi in various forms has been around for fourteen centuries, the modern version was invented in Japan in the 1800’s where a ‘hand-formed’ sliced fresh fish and vinegar-ed rice ball was eaten as a snack food. Nowadays, sushi is made with various seafood, meats and vegetables, raw and cooked.

I belong to www.thedaringkitchen.com site and each month there is a cooking challenge and baking challenge. November’s cook’s challenge was to make sushi.

I have a confession to make. Last week our Friday night friends were out of town so I told my husband about a new sushi place we have in town. He asked me if I had been there before and I said “yes, for lunch this week”. What I didn’t tell him was that this would be my third time to eat there that week. I wanted to sit at the bar and watch them make the sushi this time so I could get ready for this challenge. That really helped. Now, if I can just get the rice right.

I won’t be posting a recipe here because if you really want to make sushi I would just google how to make the sushi rice and watch several sushi making YouTube videos. That’s what I did. By the time I had watched about 6 videos I thought I would be able to do it — and I (we) did.

For this challenges we were suppose to make a dragon roll, spiral roll and nigri sushi. I was looking in the produce section for all our ingredients and saw a star fruit and had the idea to use this for his fins, scales or whatever it is a dragon is suppose to have on his back.

Here are a few pictures of what we made last night.

This was a spicy tuna crunch roll. We put chopped up tuna, sriracha hot chilli sauce, some of the crunchies I fished out of the pan from doing tempura shrimp.

This was my least favorite. I didn’t care for the fake crab legs. I think next time I would do shrimp and tuna.

I prepped all of our fillings earlier that day. I cut up cucumber, scallions, red bell pepper, avocado, tempura shrimp, spicy tuna mixture, spicy mayo, made some sweet soy and did some green beans in tempura for an appetizer.

A plate of our night’s work. This ginger was some I bought. I did try making pickled ginger this week and didn’t like the results. I think you really need “young” ginger to make the recipe because mine was tough and string.

This is my dragon roll. I used a star fruit sliced very thin and inserted it between pieces of sushi to look like fins. Of course, I’ve never seen a “real” dragon so I don’t know if they have fins or scales but I think he turned out pretty cute. I used my aspic cutters and cut shapes from a fresh beet to use as a plate garnish.

I will be watching some sushi rice making videos the next time I do sushi.

どうぞめしあがれ (enjoy your meal)

Hope you are up to this challenge one day soon.

November 14, 2009 By Sherry