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Snack / Party Food

Martini Olives

I took this recipe from Bon Apetit: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/12/boozy-olives and merged it with a guideline from a bartending book - dropping the lime juice, adding some fresh rosemary twigs, slightly muddled, and some herbs de provence and some red pepper flakes for color.

A dash of olive brine, and 2 parts gin to 1 part vermouth to cover the olives.

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Jalapeño Mint Jelly

Adapted from epicurious.

Yield: 3 half-pints

ingredients

7/8 cups finely chopped fresh mint, divided
3/4 cups water
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
3/8 cup cider vinegar
1 tbsp (25 mL) strained fresh lemon juice
2 jalapeño peppers, finely chopped
1 pouch liquid fruit pectin

preparation

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Crab Rangoon

All I can say is this crab rangoon recipe is ... delicious!! Shamelessly stolen.

Obviously, this is a "notional" recipe.

Ingredients
Roughly equal parts cream cheese (at room temperature) and imitation crab meat (chopped up)
(Go a little heavy on the cream cheese)
Chopped green onion
Dash garlic powder
Smaller dash soy sauce
Enough won ton wrappers (recommend cutting them in half and makings smaller pouches)

Process
Mix ingredients together (except won ton wrappers).

Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)

Eggnog cheesecake / pumpkin pie bars

Preheat oven to 325F . Partially bake a double batch of pie crust spread out in a casserole.

Make a pie filling from this pumpkin pie recipe (or use canned filling with relevant spices/eggs/etc.)

Make the cheesecake layer:
16 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup eggnog
1 egg
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
pinch nutmeg (if not already enough in eggnog)

Your rating: None Average: 3 (1 vote)

Foams

A holding place for all things foam, thanks to my iSi Creative Whip.

First up, a blue cheese foam to top steak with:
1 oz blue cheese (Roquefort)
1 oz cream
1 T milk
blend until perfectly smooth, whip, chill, serve.

Next up, a raita-yogurt foam
1.5 oz raita (yogurt, raita spices, lemon juice)
1.5 oz cream
mix, whip, chill, serve. Great on cucumber slices.

Chimichurri foam
oil/vinegar mix from chimichurri, strained
a tad of Stubbs mopping sauce (or other vinegary BBQ sauce)
apple cider vinegar for volume

Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)

Sauteed Fresh Chickpeas

Fresh Chickpeas

Delicious and easy ... if you can find fresh chick peas (garbanzo beans).

2 cups fresh garbanzo beans, washed
olive oil to coat pan
pat butter (if desired, for flavor)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp water

Heat oil and butter in sautee pan. Add garbanzo beans in a single layer. Add water and lemon juice. Cover. Cook about 4 minutes, or until undersides of bean start to brown and burn. Only shake side to side while cooking.

Pour into a bowl (with oil/juices) and serve. Eat sort of like edamame. Lick fingers.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)

Smoked Salmon Crepe Pinwheels

A delicious and fun twist on Kevin Dundon's salmon cake recipe.

These are crepes, layered with cream cheese and smoked salmon (lox), rolled and cut into pinwheels. Great for a party!

1/3 cup plain flour
1 small egg
about 1/2 cup milk
4-8oz smoked salmon slices
4-8oz whipped cream cheese (with herbs/chives if available)
1 tbsp snipped fresh chives
juice of 1/2 lemon

Your rating: None Average: 3 (3 votes)

Jalapeno Jelly

My homemade jalapeno jelly is always a huge hit at parties. The fact that Jon grows the hot peppers that go into the jelly impresses people even more. The secret is that this is actually one of the easiest canning recipes I have.

Even though this is made with hot peppers (and trust me, the ones coming out of our garden are very spicy), its actually very mild when finished. To kick it up a notch, substitute a few habaneros or other spicy chilis. Three to four habaneros will make a medium heat jelly.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (2 votes)

Shallot Confiture (Onion Jam)

Yield: abt 2.5 pints

2.5 lb shallots
.75 c salt
6 c white wine vinegar
4 c granulated sugar
for the spice bag:
4 cardamom pods
2 cinnamon sticks
3 strips lemon rind
1 Tbsp caraway seed
1 Tbsp cloves
.5 bird's eye chile

Blanch and peel shallots. Make sure root ends stay intact, or shallots will disintegrate during cooking.

Place peeled shallots in large glass bowl. Cover with cold water and add the salt. Mix until dissolved.. Weight shallots down (with a plate works) and leave for 24 hours.

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Dolmades (Stuffed Grape Leaves)

We really enjoy the vegetarian dolmades (grape leaves stuffed with rice and other sundies) from Eastern Market, and so we thought we'd try and make them ourselves. We found grape leaves at A Litteri, the Italian grocer in the Florida Market. Overall, these were a lot of work and not as good as what we get at the Eastern Market Grocer. Not sure we'll do this again. This recipe is roughly adapted from these (plus looking at the ingredients list at the Eastern Market Grocer!):

http://kalofagas.blogspot.com/2008/02/dolmadakia.html
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pine-Nut-Dolmades-with-Yogu...
http://www.astronet.gr/static/content/Stuffed_vineleaves_with_rice.html

Makes about 30 dolmades.

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