Posts filed under 'Appetizer'
Recipe of the Week – Clams, Shrimp and Mussels
(From the Appetizer category at www.emealsforyou.com)
Clams. Mussels and Shrimp
Come over and bring an appetizer. To some that sends terror, some it means a stop at the local market for one of those “shrimp rings” but to me it opens the door to bring a great dish. I like this dish because it sends wonderful garlicy smells throughout the kitchen. It is perfect because most people will find something they like in the dish. Whether you like shrimp, or mussels or clams they are all in there soaking up all the garlic and white wine.
I serve this in a large bowl surrounded by crunchy bread to sop up the juices. This is a great appetizer or serve it over pasta and call it a meal.
Pour the wine, please.
Greek Mussels, Shrimp and Clams
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 8 |
| Category: | Appetizer |
| Meal: | Small Plates Please (Picnic Meal Plans) |
| 2 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 0.5 | cup | carrots, diced |
| 0.5 | cup | onions, diced |
| 0.5 | cup | celery ribs |
| 1 | Tb | thyme, fresh |
| 6 | cloves | garlic, chopped |
| 1 | 15 oz can | tomatoes, diced |
| 12 | oz | wine, dry white |
| 2 | lb | mussels |
| 1 | lb | shrimp, deveined, shelled |
| 12 | medium | clams |
| 2 | Tb | cilantro, chopped |
| 1 | Tb | lemon zest, finely chopped |
| 0.5 | medium | lemon, juice of |
| 1 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
Clean and rinse mussels and clams. Add oil to hot pan, sauté carrots, onions and celery (diced) until soft, add thyme, garlic, sauté for 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, wine, clams, shrimp and mussels, cover pan, cook until mussels and clams open, discard unopened mussels and clams. Place on serving platter, sprinkle with zest, lemon juice and cilantro.
Add comment March 10, 2010
Recipe of the Week – Roasted Seckel Pears with Goat Cheese
(From the Appetizer Collection at emealsforyou.com)
In line with a recent post Why We Cook – A Rant I wanted to add surprise to the equation. Sometimes it’s fun to add something to the meal that is unexpected, something that appears to be one thing and winds up being a totally unexpected treat. One night in New Jersey I made seckel pears. These are small pears that are only available in the early fall, roasted with goat cheese, black pepper and honey as an appetizer for a group of macho cops, EMT’s and RN’s. The unexpected taste of the tart pears with the smooth goat cheese and sweet honey was a huge hit. The fresh cracked pepper added to the visual. These are similar to the full size pears I make for dessert but the small size makes them ideal as a quick and unexpected appetizer.
Another visual trick is my watermelon salad. Served in a large bowl with other various salads on a buffet, the guest assume that it is a tomato salad. Watching the look on their faces as they popped the watermelon into their mouths was very satisfying. The combination of crisp sweet watermelon with the salty feta cheese, pinenuts and red onion makes a wonderful surprise addition to any meal. Now that watermelon is available all year long; this is not just a summer treat. Once the word got around about the watermelon salad it completely disappeared in a matter of minutes.
So, mix it up a little, try something different and surprise your guest.
Roasted Seckel Pears with Goat Cheese
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 8 |
| Category: | Appetizer |
| Meal: | N/A |
| 16 | medium | seckel pears |
| 3 | oz | cheese, goat |
| 2 | Tb | honey |
| 0.5 | tsp | pepper, fresh ground |
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut pears in half, scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon. Place cut side down on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Place in oven for 6 -8 minutes, until the pears are tender. Remove to a serving platter, cut side up, spoon a dollop of goat cheese in the center, dust with fresh cracked black pepper and drizzle with honey.
Add comment October 12, 2009
Recipe of the Week – Baked Garlic
(From The Appetizer Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Baked Garlic
Regular readers will remember that I posted last week on a Neighborhood Dinner Party I am having this Saturday. On the menu was Baked Garlic and TJ’s Special Sipping Sauce as appetizers. When creating the menu for I always look for courses that will compliment the main dish and is fairly easy to prepare and easy on the budget. I first had the baked garlic at a restaurant in Chicago, Bistro 110, in Watertower Place. They served it with hot and crunchy french bread and salty butter. The smell of the sweet garlic added to the whole Bistro experience.
The purpose, at least for me, of serving appetizers is to give me a little more time in the kitchen once the guests arrive and prior to the meal. sometimes I serve it in the kitchen with drinks and sometimes I serve it in another room, depending on how much confusion in going on in the kitchen at the time.
For this meal I am serving this garlic along with TJ’s Special Dipping Sauce. This dipping sauce came about when my brother-in-law, not the rocket scientist for those frequent readers out there, took us to dinner and raved about the dipping sauce. We put together the recipe from what we remember we tasted in the dipping sauce.
Bottom line is keep your appetizers reasonable from a preparation standpoint and also remember that if your guests fill up on appetizers they won’t have room for the wonder main course you worked so hard on.
Baked Garlic
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Appetizer |
| Meal: | French Bistro in under 30 Minutes (Distinctive Dinners) |
| 2 | large | garlic, whole head |
| 1 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 1 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
Cut just the very top off the garlic; pour oil over garlic. Salt and pepper to taste. Wrap garlic in aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until soft. Remove from foil, and plate. Serve with toast points, warm, crunchy french bread or crackers.
Add comment July 6, 2009
Recipe of the Week – TJ’s Special Dipping Sauce
(From The Appetizers Collection at emealsforyou.com)
TJ's Special Dipping Sauce
To be good doesn’t necessarily mean difficult. There are times when you want a quick, easy appetizer to serve while you spend time with the main meal. This dipping sauce is the ideal candidate to fill that need. Simply mix the ingredients together with the olive oil, cut some crusty bread, put it all on a platter and go get dinner ready. The nice part about this is you can make a little or a lot. If your guests wolf it down; make more.
Quick, easy and oh yeah, cheap!
TJ’s Special Dipping Sauce
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 4 |
| Category: | Appetizer |
| Meal: | Bev’s Steak Dinner (Celebration Meal Plans) |
| 5 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 0.5 | tsp | herb de provence |
| 1 | pinch | pepper, hot flakes |
| 1 | Tb | cheese, Romano, grated |
Pour olive oil on plate and sprinkle the remaining ingredients over oil.
Serve with warm bread.
(From Bev’s Steak Dinner (Celebration Meal Plans) at emealsforyou.com)
Add comment March 2, 2009
Recipe Contest Winner – Deane’s Hanky Panky Dip
We just finished a recipe contest with three of our favorite blogs: funcraftsandrecipes.com, momcooks.net, lisacooking.com. Their readers were asked to submit one of their favorite recipes and Elizabeth, Lisa, Valerie and myself chose the best three from each blog. Besides appearing in our blog here each recipe will be published on the emealsforyou.com website.
Here is the second winner, congrats to Deane for her Hanky Panky Dip, easy and very good just in time for entertaining.
Deane’s Hanky Panky Dip
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 10 |
| Category: | Appetizer |
| Meal: | other (General) |
| 8 | oz | sausage. sweet pork |
| 16 | oz | cream cheese |
| 10 | oz | Rotel, original |
Brown the sausage, breaking it apart, drain and set aside. Mix the cream cheese and Rotel in a bowl, set in microwave for 2 – 21/2 minutes until melted. Add the sausage and serve with tortilla chips.
Note: Use the mild or hot Rotel depending on your taste.
Add comment December 22, 2008
Recipe of the Week – Homemade Mozzarella
Homemade Mozzarella
(from www.emealsforyou.com/Appetizers/Homemade Mozzarella)
I’ve always wanted to make my own mozzarella so when my wife found a company, Golden Age Cheese , that sells the curd needed; I thought, “what the heck”. I ordered 4 lbs and with shipping it was around $30. The cheese curd comes in a “cold pack” and arrived a few days after I ordered it. It may be frozen in the “curd state” or frozen after you have made the mozzarella.
Making mozzarella is both easy and fun. It would be fun to have a party and make this with the guests. A word of warning, this is probably not something you want your children to do as the temperature required for the curd to change to cheese is very hot. To make the cheese you simply heat a large quantity of water, add the curd, stir and then form into balls. Yeah, that simple and it is soooooo gooooood.
Golden Age Cheese recommends you add salt to the water. We tried it with and without salt. For those who are on a reduced sodium diet and probably are used to no salt; you will find it okay without the salt. I would suggest you use some lemon juice and olive oil poured over the top. For the rest of us, Michael Chiarello of NapaStyle, suggests you “put enough salt in the water to almost gag you when you taste the water. We made it pretty salty although nobody gagged.
The photo shows how we served it with the Oven-dried Tomatoes oven-dried tomatoes. It was a huge hit; gauged by the fact that it all disappeared instantly.
Homemade Mozzarella
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 8 |
| Category: | Appetizer |
| Meal: | N/A |
| 2 | lb | mozzarella cheese curds |
| 2 | gal | water |
| 0.5 | cup | salt, kosher |
Add salt to water and boil; pour into a very large bowl or pot. Add curd and stir until cheese begins to form long strands. Grab some of the strands and kneed into a smooth ball. Pinch the end and place the ball in cold water.
May be frozen at this point.
(more recipes and meal plans available at www.emealsforyou.com)
Add comment April 15, 2008
Recipe of the Week – Antipasti Tray
Antipasti Tray
(from www.emealsforyou.com Recipes/Appetizer/AntipastiTray)
With all my recent posts and rants about healthier eating it may appear that I have deserted those who eat a normal diet; normal being somewhat less health conscience and in moderation. One of the many things to come out of my NJ trip and cooking marathon is that I now have a wealth of food topics to pass along to you.
Although I usually recommend cooking from scratch to control what goes into meals; occasionally I rely on prepared or as the TV show calls them “Semi-Homemade” products. This antipasti tray was one of 11 different dishes we prepared for the buffet party in NJ for 35 people. Wanting to provide a salad-like course we decided to go the deli route. Shooting for a visual as well as a palate pleasing effect we selected thinly sliced hard salami, Gorgonzola stuffed green olives, assorted black olives, marinated artichoke hearts and goat cheese stuffed red peppers. ( we did stuff the peppers ourselves; the we being my wife). Our friend Jean arranged the dish and I can verify that it did have the desired visual and palate pleasing results.
BTW – For those keeping score I found antipasti spelled antipasti, antipasta and antipasto. Would one of my Italian readers please send a comment as to the difference in these three?
1 comment April 1, 2008
Recipe of the Week – Oven-dried Tomatoes
Oven-dried Tomatoes
(from www.emealsforyou.com/Appetizers/Oven-driedTomatoes)
We are back from our Food Fest week in NJ. Surprisingly everything went as planned; I think that is a first. The dinner party on Thursday was a success; we were able to accommodate everyone, the non-meat eater, the non-fish eater and the gluten intolerant. The ” normal” people enjoyed it as well. One of our appetizers appears in the photo above: Oven-dried Tomatoes.
I will be highlighting more of the meal in detail in the coming weeks but here is the menu: Appetizers: Oven-dried Tomatoes and TJ’s Special Dipping Sauce with French baguettes. Main course: Osso Buco of Veal and also Osso Buco of Monkfish, Italian salad and White Beans with Spinach. Dessert: Oven-roasted Pears with Blue Cheese Fondant and Pine Nut Brittle and Tiramisu.
Just to make life more interesting I cooked the meal at our friend Jean’s house. The main event for the week, the wedding celebration party for my brother-in-law and his wife, was at my mother-in-law’s on Saturday, we had 36 people. I must be a glutton for punishment as it is difficult at best to cook in someone else’s kitchen much less cook two complete meals in two different kitchens.
Anyway, here you are; Oven-dried Tomatoes enjoy!
Oven-dried Tomatoes
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Vegetables |
| Meal: | Veggie – Book Group (Theme Meal Plans) |
| 6 | medium | tomatoes, plum |
| 1 | pinch | salt, kosher |
| 3 | Tb | sugar, brown |
| 2 | cloves | garlic, minced |
| 1 | pinch | thyme, dried |
| 1 | pinch | pepper, fresh ground |
| 2 | Tb | oil, olive |
Cut tomatoes in thirds lengthwise, place on cookie sheet covered with parchment paper, sprinkle with sugar, salt and pepper, garlic and thyme. Sprinkle with a drop or two of olive oil. Bake at 250- degrees for 2 1/2 hours.
Note: may be re-heated prior to serving.
This recipe and the menu recipes may be found on our website emealsforyou.com
1 comment March 19, 2008
