Have any great appetizers lately?

[Jenise]

Our neighborhood wine tasting is tonight, and everybody brings a dish. I usually strive to bring something upscale and substantial in the finger food arena (no fondues, no dips) that doesn't require two hands to self-serve, which is a great convenience to people circling the appie table with a plate in the other hand. It needs to feed quite a few--tonight we have a record crowd of 67 people signed up for Beaujolais. And I don't have all day to cook.

I was going to make duck rillettes but forgot to leave the duck out to thaw overnight. And my head is otherwise completely and totally empty--over the last five years of cooking for this crowd I've done everything in my repertoire and then some.

Anyone have any recent party experience with a cool dish that would be perfect for this event tonight? Note that there is a stove and three ovens in the clubhouse, so I do have the ability to broil-off previously made foods that should be served hot.

Well, unfortunately the one I had a couple of nights ago that I really liked was a fondue. It was fontina with dried cherries and slivered almonds, served with bread and apples. Another one that I really liked was a hollowed out egg shell filled with a savory flan on the bottom and a ratatouille-sort-of-thing on top. The flan had an amazing consistency, almost as if it had been whipped up. The egg was served on a bed of arugula with a garlicky dressing. Very nice.

Of course, none of this really sounds like what you're looking for, but....

Earlier in the month I had some friends over for dinner and one of the appetizers I made were dry packed diver scallops stuffed with braised beef short rib meat. Not sure if you would have time to shop and prepare that at this late time though.

The stuffed scallops received rave reviews. One suggestion from the group though was to add mushrooms to the braised beef stuffing next time. Now that I am fondly recalling the scallops I think I am going to run out to the store and pick some up for tonight. Perhaps making them with risotto.

Be sure to let us know what you decide on making.

[Jenise]

Mike, you're right, those aren't quite the dry finger food this event calls for. Ditto Dave's scallops, though otherwise those sound quite intriguing--would never have thought to pair beef with scallop. Dave, did you slice each scallop in two and put the filling in the middle?

Re my own progress on my own behalf, I found one idea I like on some site devoted to southern food. The recipe has bulk breakfast sausage, grated cheddar, chopped apples and celery all rolled up in biscuit dough and formed into little balls and baked off. I think the combination is just a bit crude, but the concept (and as a match for Bojo) really works in my head. With some refinement (gruyere or gouda in place of cheddar, and the addition of some herbs, plus pre-sauteeing the celery), they should be ideal. I also like that I can bake them at the Clubhouse and serve them hot out of the oven during the initial standing-around part of the evening (where typically no food is served) instead of leaving them for the later help-yourself part of food service. This way I'm serving my dish at optimal freshness, and the throng is always grateful for the early snack.

I've made variations of these several times for our wine group. They always go over extremely well and they can be tailored to match with different varieties of wine. The recipe was requested so often that I finally wrote one out. Some of the people don't cook very often so I was pretty specific with my instructions. You can overlook things like how to carmelize onions! The last one I made with ground veal and porcinis.

Carrie’s Pita Pizzas

These pizza's are pretty simple and the ingredients are very flexible.

4 whole pita pockets
¼ cup olive oil
2 heads garlic
2 duck legs
1 cup shredded Fontina cheese
1 cup of chopped fresh arugula

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Salt and pepper duck legs and roast for about an hour and a half until meat is shred-able. (You may want to make an extra one to eat. They are so good. Be sure the skin gets crispy.)
At the same time, cut the heads of garlic in half (leave intact). Set into some foil, drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Wrap the foil up around it a bit (not completely enclosed) and bake along with the duck until soft to the touch.

Squeeze the garlic into the olive oil, and mash with a fork until it forms kind of a paste. Cool and shred the duck. I didn't use the skin, tempting as it was.
Split the pitas by cutting around the edge with a scissors. Open them carefully. Put them "cut" side up on a cookie sheet or pizza pan.
Spread each piece of bread with a generous amount of garlic mixture.
Toss together the cheese and the shredded duck. Spread on top of garlic mixture. Bake in 425 degree oven for about 10 minutes. You want them to get very crispy.

Take them out, use a large, sharp knife to cut into wedges. Either four or eight per "pizza." I usually cut into eight to make them more “bite” sized. Move to a platter, sprinkle with arugula and serve.

Other combinations:
-Replace garlic with carmelized onions (just cook sliced onions on the stovetop in some olive oil over medium heat until very soft.)
-Replace duck with slivers of prociutto, pancetta, or rotisserie chicken.
-Or, saute’ three Italian sausages (casings removed) with two pkgs of mushrooms (any combination) with five minced garlic cloves and a little olive oil and about a tablespoon of fresh rosemary. Top the pita bread halves with a combination of fresh mozzarella and sausage.


The possibilities are endless. Experiment with different cheeses, herbs, etc.

These are very good:

Crostini with Gorgonzola, Caramelized Onions, and Fig Jam

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recip ... _id=549706

As are these:

Spicy Shrimp Rémoulade on Molasses-Buttered Toast

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/ ... ast-232365

Mini-blimis topped with creme fraiche and caviar. If caviar is too dear (which well it may be) salmon eggs


Best
Rogov

[Jenise]

I've made variations of these several times for our wine group. They always go over extremely well and they can be tailored to match with different varieties of wine. The recipe was requested so often that I finally wrote one out. Some of the people don't cook very often so I was pretty specific with my instructions. You can overlook things like how to carmelize onions! The last one I made with ground veal and porcinis.

Fantastic idea. Too late for me and Friday, but something I'll pull off in the near future for this crowd. In the meantime, your suggestion still came in handy: I just made a version of this for breakfast, as I was in possession of some really exceptional whole wheat pitas from an organic bakery near Seattle and no particular plan for breakfast. These pitas cupped so nicely I decided not to split them, but use the cavity to hold a slice of American cheese (love the stuff, so sue me) plus sliced avocado, a sprinkle of dried oregano and shaved parmesan. Those went into the toaster just like that. Bob's was topped with a fried egg after they came out of the toaster, and he hasn't stopped talking about it since. He LOVED it.

Btw, the sausage/apple things I did make? AWFUL. Servable--but to my tastes very sub-par. Which I'm almost ashamed to admit because I can generally tell a bad recipe upon reading it and fix anything that isn't working before it goes final. But not this time.

Jenise, your breakfast sounded delicious. Bob's was amost like a California Benedict. Yum.
Too bad about your appetizer. What about it wasn't too your liking? It sounded good to me in theory also.
They actually reminded me a little bit of something an old friend used to make. Wish I had gotten the recipe from her before we lost touch. She mixed shredded roast chicken (or turkey) with stuffing mix then maybe added an egg or two to get it all to hold together, (there may have been other stuff in there) rolled them into bit sized balls and baked them. I don't remember if put any kind of dip with them, but I think a dish of the whole fruit cranberry sauce, maybe thinned out with something as a dip would be great. Kind of a fun holiday appie.

[Robin Garr]

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Sorry this is too late, Jenise, but I had an incredible appetizer Saturday night at Napa River Grill, an upcale "California-bistro" style eatery in Louisville that recently moved to larger quarters. It was a thin, crisp cone of deep-fried wonton wrapper stuffed full with neatly diced sushi-quality ahi tuna dusted with white and black sesame seeds, plated on a variety of long, julienned vegetables and a few ramen noodles dressed with a vinaigrette that, at a guess, was an emulsion of rice-wine vinegar, sesame oil and Chinese mustard. Amazing flavors and textures, frankly one of the best appetizers I've ever had anywhere ... 14 bucks at the restaurant, a very fair price considering the amount of expensive tuna in it; and it wouldn't be that hard to replicate at home.

Made some chipotle meatballs for my Pigskin, Pork and pinot/syrah fest on Sunday. They were a huge hit. Ground veal, ground pork, bacon, cumin, chipotle pepper in adobo...superb.

Sounds great Tony and welcome to FLDG!

Sounds great Tony and welcome to FLDG!

Thanks. I'll post the rest of the menu and maybe some pictures later.

Sounds great Tony and welcome to FLDG!

Thanks. I'll post the rest of the menu and maybe some pictures later.

I hope you will because I host plenty of football parties and am always on the lookout for new food ideas. If you post specific recipes be sure to preface the subject line with the letters "RCP" so your recipe is saved in our recipe archive.