cooking @ home

Archive for the ‘Appetizers’ Category

©2008 Harry Kenney

Crostini. A sort of cousin to bruschetta, they mean in Italian “little toasts”. Funny though, the pronunciation sounds much to the English speaking person’s ear as “crust teeny” which would describe them equally well. Now I know I said I was getting away from the Italian food a bit, and I am, but, fact of the matter Italian food is such an integral part of the American food tapestry, I will always end up doing an Italian recipe now and then.

That said, the rest of this is certainly not in any way Italian. I topped it with Muenster cheese, an American cheese with an orange rind, and light texture and taste that is a great melting cheese. And to that I added a sliver of red apple. Supposedly one doesn’t don’t add herbs or spices on it. Hah, silly rabbit! I add a touch of garlic powder — not so much as to make it in any way a garlic bread however. And some dried oregano and basil. Where as for bruschetta I use the thicker wider Italian bread, for this I use the long and skinnier one. A French baguette would have worked just as well. Besides an obviously wonderful appetizer, I find, as I do with many appetizers, they also make great little “sides” accompanying a salad or soup.

  

Crostini with Melted Cheese and Apple
©2008 Harry Kenney

Half loaf of thin-wdith Italian bread or French baguette
olive oil
garlic powder
dried basil
dried oregano
5 oz. muenster cheese (or bree or another soft, mild cheese)
1 apple

Preheat oven to 375°F. Slice the bread very thin. On a parchment lined baking sheet place the 12 or more slices. Drizzle olive oil on one side of the bread than the other. Sprinkle the spices and herbs and place in oven for about 10 minutes until golden brown. Then take out and add a sliver of cheese and one small bit of apple. Two more minutes in the oven and done. Let cool slightly for a few mintues and serve.

What’s a great any-time appetizer and definitely a crowd pleaser? Stuffed mushrooms. Especially now, the “holidays” between Christmas and New Years when family and friends are more apt to come visit.

Want not one but two items that will not only impress guests but both are simple to make, taste delicious and can be done rather quickly? The first is Pancetta Wrapped Shrimp which can be done in under 20 minutes. And (bet you saw this one coming) the second one is stuffed mushrooms which can be made within 30 to 45 minutes.

Portobellos or the smaller ones, lately marketed as “Baby ‘Bellos” are perfect for stuffing. As with many other dishes (meatloafs come to mind) there’s probably a hundred different ways to stuff a mushroom, and this is only one of a handful that I like to make. I was originally intending to do this with bacon bits (real ones, naturally), but having recently purchased a container of finely-diced prosciutto and being undecided what to do with it yet, this lent itself perfectly.

So, spinch and cheese, and now Italian ham. What for a stuffing binder? Could do Italian bread crumbs, but I had still had some ricotta left over from my pie the other day, so that was perfect. Add some grated parmegena to it and little bit of onion for some bite, and wham. Although having mixed it up, even with minched garlic, it was lacking and a tad dull. To the rescue I added two tablespoons of marsala wine which rounded it out nicely and added a needed wetness. Still missing something, I opted for a recent favorite of mine, horseradish sauce. Just a tad. Turned out great.

Funny thing, this particular night I made these there were no guests — I was just in the mood for stuffed mushrooms and didn’t want the package I had in the fridge to wait too much longer and possibly go bad. So for dinner I took the remainer of last night’s fennel salad, some shrimp left over from a couple days ago when I had company over and added the stuffed mushrooms. Plus a couple of thick slices of Italian bread and some White Zinfandel, and voila a very very tasty and slightly different dinner.

Prosciutto, Cheese and Spinach Stuffed Portbellos
©2007 Harry Kenney

1/4 cup finely diced onion
1/2 cup frozen spinach (measured before taking all the water totally out)
1/2 cup ricotta
1/3 cup parmegan
2 oz. finely diced prosciutto (or ham or bacon or pancetta)
2 tbsps minced garlic
1 tbsp horseradish sauce
4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsps dry marsala
salt
pepper

Take off inner mushroom stems if present. Clean off top and sides of bello caps with a moist paper towel and ready. Mix all the other ingredients together in a bowl and mix well with fork.

Spoon mixture into mushroom cap with tablespoon. Now use clean hands to gently press as much as you can into cap. If lots of excess, return to bowl. Some excess, smooth around to form slight mound. Do this to the rest.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place mushrooms on baking sheet face up. Lightly drizzle some olive oil on top and add additional pinches of parmagen. Place in oven for about 25 minutes. Cool slightly and serve hot.

The above is enough stuffing for roughly 8-10 baby portobellos. Mind you, sizes of these have no standard, so it could even be as little as 6 or as many as 12.

I really do get annoyed when my market doesn’t have exactly what I want. Which happens too often actually, but what can you do? You play with the cards your dealt with or you fold or you find another game. I did what I’m often (grrr) having to do, the first. This time it was uncooked shrimp and I wanted them larrrrrrge. Big-butt. Jumbo. Prawn-like. I had to suffer with 31-40s, the only size they had at the moment, and the only ones in the store, and they didn’t even have enough to make a full pound. Sheesh.

What kind of rookie-league outfit were they running here? Why don’t I have a fish monger near me? So you take what you can get. What’s the saying? When life gives you a lemon make lemonade.. Or, with me, it turned out make margaritas!

The dish is so out-of-this world, I think I’m in a mood to do my Emeril impersonation. Bacon-wrapped shrimp? Nice, oh yeah. Let’s take it up a notch. Pancetta-wrapped shrimp. Mmm. Delicious. What? Still another notch, you say? Fine. Let’s get it drunk. Let’s give it margaritas. That’s right, tequila and lime marinated pancetta-wrapped shrimp. Bam!!

Not sure how much I’ve talked about marinades before. If I have, I’ve probably only glanced at it. To be brief, I love what I call quick marinades. Yeah, yeah, I know. A lot of cooks seem to start out by saying “… and place this in the refrigerator for at least eight hours … better yet, overnight”. I dunno about you, but I have nether their kind of patience nor their kind of planning skills. If I’m going to do a pork loin sometime tomorrow evening, the last thing on mind is, let me go defrost it and marinade it right now. Then let me do all that, put it away and still I have to make dinner. Nope, just doesn’t work for me.

And their version of short of 8 or 10 hours? That’s worse! Let me go marinade some chicken while I’m trying to figure out what I want for breakfast. Sorry Charlie, I want a cup of coffee and a danish or an egg, I am not in the mood with playing with frozen-butt raw chicken at nine in the morning. Uh-uh. Ain’t happening!

What does work for me? You guessed it — quick marinades. But Harry, that doesn’t give it enough time, one might say. Fine. It does give it a lot more flavor than if I hadn’t done a thing at all, is my reply and I’m sticking with it. But, says the “purist marinader” (is there such a thing?), you’re breaking all the rules. And I say: hell, yeah. I do what I want to do. And I’ve told you there reading this before: do what works for you. Do what tastes good for you. You don’t want to marinade, don’t. You want to marinade your buns off, hey, stick it in there a month (ok don’t). But do what you think works for you. You don’t always have to listen to whatever one else tells you. And that even goes for me. Ignore what I said. I’ll try not to loose too much sleep over it.

Next: indoor “grilling”. Natch if the weather is great, do this on an outdoor charcoal grill by all means. As this was December in the Northeast, I did it inside on my stove top grill. If you don’t have one, use your grill frying pan (a frying pan with grill lines). If not that, a “stick” frying pan. Huh? You know, the opposite of non-stick, a non-non-stick pan. Cast iron preferably, if not, stainless steel. You will never never never (did I mention never?) get any “grill” action from a coated pan that makes juices in the pan instead of evaporating them. If you’re brave you could use the broiler. But I don’t like the chances of burning up a pound of shrimp, especially wrapped in pancetta. If you want to take the chance though, more power to you.

Another thing I want to touch on …. In a way this particular recipe seems very high-end and gourmet, simply because “shrimp ain’t cheap” and pancetta is even more costly. But think about it a moment. Ok, a pound of 31-40 shrimp was six bucks a pound. The pancetta was five dollars for four ounces. I used some of it in another recipe, leaving me with 12 slices which were halved and used on the shrimp here, about two dozen of them. The left over shrimp we had unwrapped. And this fed two people lunch. (You didn’t really think that was my usual hands and arm in the photos did you?)

Now, tell me outside of McDonalds where can you fed two people lunch for USD $11? So we had an upscale “gourmet” lunch for the price of fast food. Upscale? In one sense, definitely. And yet, if you look at it the other way, pricey? Heck, it’s almost a budget meal when you break it down. Look at it another way, how much would this have cost at a restaurant? I’ve seen six jumbo shrimp wrapped in American bacon go for $12. Pancetta would probably bump that to, what, $18? Now times by two, don’t forget drinks and tips, and we’ll forget about transportation. Anyways, as you see, money well-spent. And this is why you should be cooking at home!

Besides even were it a lot more expensive than it turned out, I’d have still done it and enjoyed it. Why? Harry’s rule: Every now and then you have to treat yourself. You deserve it. And if you can do it with company, all the better.

Pancetta-Wrapped Margarita Shrimp
©2007 Harry Kenney

1 lb uncooked shrimp, “large”, 31-40
4 oz pancetta
salt
pepper
vegetable oil

marinade:

1 cup tequila
2 tbsps fresh lime juice (1/2 lime)

Place shrimp in a ziplock bag or other container with the tequila and lime juice. Place in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Take out. Dump marinade. With paper towels, pat shrimp dry. Leave out to warm up to room temperature five minutes.

Season the dried shrimp. Take pancetta, cut in to even halves. Carefully wrap as many of the shrimp as possible; 4oz pancetta will wrap approximately two dozen shrimp. (No toothpicks to hold. Careful handling and heat will hold all but one or two on.) Preferably use the stove top grill or an uncoated iron or steel pan at medium-high heat. Use vegetable oil or butter-spray to coat surface. Place on grill or pan with plenty of space to turn. About three minutes on each side. Serve.

If this is the only food, it makes a nice lunch for two. Goes with red or white wine or beer or margaritas. Fresh cut loaf of bread on the side would be great. With other appetizers or sides etc, can serve more. Double or triple this recipe easily for upscale party snacks.

You can substitute bacon but if you do and with shrimp at this size, should be thin sliced. If larger shrimp you can use bacon at the normal thickness, cut it into thirds or quarters instead of halves, and figure one additional minute for each side in grilling time.

Gourmet and gourmet food. Exactly what do these mean? And I am not talking about people who are “gourmets”, which by the way, is actually supposed to be “gourmands”, and either way (truthfully or not) seem to equate with snobbery. No, what makes something gourmet cooking or gourmet food?

The definition it seems nearly everyone uses is the same: “gourmet food is of the highest quality and flavor, prepared well and presented in an artful manner”. A three year old discussion on a forum a person, saying the thinks there should be more, posts: “I have had some of the best meals at non-’gourmet’ venues and some of the worst at ‘gourmet’-venues.”

Kate the global gourmet thinks likewise: “Personally, I think it’s important to keep in mind that ‘quality’ is the operating term here. I have had many a meal in fancy 3-star restaurants that I would not consider gourmet—the ingredients were tired, the flavors overwhelming and presentation in the form of skyscraping towers entirely overdone. For me, a simple dinner of a roast chicken, fresh vegetables and fruit and cheese for dessert can be the epitome of a gourmet meal—but only if the ingredients are of high quality and cooked properly.”

Which brings me around to what I think. I think the word is changing and evolving and becoming less “snooty”. I basically agree with the two people I quoted above on what they say. I think though it goes further … especially with food. I think if something is difficult to find or to procure or is expensive, that that often makes something “gourmet”. For instance, if you rarely eat duck or quail or frogs legs, then having them is for you a more gourmet meal.

Building on this, if I’m cooking with something that is available to me, and most people I know around me have never had it, it too is possibly gourmet (though, yes, it might just be unusual in the Anthony “I’ll Eat Anything” Bourdain style of things.) If I have something that is plentiful around me, and others too can easily get their hands on it, and it’s not expensive, yet because of either true or perceived difficult, people do not buy nor cook nor eat it much, that too might be gourmet.

The reason I am “going here”, you see, is I think this particular meal is somewhat “gourmet-ish” if that were an actual word. Chorizo (a spicy Spanish sausage) I finally found after a lot of looking. Now I’m betting a lot of people seeing it in the meat case at the market would pass it up though, maybe for simply not knowing what it was, and not wanting to try it. Meanwhile, while there were dozens upon dozens of butternut squashes at the market, I’m betting you would not see one in everyone’s shopping cart. In fact, I’d bet the number of people who might buy one to be a ratio of one against something with three zeroes, 1:100 or maybe 1:250 or 1:500, I can’t say which, but I’m betting the number comes out to less than 1 percent. And why? Because of difficulty and/or unfamiliarity.

Another thing about the term “gourmet”. And this has to do also with it’s opening up and evolving. Forty years ago a perfectly delicious meal cooked at home would not be called gourmet; in fact it would be ignored by nearly all chefs. Then about 20 years ago I started hearing the term “peasant food” used by chefs. It suggested that everything from hunter’s stew to a mixed fried rice, food of the poor or the peasants, historically — but weren’t they also suggesting the middle class of today I always suspected — came on the map. Today the terms are “comfort foods” and regional or local fare and this once overlooked field of poor man’s cooking or everyday cooking, is covered by everyone to some degree even if upscaled. For example, chefs Mario Batali and Lydia Bastianich co-own an upscale pizzeria in Manhattan. You would not have seen that twenty years ago, and never forty years ago, not by nationally and internationally known chefs, no way. Imagine Julia Child opening up an upscaled KFC! And just last week I saw Robert Irvine cook for the crew at Pixar; among items served was oxtails. These are what I’m talking about in terms of the evolution of what gourmet food means today.

So what brought these thoughts to mind, as said, is that in some ways I consider this recipe here to be “gourmet”. In part because chorizo is so hard to find and is regional to Spain and because the butternut squash, while cheaper and more plentiful, is often passed by as being too difficult or mysterious. In another way though, I sorta want to toss the whole “gourmet” word out the window, and say it comes down to good food — a perfect pizza slice or a beef wellington, a BBQ pork rib or coq au vin, an Italian merlot or a cold pint of Yuengling. Is it good? Really, really good? Do you like it? Do you absolutely love it? Would you have it again and again? To me that is the new gourmet.

With that discussion aside, do check out my recent article on Peeling and Cutting a Butternut Squash, if you haven’t already done so, before trying this recipe. Also, you can leave the rice and chorizo out of this dish if you want a simpler and more silky dish (or just a vegetarian one); obviously I wanted something more rustic and meaty and chunky. And finally, while they aren’t the same, if you want to substitute chorizo, I would suggest, in order: hot Italian sausage or smoked kabasa and add a healthy amount of paprika while cooking it.

Butternut Squash Soup with Chorizo and Rice

1 medium squash, peeled, deseeded, cut into 1 inch cubes
9 oz chorizo sausage, cooked, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

(mirepoix)
1 medium red onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 celery stalk, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 one large carrot, chopped (about 1/2 cup)

1 cup cooked white long-grain rice (or your favorite rice)
32 oz. chicken stock
1 cup dry or slightly-sweet white wine
1/2 pint half-and-half
2 tbsps butter (not margarine)(optional)

salt
pepper
nutmeg
garlic
thyme
olive oil

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place cubed squash on baking sheet, drizzle with oil, mix around to make sure completely covered. Sprinkle on spices listed, go light on the garlic powder and the nutmeg, and heavier on the thyme. Sprinkle a bit more oil on top and once again, mix and turn to ensure coverage. Place in oven for 35-50 minutes until softened and slightly browned on bottom side. Let cool somewhat.

While the squash cubes are roasting, if you haven’t premade your rice, make it now. Ditto cooking the chorizo sausage. Place your mirepoix in a saucepan with oil and sweat for about 10 minutes. When mirepoix and squash are finished, place both in food processor. (Note, I will often save 10 percent of the squash chunks to put in separately later). Then add two cups of chicken broth into processor, puree, then the third, then the fourth cup.

Dump all back in the pot. Place on medium heat. Add half-and-half, wine, rice and chorizo chunks (and reserved squash chunks if you’ve done so) and stir to mix well. Add seasonings listed above to this as desired. Mix well for a few minutes over medium heat. You may optionally place butter in at this point to give a more velvety sheen to the soup. Serve. Makes 4-6 servings.

This soup is extremely rich. If you need to “cut” the taste further to your liking, use an extra cup of milk first; if you feel the need to thin it out more, then use an additional cup of water. Would serve with a salad to offset the taste if part of the main meal. Naturally this also serves as an excellent first-course appetizer.

If you desire, you can alter this by leaving out the chorizo and rice and no reserved squash chunks if you want a silkier and/or a vegetarian soup; if you do this you will probably need less liquid and so adjust by using less or no wine, or less chicken stock to offset the fewer ingredients.

This was one of the items I had listed last month in my article “Food Terms You Keep Hearing About“. There I said, “In which bread is toasted, raw garlic is rubbed into it, then olive oil is drizzled on top. Now for some folks that is the complete definition, and it stops there. For myself and others it is not complete until the above is topped with a chopped tomato, garlic, basil and olive oil salsa. Mmm. (Toss some slices of very fresh mozzarella on top for the ultimate.) Until it’s got the topping, to me it’s not a true bruschetta. This is one of the best appetizer’s in the world as far as I’m concerned.”

When I went to the local supermarket the day before a recent party to pick up a freshly baked loaf of Italian bread, I found it was all old and none had been made that day. On top of which, instead of being long and having some width to it, whoever had made all the long loafs made it in my opinion way too thin, more like baguettes — which would be wonderful were I recipe-wise going to Paris, but I was aiming closer to Rome, (And this was supposedly Italian bread, remember.)

So I perused the shelves for something else, and happily came upon a shorter, fatter oval Italian bread. Not only that, it was made with sun dried tomatoes. And it was made within the last six hours, that would make it perfect for tomorrow’s party, a little body, but still what I consider to be fresh.

In fact, check out the photos of the sliced bread, big, wide pieces. That long skinny kind they had would have been about a third the size, “cocktail” cracker almost — not what you want, you want to serve the big meaty, “this is something I can dig into” slice of Italian bread you see there.

Tangent warning: Some other day I’ll figure out why day old is considered stale and why bakeries all like to keep their bread in the air to hasten the staleness, whereas I head home and wrap it up in plastic and alumninum foil and it lasts and tastes fresh for several days. Also for another day, how many ways — there seems to be about a dozen — in which people will pronounce bruschetta. (The two major ones being bru-shet-ta or bru-sket-ta. I often say the former, though there seems to be more of a conscientious as time goes on that the latter is most correct).

At the recent part, I served near it a separate plate of cut fresh mozzarella with some cherry tomaotes on the side. And next to that a plat with two different olives. As I suspected, half the guests grabbed the garlic bread, put on the tomato mixture and added a slice of the cheese on top. So there’s a tip for you. When you can offer some complimentary elements, and folks can mix and match (or not) as they want. I’ve even included a couple of photos of those here below (that I actually took for a “menu” or “meals” page section I’ll be adding in the near future.)

I have to mention, I put the food out on the table, went for my camera which was nearby, came back quickly, and already parts of the food presentation were gone. So, sorry I couldn’t get full shots of the all of the food in my photographs; hard to fault my guests for grabbing the food so fast off the plates! Anyways, this is such a delightful appetizer and so simple easy to make it’s ridiculous. Grab a glass of Chianti or Merlot or Pinot Noir with this and nosh away!

     

Bruschetta
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

garlic bread, bakery fresh (that morning up to a day old)

diced tomatoes. canned are preferred to fresh
fresh garlic, two to three cloves, sliced thin
fresh basil, chopped

salt
pepper
olive oil

Preheat the oven at 350°F. Slice the Italian bread load thickly. Assemble on baking sheet and drizzle olive oil along the tops. Place in over for 7-12 minutes. You want a golden brown. Crispy but in no way hard, just a little crunch.

Meanwhile in a bowl place tomatoes, add basil, garlic, salt, pepper and a tablespoon of olive oil, mix together.

Take out bread from oven. Once toast is cooled enough to work with (as soon as you can) rub a clove of garlic across the top of each one many times. Pretend as though you are grating something. The warm heat of the toast and the movement will get the garlic on the toast. (I did this, but then knowing my guests wouldn’t mind very garlicky bread I also got a jar of minced garlic out and put a tiny bit of that on each as well.)

Make a nice presentation and serve to your guests, garnishing with basil leaves. Later you can place it back on the cookie sheet with oven on low and serve again if it gets cold. If necessary, re-warm in oven at 170-200°F (or “warm” or “low” setting). Or make some more.

The amount of people it will serve varies greatly due to size of bread, slicing, etc. If you’ve made 10 slices, that could be five to 10 people depending. Sauce should be enough for ten people with some left over. You might want to add fresh sliced mozzarella on the side too.