APPETIZERS FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON

 

                        Appetizers for the holiday season

 

          Each year we find the days after Thanksgiving until the New Year filled with anticipation and joy of seeing family, friends, coworkers and neighbors in friendly gatherings with good cheer. Tradition and good taste demands that they include good food and libations of choice. Catering services flourish in December but the thrifty home cook can come up with delicious home alternatives that don’t break the bank and are relatively easy to prepare.

A vegetable tray with dip, cheese and crackers or a shrimp ring with cocktail sauce immediately come to mind. Equally easy are open-faced mini sandwich treats with smoked salmon or shrimp. 

                                               Smoked salmon on cocktail rye

Spread cocktail rye (or crostini, or thin slices of a French baguette) with cream cheese. Arrange on top a thin piece of smoked salmon, small red onion rings and capers. Decorate with small segments of a dill pickle. For shrimp mini sandwiches omit the onion and top with slivers of pimento and capers.

 

                                       Magical garlic-herb Boursin

Herbed Boursin, originally developed by François Boursin, a Normandy cheesemaker in 1957, is the miracle ingredient that makes a variety of delectable appetizers for any time of the year, and is especially useful because of its versatility during the holidays. Cows milk Boursin is a fresh cheese blended with cream, herbs and garlic, slightly crumbly in texture and still spreadable on crackers, vegetables or even grapes with tasty results. The assortment in the picture shows mini-pepper halves stuffed with Boursin and crackers topped with Boursin and a dab of tomato jam. My old Craig Clairborne cookbook had appetizers made of grapes stuffed with cream cheese. Updating the recipe with Boursin and very large green grapes yielded a tasty bite with complex flavors that sent everyone for seconds.

There are of course many other intricate baked appetizers. Recently I noticed that many food magazines have re-discovered Gougère. They are French Choux pastry or French cheese puffs that make wonderful light appetizers. They are relatively easy to make with crusty outside and a bit hollow and soft on the inside. This is my recipe from Craig Clairborne, NY Times Cookbook that I have made for many years.

                                                                   Gougère

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and line your pans with parchment. Finely grate 1 and ½ cup Gruyère cheese (do not use pre-grated cheese because of coarseness and additives).  Pour 1 cup water in a medium saucepan, add 6 tbsp. unsalted butter, 1 tsp. salt and 1/8 tsp. peeper. Bring to boil and add 1 cup of sifted flour all at once with stirring. Set heat to medium and continue stirring until the dough forms a ball and leaves sides of the saucepan. Set aside from stove for 2 minutes and then beat in 4 eggs, one at a time and ¼ tsp. nutmeg. Set aside 2 tbsp. of the cheese and stir the rest into the dough mixing thoroughly.

Place rounded tablespoons of the dough on prepared pans, sprinkle with the reserved cheese and bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes and serve warm. Gougère can be reheated at 350 degrees for 7 minutes. 

These would be wonderful for New Years Eve served with Kir Royale (chilled champagne with a dash of crème de cassis).                           

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in coastal Maine and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day…”and “Uncharted Journey from Riga”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)