THE ART OF APPETIZERS

The Art of Appetizers

          Thanksgiving being the official kick-off start of the Holiday season brings many of us to the perennial dilemma of interesting appetizers for all those holiday gatherings. No matter whether the gathering is a family dinner, a casual gathering of friends or an elegant cocktail party, the expectations of those gathering lean toward some sort of nibbles with their beverage of choice.

          Crackers, cheese, a vegetable tray and some nuts have become almost ‘de rigeur’ for most gatherings. However, any host or hostess will welcome with open arms anyone offering to bring a different and interesting appetizer. And sometimes, in the role of hosting a gathering it is worth the extra effort to come up with something different. The visual or artistic appeal of the appetizers tray can even set the tone of the gathering.

          And yet, it is our busy season. Unfortunately my favorite French cheese puffs,  Gougères are quite time consuming requiring gently cooked dough whipped with eggs and Gruyère and subsequent 30 minute baking. Fortunately, frozen puff pastry is generally available and can be a real time saver for elegant appetizers.

                   Prosciutto and Assiago rolls

          Thaw 1 sheet ( ½ package) of frozen puff pastry, lay flat on a board and cut in half forming two 9.5 x 4.75 inch rectangles.  Lay 2oz. prosciutto on each half or the pastry leaving ½ inch border free on the long side. Sprinkle with ¼ cup freshly grated aged Assiago cheese. Brush  the free edge with  egg and starting at the opposite side roll each pastry lengthwise in a tight roll gently sealing the edges. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. To bake, slice each log in ½ inch rounds and place on parchment lined pans an inch apart. Bake in a 400 degree oven 15-17 minutes until lightly browned. Serve warm.

                             Parmesan and oregano cheese straws

          The other half package of the thawed puff pastry can be used immediately to prepare cheese straws. Again, cut pastry in half, brush one half with beaten egg, spread ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, sprinkle with some oregano and finely chopped parsley. Lay the other half of the pastry sheet on top and seal the two together with a rolling pin. Cut the pastry with a sharp knife in ½ inch strips crosswise. Twist each strip several times and lay on a parchment lined pan, pushing down the ends to keep the strips from untwisting. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. When cool, remove gently from pan and keep airtight until serving. Good as appetizers, but also great as an aside with soups.

 

          Warm appetizers are always elegant, but inconvenient if need to be baked the last minute or taken as a contribution to a festive gathering. The local deli, supermarket or specialty shop provide ready made ingredients for a visually pleasing and tasty appetizer tray with help of toothpicks, 3 inch wooden skewers and imagination. Recently I assembled one such tray with: 1 inch cubes of melon wrapped with prosciutto; thin slices of salami wrapped around a pickled string bean; skewers with small fresh mozzarella balls and cherry tomatoes; pickled mushrooms paired with cheese or tiny tomatoes; all with decorative application of black and green olives as well as extra pickled green beans. The variety was colorful and visually pleasing as well as delicious.

          Amazingly, last minute ‘bruschetta’ can be achieved from any variety of items in a well stocked refrigerator. Sliced bread squares , brushed with oil and lightly toasted, need only a bit of chopped tomato mixed with a dash or oregano and a minced clove of garlic and crumbled feta or other cheese to become bruschetta when heated briefly under a broiler.  

          Imagination is a wonderful and colorful inspiration for many visually and delicious appetizers.

(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: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)

APPLE TIME

 

APPLE TIME

          Food festivals abound at this time of the year; from pumpkins to oysters to apples, but the tastiest and most versatile of all these fall delights for the home cook must be apples. Orchards and farmer’s markets sport baskets of uncommon as well as the more familiar varieties of those shiny globes. It is no wonder they have inspired the old  clichés: such as being someone’s “apple of his/her eye” or the quintessential saying about “motherhood and apple pie”.

          The tart and sweet flavor of a juicy fresh apple is a joy in itself, but apples are also wonderfully adapted to complement a variety of foods from salads to soups such as pumpkin and squash. Shredded apples can brighten up morning pancakes or muffins. Fried apples make a wonderful accompaniment to a pork roast or even turkey. Still, we mostly tend to think of apples for desert, where their uses are only limited by the cook’s imagination.

          Apple pie and apple crunch currently seem to be most popular apple deserts, but there are also less caloric and simpler ways to make apple deserts.

                             Baked apples

          Cut a ¼ inch slice from blossom-end of 6 baking apples such as Winesap, Cortland. Braeburn, Honeycrisp or other firm apple. Carefully hallow out the core leaving a hole in each apple and set in a baking pan with 1 ½ inch sides. Fill holes with some seedless raisins, chopped walnuts or pecans and ½ cup sugar mixed with ½ tsp. cinnamon. Pour enough water or cider in the pan to about ½ inch depth and bake the apples in a 350 degree oven for 45 – 60 minutes, until easily pierced with a fork. Serve warm or at room temperature.

                             Fried apples

           These can be used as accompaniment to meat or as a basis for a quick desert. Cut 4-6 tart flavorful un-pared apples in quarters, quickly core and slice in 2 or 3 lengthwise slices. Melt 2-3 tblsp. butter in in heavy 10 inch skillet and cook apples gently before they discolor for 4 minutes. Turn apple slices over with a pancake turner and sprinkle with ¼  cup sugar. Cover, reduce heat and cook for 1-2 more minutes until sugar is absorbed and underside is lightly brown. For desert, sprinkle with an additional ¼ cup sugar, ½ tsp. cardamom and ¼ tsp. cinnamon. If serve for desert, a scoop of ice cream or some whipped cream make this dish especially festive.

                             Apple brown Betty

          This is an old fashioned desert that seems to have gone out of style, but is easy, quick and delicious when made with apple cider.

Butter or spray with baking spray a 9x9x2 inch baking dish. Lightly toast 6 slices of several days old bread and pull into bite size pieces and drizzle with ¼ cup melted butter, toss well and place 1/3 of the bread in the prepared pan. Cover with 3 cups of cored and thinly sliced apples Mix ½ cup white or brown sugar with ½ tsp. cinnamon and spread ½ over the apples. Cover with 1/3 of the crumbs, another 3 cups of sliced apples, the rest of the sugar and the last 1/3 of the bread. Drizzle with ½ cup cider, cover tightly with foil and bake at 400 degrees of 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 10 minutes until the top is browned and crisp. Serve warm or at room temperature with or without whipped cream.

                             Apple Pandowdy

          This old-time desert with an intriguing name is an adaptation from “The Modern (1955) Encyclopedia of Cooking” by Meta Givens and has served us well for many years. Butter or spray with baking spray an 8x8x2 inch baking pan and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Unless the apple skins are though, just core 4-5 medium tart cooking apples and coarsely shred in the prepared baking pan, spreading uniformly over the bottom. Sift a ¼ tsp. salt over the apples to prevent discoloration and sprinkle with ½ cup white sugar mixed with ¼ tsp. nutmeg. Cover and place in oven for 10 minutes while preparing the cottage pudding. Cottage pudding: Sift together 1 ¾ cups flour with 2 tsp. baking powder  ¼ tsp. salt, ¼ tsp. baking soda. In a bowl cream 1/3 cup soft butter with 2/3 cups sugar, ½  tsp. vanilla, ½  tsp. lemon extract and beat in 1 egg until fluffy. Add flour and 1 cup buttermilk alternately in 3 or 4 portions. End with flour and beat batter until smooth. Assemble: top apples from oven with 1/3 cup dried currants (optional) and spread the Cottage pudding mix evenly on top. Bake 30 to 35 minutes until the pudding tests done with an inserted toothpick. Cool on cake rack, then loosen the sides with a knife and invert cake on a serving plate.

          Old time cookbooks have some rather literal imaginative names for other apple deserts, such as Apple Grunt.  Interestingly, there are none that imply ‘moderation’ in eating .

         

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)

HARVEST IMPROVISATIONS

Harvest Improvisations

            The pleasure of the successful garden harvest invariably comes with a challenge. Now that you have all this beautiful produce making your kitchen counters look like a veritable farmer’s market – what next? Your daily meals become the envy of every health dietitian in the country, but bountiful harvests are just that, bountiful.

While the onions, potatoes, carrots, winter squash and beets will keep in a cool place, there are other more perishable items that require some ingenuity and creativeness to use them in a timely manner before they spoil. Sharing with friends who do not garden is a solution, tomatoes can be made in a delicious sauce and some vegetables can be easily frozen.

Real challenges come with cucumbers, zucchini and eggplant that do not freeze well. Hence my recent improvisations with these vegetables. The first challenge came a couple of weeks ago, when our neighbor Connie, having heard of my sparse cucumber crop, arrived with a dishpan of cucumbers to share in case I wanted to make more pickles. Some went to the pickle jar, but some of the larger ones led to the creation of this delicious cucumber soup.

                        White cucumber gazpacho

Peel 3 large cucumbers in strips, leaving some of the rind intact, halve in lengthwise, remove the seeds if cucumbers are mature and cut in large chunks. In a 3 qt. pot sauté 1 roughly chopped medium onion and 1 stalk celery in 1 tblsp. olive oil for 5 minutes. Stir in 2 minced garlic cloves and after 1 minute add 3 cups chicken broth. Bring to boil; add 1 peeled diced potato and the cucumber pieces. Continue to cook for 15 minutes, adding ¼ cup each chopped Italian parsley and celery tops during the last 5 minutes of cooking. Allow to cool and purée the mixture in a blender with 2 tblsp. white vinegar and 1 -2 cups plain yoghurt. Remove to a bowl and stir in 1 diced medium red or orange seeded pepper, 1 cup diced tomato, 1 unpeeled small young cucumber diced and 3 thinly sliced scallions with their green tops. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper to taste. Serve cold or room temperature. It will keep refrigerated for a couple of days.

Zucchini tends to be the yearly but of gardener’s jokes, but it is really quite versatile and can be included in many dishes, since like grits, it tends to adopt the taste of the surrounding food. Here is a zucchini-eggplant parmesan bake, where zucchini provides some of the texture of the dish, often absent in eggplant parmesan.

                        Zucchini-eggplant parmesan

In a shallow bowl mix 1 beaten egg with 1 tblsp. water, ½ tsp salt and 2 tblsp. flour. (Use rice flour for a gluten free meal) Peel and slice two small eggplants in ½ inch slices. Dip the slices on both sides in the mixture and fry in 2 tbsp, olive oil a few minutes to a side until slightly browned. Set aside. Slice 1 medium zucchini in 1/3 inch slices, dip in egg batter on each side and fry in 1 tblsp. oil as the eggplant. Have ready: 1 ½ cups flavorful spaghetti sauce, ¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, 1 cup grated mozzarella and 4-5 oz. sliced Provolone.  To assemble: spray an 8 x 8 inch baking pan with cooking spray, spread 2 tblsp. of sauce on the bottom, layer half of the eggplant, sprinkle with 1/3 of Parmesan and Mozzarella; spread a little sauce and follow with a layer of zucchini, and the two cheeses and sauce. Top with the remaining eggplant, cheeses, sauce and spread a single layer of sliced Provolone on top. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes until bubbly and the top layer is slightly browned. Serve warm and can be easily reheated.

Our peach tree, as predicted from the pink cloud of blossoms in the spring, overproduced. Peach crumble, pie, conserves, pancakes and scores of friends made some inroads on this fragrant bounty, but there was more. Freezing peaches leaves them rather unappetizing. But it is easy to preserve this delicious fruit in the form of Refrigerator ‘Canned’ Peaches.

            Spiced refrigerator ‘canned’ peaches

For this you need on hand: pint sized canning jars with new lids, whole cloves, allspice, fresh ginger (optional), freestone peaches and light syrup. Light syrup: 2 cups water, 1 cup sugar, 1 inch piece of ginger sliced thin and 1 Tblsp. lemon juice, heated until sugar is dissolved. Most peaches need to be blanched, immersed in boiling water for 5-10 seconds, for the skin to easily peel. Blanch peaches, remove with a slotted spoon from water, halve, slip off the skin and drop in 2 cups water with 2 tblsp. lemon juice to prevent discoloration. Heat light syrup to boiling and drop peeled peaches in small batches in syrup to cook for 3 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon and pack in clean jars. To each full jar add:4 whole cloves, 4 allspice and pour boiling syrup on top within ¼ inch of the rim. Seal tightly with dome lid, which will pull a vacuum when cool. Store in refrigerator, where it will keep for several months. This makes a wonderful ready made desert with blueberry jam, whipped cream or ice cream.

Thinking ‘out of the box’ can apply to food as well as other matters. But, challenges and improvisations that lead to delicious results can be doubly appreciated.

Ilga Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)