Sparkling Passion

Hello Everyone and Happy Holidays! In honor of the holiday season I’m offering up a cocktail with a little fizz, just perfect for New Year’s Eve (or anytime for that matter!)
Simply add one part vodka to one part passion fruit juice and shake over ice. Pour into a cocktail glass leaving a bit of room. Top off with some champagne, just enough to get it a little fizzy. We added a raspberry for decoration.

This brand, Ceres, makes a nice passion fruit juice and is what I would recommend the most. If you can’t find this a good substitute would be Dole juices Paradise Blend, but I would add less juice since this one is sweeter and more concentrated. You can find it with other refrigerated juices.

If you don't have cocktail glasses a champagne flute would work as well.

I’m going to attempt individual Beef Wellingtons for New Year’s Eve. Obviously, I won’t be able to post them before NYE but if they come out nicely I'll put them up here and perhaps they’d be good for Valentine’s Day.

ENJOY!!

Elegant Yet Easy Hors d’Oeurves

As the holiday season gets into full swing I thought it would be fun to post some ideas for finger food to serve at parties. All of these are fairly simple but have a certain “wow” factor and definitely match up well with a glass of bubbly.

Smoked Salmon Toasts

Toast white bread, let cool and then spread generously with softened unsalted butter. Trim off the crusts and then cut into your preferred shape. For the ones pictured I cut the toast into four squares and then diagonally to get 8 small triangles out of each slice. Pick and put a piece of dill on each one, sticking it to the butter and placing it so it hangs a bit over the edge. For each slice of salmon cut lengthwise in a way to make a long triangle. Roll the piece of salmon up starting with the thicker side to form the middle of the “rose” and the thinnest to make the outer “petals”. Stick the rose to the toast. I would not make these too far ahead, maybe no more than a few hours. If you do make them ahead the way to keep them fresh and from drying out moisten paper towel with cool water and wring it out well, then place it very gently over top.

Pate with Red Wine Onion Jam

To make red wine onion jam, thinly slice up an onion and sauté in butter over medium heat. You want the onions to cook slowly and get soft, not brown and crunchy as happens when you cook them quickly on high heat. When they are getting pretty soft add in two tablespoons of sugar and continue cooking letting the sugar melt and help to caramelize the onion, then add in ½ cup of red wine. Let this all boil and reduce until most of the liquid is gone. Remove and let cool in the refrigerator.
Purchase a mousse type liver pate. Follow the same directions for the toast as in the Smoked Salmon Toasts except that you might want to cut them so that they are slightly larger. I did quarters. Working with well chilled pate (you want it to be easy to cut and if it’s too warm it will get soft) slice small pieces and place on the toasts. Top with a small amount of the red wine onion jam.

Roasted Asparagus with Lemon Aioli or Roasted Asparagus with Parmesan

This is a super simple way to cook asparagus that is good as a side dish also. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. On a baking sheet drizzle some olive oil and salt and pepper the pan, if you are doing the parmesan version add a clove of garlic put through a press. Place the raw asparagus on the pan and roll back and forth to coat the asparagus, if you are doing the parmesan version then sprinkle the cheese over them now. Place in the oven. Check them after 10 minutes and begin keeping an eye on them, when they are close to done you can stick them under the broiler to get some nice brown color. These can be done far ahead and should be served at room temperature. If you made the parmesan version then just serve them as is. For the lemon aioli one make the sauce by combining lemon juice, mayo, and lemon zest. Grate some more lemon zest over the top of the asparagus for decoration and flavor.

Roasted Fennel Bulb with Parmesan and Olives

Slice up a couple fennel bulbs saving and setting aside the stems and fronds. Follow the same instructions as the asparagus except do not add garlic and do not put the cheese on before cooking. Sprinkle a handful of pitted calamata olives over the top of the fennel. After cooking, when the dish has come to room temperature sprinkle with some parmesan flakes. You can make parmesan flakes by using a vegetable peeler. Pick a few sprigs of greens from the fennel fronds and sprinkle over the top. This dish is also best served at room temperature and can be done fairly far ahead of time. I do this one in a shallow baking dish and just serve it in that.

Roasted Potato with Sour Cream and Caviar or Bacon

This one is a little more labor intensive than the first few. Using small red new potatoes and a paring knife carve around the side of the potato to form a sort of column. See picture. Now on the opposite sides that sill have peel, in other words the ends of the columns, take a melon baller and scoop out a shallow cup in the potato and then slice the potato in half making two pieces. Boil the potatoes until they are about half cooked in heavily salted water. Put the potatoes on a baking sheet and very lightly coat them with olive oil. Roast them in a 400 degree oven letting them brown a little. Watch them closely and check the bottoms to make sure they’re not browning too quickly. Remove and let cool completely. Now fill the cups with sour cream. You can do this with a piping bag or just a small spoon. Top with a bit of caviar or some cooked cubes of bacon. Cut chives so you have about inch long pieces and stick two into each cup sticking up out of the sour cream. If you are making these ahead you can go as far as filling the potato with sour cream and then just top them off when you’re ready to serve them.

Endive Cups filled with Crab and Tarragon Salad

This one is super simple. Buy a container of cooked lump crab meat and pick through to remove any shell still in it. Mix the crab with mayo, lemon juice and chopped fresh tarragon. Cut the end of the endive off and pull apart the leaves, using these for cups scoop about a tablespoon of the crab mixture onto each leaf. You can decorate the top with a frond from the fennel bulb if you did that recipe or a little red caviar, or just some chopped parsley or chives.

Smoked Trout Mousse on Cucumber

In a food processor combine one package of cream cheese, at room temperature, about a tablespoon of horseradish and one and half filets of smoked trout. For the half fillet use the thicker side so you can use the thinner one for decorative purposes later. Process everything until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings and put into a piping bag. Cut a seedless cucumber into rounds that are about ½ inch thick and using a mellon baller scoop out a shallow cup on one side. Set them upside down on a tray that is covered with paper towel until you are ready to use them. For an extra decorative touch I use a zester to carve channels on the side of the cucumber as shown in the photo below.

You can fill the cucumber cups around one hour before you are serving them, but not much more than that since the cucumbers start to give off water and will cause the mousse to slip off. When filling them leave a small mound as shown. Top each one with a small piece of the trout from the leftover ½ fillet and a sprig of dill.

Sirloin Tips with Spicy Cherry Peppers

This one didn't get photographed but it's super easy and was a big hit. Take sirloin tips or other chunks of steak, cut into small bite sized pieces. Cook according to the directions here. Once it gets a good browning throw in some spicy pickled cherry peppers out of a jar (not too many, they are very spicy) and cut in half and stick under the broiler for a couple minutes. Serve hot with toothpicks.

Holiday Rehab, Part 3

Another meal in the Recovery from Thanksgiving project. This meal is a total standard in our house. It’s basically a Scandinavian style dish that we picked up from travelling there and eating it in several incarnations (my husband is from Sweden and I give him full credit for this one). It’s got so much going for it: quick, easy, elegant, delicious and super healthy. We eat this very frequently and also often serve it to guests as it looks quite lovely on the plate and is very easy to throw together without being stuck out in the kitchen for long stretches.

Boil some new red potatoes, or better yet red creamers. My husband has a trick he learned from his mother that is after he has drained the potatoes he puts them back in the pot and places a paper towel over the top and covers with a lid. I’m not totally sure this does anything but it feels as if it helps the potatoes take on the waxy consistency that is very appealing.

Mix together some sour cream and chopped dill. You can also add chives if you have them. You can substitute Greek yogurt for the sour cream if you want to be more calorie conscious. Salt and pepper to taste. By the way, if you have any of this left over, add some garlic and you have a really good potato chip dip.

Sear salmon using these instructions to guide you.

Make a salad dressing using lemon juice, Dijon mustard, salt, pepper and olive oil. I leave the proportions to you. Lightly toss salad greens in dressing.

Place everything on plate. Top the potatoes with the sour cream mixture and sprinkle with chopped red onion. Top off the salad with cucumbers and tomatoes. You can top off the whole plate with a little more chopped dill.

This meal works really well with smoked fish such as trout or kippers too.

Another variation on this meal that is particularly good for summer is to poach the salmon and serve the whole meal cold. To poach the fish just bring water, a little white wine, a tiny bit of sliced onion and carrot to just barely a boil and put your fish in. The poaching liquid should be a little more than half way up the fish. Cover and cook. For me, I would say about 8 minutes but I like salmon just barely done. You can practice or simply peek inside one filet and see if it’s done enough. Remember that the fish will cook a little more even when removed from the cooking liquid. One of the great things about poaching salmon, and the reason why it’s a popular catering dish, is it is difficult to truly over cook it to the point where it would really be dry or unappealing. When it is done take it out of the poaching liquid and put it in the refrigerator to cool.

Eggplant with Tahini, Brown Rice, and Tomato/Cucumber Salad

Keeping with the mode of recovering from eating so much over the holiday weekend I made this healthy and delicious vegetarian meal.
If you are going to serve this with brown rice then start that first. Heat your oven to 400 degrees. Take a couple of eggplants and cut slices that are about ¼ to ½ inch thick. I like to first peel my eggplant a little as shown in the photo, but it’s not necessary, I’m just not wild about a lot of peel.

On a sheet pan (cookie sheet) or two pour enough olive oil to coat them with a thin layer. Put one clove of garlic through a garlic press onto the sheet pan. Add salt and pepper and then swirl it all around to combine it and spread it evenly over the surface. Now place the eggplant on the sheet pan in one layer quickly turning them over after you put them down. This is so they get a little of the oil mixture on each side. Put them in the oven and start checking on them after about 10 or 12 minutes. You want them to brown on the side facing down on the pan and then turn them over and let the same thing happen on the other. Once they start browning keep a close eye because it happens fast. Also, keep an eye on the pieces closest to the edge as they tend to finish cooking sooner than the ones on the inside.

For the salad, cut up one seedless cucumber, a cup or two of chopped tomato, one chopped red onion and at least two tablespoons of chopped dill. Add a couple tablespoons of white vinegar and olive oil, salt and pepper and toss together.

Make a tahini dressing by mixing a couple tablespoons of tahini first with some warm water. When you’ve added enough to get the consistency you want (think creamy dressings) squeeze in half a lemon’s juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.