appetizer « The Perpetual Feast

Posts Tagged 'appetizer'

Cranberry Goat Cheese Log

Published December 29, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: appetizer, cheese, cranberries

Someone in my office requested that I bring goat cheese and the famous Jezebel Sauce to the office holiday potluck. Never one to leave well enough alone, I decided that I should fancy up the goat cheese. Since Jezebel sauce is pretty spicy, I decided that I needed to make the logs either sweet or rather plain. I rolled one of the logs in chopped, toasted pecans. I wrapped the other in cranberries.

This recipe for cranberry-wrapped goat cheese log appeared in my local paper and is just in time for holiday parties. The recipe called for a one-pound log of goat cheese, but the Costco logs are only 11 ounces. In retrospect, I should have combined 2 logs to create a fatter 16 ounce log, or used less of the cranberry wrap, since the log came out a bit uneven (but delicious). I also would suggest chopping the cranberries coarsely, since I thought the whole cranberries were harder to wrap nicely. The log travels well if you wait to unwrap the plastic wrap until you get to your destination. You can make it ahead and refrigerate it for a day or so.

Cranberry Goat Cheese Log

1/4 ounce package of unsweetened gelatin
1/4 cup water
12 ounce package of fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cranberry juice
1/4 cup orange or raspberry liqueur (I used Cointreau)
16 ounce log of goat cheese

In a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over water; set aside. Fill a large bowl with ice and water, set aside. In a medium saucepan over medium high heat, combine cranberries, sugar, cranberry juice and liqueur. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add gelatin mixture and boil, stirring occasionally, until mixture resembles a very thick jelly. Remove from heat and place the saucepan in the ice to cool. (I actually poured the cranberry mixture into a medium bowl and set that on the ice, since my pot did not fit into the ice bowl very well.)

Once the cranberry sauce has cooled, lay an 18 inch sheet of plastic wrap on the counter. Spoon about 1/2 cup of the cranberry sauce on the plastic wrap, making an even rectangle slightly larger than the goat cheese log.

Place the goat cheese on top of the sauce. Spoon the remaining cranberry sauce mixture over the log, coating it evenly. Gently roll the log up in the wrap, using the plastic to mold the sauce around the cheese. Twist each end closed.

Note – I had trouble molding the sauce evenly. Note the misshapen wrapped log. This is why I think chopping the berries slightly might help.

Freeze for about 30 minutes to allow the cherry mixture to set. Remove from the freezer and gently remove the plastic wrapper from the log placing the log on your serving platter

This makes 11-16 one ounce servings, at about 5 grams of fat/serving.

Thisis actually the leftover log I brought home.

I set the platter out with crackers and knives for serving. The recipe suggested using unflavored dental floss to cut the log into one ounce pieces to serve it…but I liked the do-it-yourself log approach

Mushroom and Caramelized Shallot Strudel

Published November 16, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: appetizer, hint, mushroom, phyllo

This delicious, flaky pastry was originally described in Cooking Light as a main dish, perhaps a vegetarian main dish for Thanksgiving. I have been making it for years, taking it to friends’ houses as a Thanksgiving appetizer. It was always popular, and every year my friends would ask “you’re going to bring the mushroom thing, aren’t you?” Now the friends go south every year before Thanksgiving, and I fly across country to my daughter’s home for the annual feast. But the grocery had packaged mushrooms on sale for an unbelievable price, and I thought this would be a good main dish for a wintry day. Whether you slice it thin for an appetizer or thick for a main dish, this is one of the best vegetarian low-fat dishes I have ever made. It requires just a little fussing, but it never fails. It also has a pretty decent “wow” factor to bring to a potluck or a friend’s dinner table.

Mushroom and Caramelized Shallot Strudel

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced shallots (about 8 ounces)
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1 Tablespoon water
4 (8-ounce) packages presliced mushrooms (or you could thinly slice 2 pounds of mushrooms)
2 Tablespoons Marsala or Madeira wine
2/3 cup non-fat sour cream
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
8 sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed
Cooking spray
1/3 cup dry breadcrumbs, divided
1 Tablespoon butter, melted
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400°. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and sugar; cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

cut shallot

Thinly sliced shallots.

Sprinkle with water; cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until shallots are soft.

sauteed shallot

Caramelized shallots

Add mushrooms; cook, uncovered, over medium-high heat 20 minutes or until liquid evaporates, stirring frequently. Add Marsala; cook 1 minute. Remove from heat, and cool. Stir in sour cream, parsley, salt, thyme, and pepper.

Place 1 phyllo sheet on a large cutting board or work surface (cover remaining dough to keep from drying), and lightly coat with cooking spray. Sprinkle with about 2 teaspoons breadcrumbs. Repeat the layers with 3 phyllo sheets, cooking spray, and breadcrumbs, ending with the phyllo. Spoon 1 3/4 cups mushroom mixture along 1 long edge of phyllo, leaving a 1-inch border.
filling on phyllo

Starting at the long edge with the 1-inch border, roll up jelly roll fashion. Place strudel, seam side down, on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Tuck ends under. Repeat the procedure with the remaining phyllo sheets, cooking spray, breadcrumbs, and mushroom mixture. Brush strudels with butter. Bake strudels at 400° for 20 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes.
phyllo log

Cut each strudel into 4 slices. This makes 8 main dish servings at 5 grams of fat/serving. When I used this as an appetizer I cut each strudel into 6-8 pieces, so the appetizer was a little over 2 grams of fat/serving – which was light enough to precede a Thanksgiving meal.

phyllo slice

One main dish serving

I actually halved the recipe and made one strudel. I find that food made with phyllo doesn’t keep several days without getting soggy – and it doesn’t always reheat well.

Hint: I often have a problem finding the time to fuss over food preparation when I get home. This is one of those dishes where you can make the filling ahead and then fill and bake the strudel when you want to eat it.

Vietnamese Noodle Rolls

Published October 2, 2009 Uncategorized 4 Comments
Tags: appetizer, Asian, noodles

Woman doth not live by plums alone – if she did, she wouldn’t still have a large bowl of plums taking up refrigerator space where she needs to put things from the grocery. There are other foods…and there are potlucks.

I needed to bring a vegetarian or “dairy” (milk products only) dish to a potluck this week. Naturally, I wanted Wow Factor, and low fat on the off chance I might have to bring some home – not very likely once you see them. I have tried to make rice paper wrapped rolls before, and they always fell apart. Then I ate at a Thai restaurant where we ordered summer rolls. They were small and tightly wrapped, not the big floppy things I produced. The trick is in the tight wrapping. By the way, this is pretty much a no cooking recipe.

This recipe came from Sunset magazine. I was a little surprised at some of the ingredients – Granny Smith apples and French-fried onions? But they worked and were delicious. I made a double recipe – 20 rolls or 40 halves on toothpicks. This recipe is for 10 rolls. The trick to this recipe is to prepare all of the filling ingredients and lay them out in a row on your work surface. Then it is kind of an assembly line process to put them together.

Vietnamese Noodle Rolls

3½ ounces thin dried rice noodles (also called rice vermicelli)
¼ English cucumber, unpeeled
½ large carrot, peeled (I might use a whole carrot. This seemed a little skimpy. At the end I was stretching the carrot to have some in each roll)
5 red lettuce leaves, torn in half crosswise (use only the upper part not the thick stem)
½ Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and very thinly sliced lengthwise
30 mint leaves
40 cilantro leaves
About 1/2 cup canned french-fried onions
Ten 8 1/2-in. rice-paper wrappers (bánh tráng)
Sweet and Spicy Sesame Sauce or your favorite peanut sauce (see recipe below)

Put noodles in a large bowl and cover with almost-boiling water. Let noodles sit until tender, 5 to 8 minutes. Don’t leave them longer or they’ll get too soft.

Meanwhile, cut cucumber into 4-in. lengths and then into matchsticks. Grate carrot finely (the recipe called for carrot matchsticks, but that seemed too crunchy for me.)

Drain noodles and rinse with cold water. Spread noodles out on a baking sheet lined with a kitchen/paper towel. Pat dry. Divide noodles into 2 long “logs,” then cut each log with scissors into 5 equal portions.

Set out all ingredients except the sesame sauce near a large work surface. Pour very hot tap water into a large shallow bowl such as a pie plate (I put the pie plate in the kitchen sink so it wasn’t too drippy). Submerge 1 rice-paper wrapper until moistened and softened slightly but not completely pliable (it will continue to soften as you work with it). The trick here is to dip it in the water, turn it over, and dip it again. That’s enough! Do them one at a time. Don’t try to be efficient and dip several of them. You will have a mess, and you will not get into the Zen of making nice noodle rolls. Also, unlike phyllo dough, which can be patched, broken rice papers don’t patch well. Your roll will fall apart (this us the voice of experience speaking).

Lay damp wrapper on work surface – I have large flexible plastic mats that I use – and put 1/2 lettuce leaf in center. Mound 1 portion of noodles on lettuce followed by about one-tenth of the cucumber, carrot, and apple slices; 3 mint leaves; 4 cilantro leaves; and a sprinkling of onions. Arrange ingredients into a rectangle about 4 in. long. Fold paper tightly over short ends of filling, then roll up tightly from the bottom. Repeat to make remaining rolls. Serve with sesame sauce. This makes 10 rolls at less than one gram of fat/roll.

noodle roll whole

These are rolls on a plate waiting to be sliced. I found that if you want to cut the rolls in half, you should let them dry for a few minutes until the wrapper is no longer slippery. This kind of firms them up.

noodle roll cut

This shows the inside of the rolls, which are very colorful. I put the toothpicks in before I cut them.

noodle roll platter

The platter itself included the dipping sauce below. I thought it might have a little too much of a kick, but no one thought it was too spicy. And you have to admit it all had that Wow.

Sweet and Spicy Sesame Sauce

3 Tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
½ teaspoon red chile flakes
1 Tablespoon Asian (toasted) sesame oil
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
½ cup hot water

Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl. You can make the sauce ahead (the noodle rolls should be eaten the day they are made. Chill airtight for up to 1 week. Makes about ¾ cup, with 1.6 grams of fat/tablespoon.

Wild Mushroom and Goat Cheese Spread

Published May 19, 2009 Uncategorized 2 Comments
Tags: appetizer, dip, mushroom

I have gone to wild mushroom heaven. In the effort to use up the remaining Mothers’ Day mushrooms, I made this delightful recipe that has three of my favorite ingredients: wild mushrooms, goat cheese, and sherry. But first, a note about the mushrooms. They were purchased at Costco.com, and came in a basket with 2 pounds of organic gourmet mushrooms. I have been comparing the prices of various gourmet mushrooms at my local grocery, and at about $20/pund, the Costco mushrooms are actually a good buy for what is, I’ll admit, a luxury food. They were very fresh. The only drawback is that you have to purchase two pounds at a time, which is a lot of mushrooms. However, if you are having a party and want something special to serve, it would be worth buying the two pound basket.

This wild mushroom dish, originally from Cooking Light, is probably intended as a party dish – a hot dip to be served with crackers or slices of a nice baguette, to be scooped up by guests as an appetizer. I wasn’t having guests, so I bought a nice French bread at the farmers’ market, toasted a few thin slices, and scooped out several servings worth to have for dinner, with a side of tomatoes with sea salt. It was a very satisfying dinner that felt like something a bit luxurious – if not terribly attractive.

MUSHROOMS ON TOAST
I also plan to take the spread for lunch with interesting crackers – and maybe experiment with using it as a spread on sandwiches.

Wild Mushroom and Goat Cheese Spread

¼ cup boiling water
½ ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon minced shallots
1 Tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme
1 Tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary (or other herb if you don’t like rosemary, like me)
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
8 ounces wild mushrooms, finely chopped (I used all wild mushrooms, since I wanted to use up the remaining mushrooms)
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, finely chopped
5 Tablespoons sherry
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) goat cheese, divided
Cooking spray
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Combine 1/4 cup boiling water and porcini mushrooms in a bowl; let stand 10 minutes. Strain porcini mushrooms through a sieve over a bowl, reserving liquid. Chop mushrooms; set aside. Preheat boiler.

Heat butter and oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. (I also sprayed it with olive oil cooking spray.) Add shallots, thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper, and garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Stir in reserved porcini mushrooms, wild mushrooms, and cremini mushrooms. Cook 10 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates, stirring frequently. Stir in sherry and reserved mushroom liquid, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Cook 5 minutes or until the liquid almost evaporates. Remove from heat. Place mushroom mixture and 3 tablespoons of the goat cheese in a food processor; process until smooth. Scrape the mushroom mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with remaining 3 tablespoons cheese. Broil for 7 minutes or until edges of cheese begin to brown. (Mine got a bit too brown.) Remove from heat, and sprinkle with parsley if you want to make it prettier. This makes ten servings (serving size is about 3 tablespoons) with 2.8 grams of fat/servings.

mushrooms in pan
If I were serving this to company, I’d broil it in an attractive oven-proof dish, instead of an old baking pan. I also would consider adding another 2 ounces of goat cheese to sprinkle over the top. It would only raise the fat level by one gram of fat/serving and would make it a more party-like dish.

Marinated Asparagus Bundles

Published April 29, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: appetizer, asparagus, salad

I was browsing about in other food blogs and noticed that The Go Lightly Gourmet, a blogger with a similar philosophy to mine, published several Cooking Light recipes about asparagus. What’s not to like about asparagus! It’s tasty, low fat, and can be very elegant. And this is the season for fresh asparagus. Then I recalled that I made a very elegant Cooking Light recipe for the Passover buffet. It was delicious and beautiful to look at. I’m not sure if you would call it an appetizer, side dish, or salad, but the little that was left was lovely for lunch the next day. It is also a make ahead dish, because it needs to marinate, which fits my buffet-making schedule.

To look best, this is should made with thinner asparagus spears. You could also use two colors of peppers. It is not hard to make, but allow a little time, because tying the asparagus into little bundles requires some fussing. I also recommend using more than 10 green onions, because some of the onion ties will be too short or will tear when you get impatient.

Marinated Asparagus Bundles

2 ½ pounds asparagus
10 green onions
2 red bell peppers, cut into 20 strips
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup red wine vinegar
½ cup water
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper

Snap off tough ends of asparagus. Cover and cook in a small amount of boiling water 5 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain and rinse under cold running water; drain well. Trim white portion from green onions. Place green onion tops in a bowl; add boiling water to cover. Drain immediately, and rinse under cold running water.

Gather asparagus into 10 bundles, and add 2 bell pepper strips to each bundle. I actually used 5 asparagus spears/bundle, which meant I had more than 10 bundles, and needed more pepper strips. I also think that thinner pepper strips would look a little better. Tie each bundle with a green onion strip. Pull the onion ties closed gently. Place bundles in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish.

Combine chopped onion and next 9 ingredients (onion through pepper) in a bowl; stir well. Pour over asparagus bundles. Cover and chill 2 to 8 hours. To serve,gently remove asparagus bundles from marinade, and discard marinade. Arrange asparagus bundles on a serving platter. They certainly make an elegant buffet item. Makes 10 servings (or more depending upon how you divide them) at only 0.3 grams of fat/serving.

Marinated asparagus bundles

Black Bean Dip

Published January 26, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: appetizer, beans, dip

This is another good party dip, although I also use it on sandwiches and on crackers. It can be used with veggies or chips. The original recipe came from Cooking Light. It has unlikely ingredients, which is why I made it. What food has both cocoa and balsamic vinegar? The caramelized onions give it a pleasant sweetness. Don’t be turned off by the black bean name – it doesn’t taste really beany. In fact, I can’t really describe the taste. You’ll have to make it.

Black Bean Dip

Cooking spray
1 teaspoon olive oil
4 cups coarsely chopped onion
2 15 ounce cans black beans, drained and rinsed.
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon paprika

Spray a large non-stick skillet with cooking spray and add oil. Heat over medium high heat. Add onion and sauté. As the onion begins to turn golden (about 5 minutes), add ¼ cup of water, stirring the onions. The water will evaporate and help the onions soften without extra oil. Cook the onions until they are golden. Be careful not to burn them or they will be bitter.

Put the onions and all the remaining ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. This makes 12 ¼ cup servings with about 0.3 grams of fat/serving. The original recipe said that the serving size was I tablespoon. Who ever eats 1 tablespoon of dip?

black-bean-dip

Light Guacamole

Published January 25, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: appetizer, avocado, dip

What with the Super Bowl on the horizon, a good dip recipe is handy to have. I love guacamole either as a dip or on top of various Mexican dishes. But avocados are pretty high in fat, and I tend to want to eat a lot of guacamole once I get going. This lighter recipe has a number of virtues in addition to being lower in fat, it is really a lovely color, and it doesn’t turn brown if left standing, like conventional guacamole does. It is also good on sandwiches, especially veggie sandwiches. It goes well with veggies, or as pictured below, with a variety of low fat chips such as baked tortilla chips and pretzel chips.

Light Guacamole

1 medium sized ripe avocado
1 cup fat free cottage cheese
1 Tablespoon lime juice
¼ cup chopped cilantro
½ teaspoon hot pepper sauce or to taste
½ cup chopped tomatoes (optional)
1 chopped scallion (optional)

Blend the avocado and cottage cheese, preferably in a food processor. Mix in the lime juice, cilantro and hot pepper sauce. I usually don’t add the tomato or onion, but if you do, mix them in now. This makes about 8 quarter cup servings, at about 3 grams of fat/serving.

guacamole2

The Famous Jezebel Sauce

Published January 17, 2009 Uncategorized 4 Comments
Tags: appetizer, sauce

This is the famous Jezebel Sauce – a sweet hot jelly sauce that has multiple uses. I first made it to serve at a buffet dinner, because I thought that the Cornish hens seemed a little plain and needed something to spoon over them to dress them up. Well, the guests put it on the Cornish hens, and shortly they began to put it on the roasted vegetables, pot roast, and, to my great astonishment, the chocolate cake. I used the little bit of leftover sauce on a pot roast sandwich. I think it would be great spooned over reduced fat cream cheese or goat cheese as an appetizer served with crackers – which I am going to make for a gathering his week. And, in addition to its flavor, it’s beautiful and very easy to make and can be made ahead.

jezebel-sauce

The original recipe, from Cooking Light, called for pineapple preserves, which I couldn’t find at the time. So I used apricot-pineapple preserves, which gave it a more orange color, but I think it had much of the same flavor.

Jezebel Sauce

½ cup boiling water
¼ cup dried apricots
2/3 cup pineapple preserves
1/3 cup red pepper jelly
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon prepared horseradish
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Combine apricots and1/2 cup boiling water in a bowl. Let stand for 10 minutes. Drain. Finely chop apricots. Combine apricots, preserves, and remaining ingradients in a bowl. Cover and chill.

This makes about 9 two tablespoon servings with 0 grams if fat/serving.

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ABOUT KAREN

I have lost 200 pounds. I did not do it through surgery – I don’t like knives and needles – or by joining a club, vigorous exercise, or rigorous dieting. I did it by gourmet cooking. To be precise, by cooking low fat, really delicious food. I love to cook as much as I love to eat. Food magazines are some of my favorite reading. I would feel deprived if I couldn’t have the sensuous experience of good food crossing my lips. This blog is about my perpetual feast, my passionate love of food, with recipes, photos, and occasional advice and principles that I have learned along the way.

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The Perpetual Feast

Posts Tagged 'appetizer'

Cranberry Goat Cheese Log

Mushroom and Caramelized Shallot Strudel

Vietnamese Noodle Rolls

Wild Mushroom and Goat Cheese Spread

Marinated Asparagus Bundles

Black Bean Dip

Light Guacamole

The Famous Jezebel Sauce

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