HOLIDAY AMUSES - the blog

The fancy term is “hors d’oeuvres” and holiday parties are all about snacking on little bites of this and that. Don’t you love when the trays of food arrive butler-style in front of you, you feel a little like a kid in a toy store and you always find your favorite one or two hoping that server will make his way back to you with a tray freshly refilled.

(delicat smoked salmon makes a fine horse d'oeuvres)

I think the quality of a caterer or chef really shines when it comes to these little amuse gueueles or amuses bouche (“little mouthfuls” translated from French). Amuses are traditionally served as a welcome from the chef before dinner is served and they’re perfect for the cocktail hour. These little foods don’t differ much from appetizers as long as they’re treated with the same care in preparation. The  preparation tools might change a bit like small cutters for little toasts points and tweezers come-in handy to garnish tiny-bite sized pieces with herbs, pickles and such. Platters or trays are the preferred moving palettes to transport the tiny works of art from guest to guest.
Some of my simple favorites are cubed smoked salmon on crusty baguette rounds, beef tartar with capers perhaps with a dab of Tabasco with a pungent herb like cilantro. Jumbo sized shrimp “cocktail” are a certain favorite (the sauce consists of mayonnaise, ketchup, cognac and get a little heat with horseradish).

(a tab of caviar can make a bite-sized taste shine) 

Tricks to make some fans 
These one-bite wonders should be seasoned a bit more compared with an appetizer so remember a sprinkle of sea salt, a dab of cayenne, that extra spritz of lemon juice is needed to make that memorable first impression. I’m a big believer that the first impression must be ideal. Caviar, paper thin truffle slices, pungent herbs rich pâtés can be a good way to impress your in-laws and get that wow effect. Another French invention for holiday amuses are vol-au-vents literally meaning “blown by the wind”, these provide a delicious serving vessel. made with buttery puffed pastry and beg to be stuffed with an array of heavenly creamy mousses or crumbly,  loose natured food.
Finger foods are the best case scenario for the host as clean-up is minimal but if you have plenty of helpers on your hand you have more options for fun serving utensils.

(proschuitto di parma, selected sausages for canapes - awesome) 

Fun with Utensils
I love to use small Chinese soup spoons, shot glasses in which soup can be served, elaborately twisted bent spoons, pipettes where a shoot of some concentrated velvety creation can be served, pipettes which can serve as a skewer and contains some flavor explosive elixir at the same time. Old fashioned wooden skewers are perfectly fine to serve skewered flash seared filet mignon cubes, tuna belly dominos or savory lollipops. 

Rummage through your cabinets and you may find under utilized egg holders or rustic looking earth wear sake cups, these make nice liquid holders for fragrant teas, soups or purees.
From my experience as a guest or participant at events or cocktail receptions a large amount of passed foods come out of a “fryalator.” In my opinion a lot of flavor identity of little food morsels get lost and it makes food taste very similar to each other and sits rather heavy in the belly.
Then again it’s not a bad idea if there is a lot of heavy drinking going on at the party - it makes a great sponge for those strong holiday cocktails!

Cheers, Prost and Happy Holidays.

 

 

LITTLE JEWELS - the blog

Capers are little culinary jewels like tiny buds picked before they fully blossom into shrubby plants.  These bushes grow in the most difficult conditions surviving  inconsistent climate and rocky, gravely soil. They thrive in hot Mediterranean climates such as Cypress and Malta where they grow abundantly.

(brined capers) 

Capers are most commonly preserved in brine or simply doused in sea salt. In our circle (what circle do you mean?  NY or food world?  Need to clarify) the edible bud and fruit (caper berry) is available all year round on the supermarket shelves and offers a great way to add lots of that particular juicy, briny caper flavor which comes from natural mustard oil released by the little buds.

When local fresh herbs and vegetables become sparse or non-existent capers are especially handy. I love them in Italian  “evergreen” dishes such as  piccata, vitello tonnato and spaghetti putanesca. The French came up with their caper contributions with terrific sauce creations -- just think of the staple tartar sauce and remoulade. I remember working in France at Joel Robouchon’s restaurant where we deglazed a brown butter sauce  with ketchup in it – yes, the chef of the century cooks with ketchup - and then the sauce was deglazed with the brine liquid of capers – awesome. It was served with langoustines coated in spaghetti pasta.   The sauce tasted briny,  and salty at once and was the perfect compliment to the snow-white, orange hued, tender seafood.

I visited the Island of Rhodes in Greek after culinary school and the use of pickled caper leaves was abundant, which was positive since they make an excellent seasoning component in fish dishes. More everyday food such as lox , cream cheese with capers strewn over the whole spiel is definitely one of my brunch favorites. Interestingly, in cheese making I have come across different rennet substitutions even including caper leaves in high-end cheeses.

Snow white, caper dotted…..
Cauliflower was always too cabbagey for me and I didn’t like it very much until I came across a combination of cauliflower with capers.  Following here is a neat play on flavors which incorporates capers and raisins – a little sweet, a little sour…

(cauliflower on ice) 

Cauliflower with Capers and Raisins

(recipe yields four side-sized portions)

1 cauliflower (about 30 ounces)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil such as canola or grape-seed oil
¼ cup capers
¼ cup raisins
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 pinch cayenne1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1. Cut leaves of cauliflower. Cut 1-inch sized pieces (rosettes) of cauliflower head. Discard fibrous hard core stem.
2. In a 1-gallon sized pot heat oil on medium heat setting and cook/brown cauliflower pieces for 20 minutes stirring every five minutes.
3. Strain capers into a sieve, reserve the brine liquid.
4. Chop capers and raisins finely.
5. Combine capers, raisins, ground nutmeg, salt, cayenne with browned cauliflower.
6. Add the reserved caper brine liquid to the cauliflower/spice mixture and move the pot on the side of the stove.
7. Serve cauliflower in individual bowls or a large platter and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

(roasted cauliflower with capers and raisins) 

Chef’s Tip: Sprinkle the cooked, hot cauliflower with finely grated cheddar cheese from an artisanal maker.

 

 

MEATLOAF ISN'T ONLY AMERICAN - the blog

Certainly a staple in the American kitchen and on the most-wanted food list next to mac’n cheese, Hamburger, chili con carne and fried chicken  … good ole meatloaf is a cross cultural favorite.
Meatloaf seems to have German/Austrian roots which makes me secretly proud. In fact growing up in Austria meatloaf was one of my mother’s specialties that she called  “Hackbraten” which means “chopped roast.” That particular recipe calls for cooked, peeled eggs in the middle. I believe the name comes from the growth rings of tree stumps visible when chopped or hacked. In Italy I enjoyed polpettone, their version of meatloaf, with the addition of sliced ham and cheese incorporated into the meatloaf mixture garnished with tomato sauce instead of ketchup which is common here in the US.

A mover & shaker dish
Meatloaf is fairly simple to make since its ingredients are plenty available -- ground meat plus a few spices with some sort of a binder. Meatloaf is the cook’s blank canvas with limitless possibilities in terms of flavor combinations.
Next to traditional meatloaf I have created many culinary combinations such as rabbit meatloaf, duck meatloaf, and even fish “meatloaf” from a snow-white pike with pink lobster tails embedded in the center – certainly a gourmet treat and technically a little far from the traditional meatloaf.  Meatloaf conveys hominess and reminds us of sharing a meal with family.  The different renditions certainly were movers and shakers on my menus, especially the fish version.

(pretty in a baking pan) 

Constructing a Meatloaf
To me meatloaf resembles a sausage with a different texture. Whatever goes into a sausage could possibly be applied to a meatloaf recipe with the addition of some sort of binder such as bread crumbs, matzo, or wheat free options such as rolled oats, crushed rice crackers and so on.

(nicley holding up it's shape) 

Meatloaf Recipe
1.25 lb ground beef*
1.25 ground chicken
3 celery stalks
1 carrot, about 5-inch long
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon vegetable oil such as canola or grape-seed oil
2 teaspoons salt
10 black pepper grindings
2 tablespoon tomato paste
½ oz fresh oregano
½ cup rolled oats

(all meatloaf ingredients ready to be mixed)

1. Peel onions, carrot and garlic. Rinse celery with water. Chop all vegetables into 1/8-inch pieces or chop using the pulse button on a food processor.
2. In a 1-gallon sized pot heat vegetable oil on medium heat setting and cook the vegetables for 20 minutes stirring every once in a while.
3. Add salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon of the tomato paste to the cooked vegetables. Cook mixture five minutes longer. Spread the mixture onto a plate and let cool on the kitchen counter. Transfer vegetables into the refrigerator to chill.
4. Rinse oregano with water then chop finely.
5. Fill a large bowl with ice. Set a second bowl over the ice and combine ground beef, ground chicken, chilled vegetables, chopped oregano and oats. Mix ingredients together using a table fork. It is important not to over-mix the ingredients for a light meatloaf texture once baked.
   
   (close-up of my lighly mixed meatloaf)
6. Bake mixture in a cake loaf pan (approximately measuring 9x5x5-inch) at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes or cook meatloaf until a kitchen thermometer reads 165 degrees Fahrenheit measured in the middle of the loaf.

*Chef’s Tip: When shopping for ground meats and poultry, select shoulder or shank animal parts if available, when pre-ground the expiration date should be not older than two days.

…and then there is – Bat out of Hell
I’m wondering whether a love of the dish was the inspiration for  the eponymous rock star Meat Loaf?  Both are quite popular. Still remembering the days of the Rocky Horror Picture Show…