Festivals

You thought I was going to write a post about local festivals, didn't you? Well, I'm actually referring to the Jamaican fry bread called festivals. What a great name. I can definitely see this "bread" at a street fair or festival. These fried delights are light, crispy, and the perfect snack. I made them alongside jerk chicken and tostones for dinner. They would be great for a party or as an appetizer.

The recipe I used is from Steve Raichlen's The Barbecue Bible. Even though I accidently forgot the sugar in the recipe (3 T.) they turned out great. I suppose I would describe these as being similar to a churro. If you dust them with sugar and cinnamon they would make a nice dessert.



They look a bit like chicken nuggets but I promise you there is no chicken inside. Just a lot of fried goodness.

Baked Dates in Cheddar-Rosemary Pastry

Perhaps one of the most exiciting aspects of this recipe is how much they look like pigs in a blanket. We all know how the appeal and simplicity of pigs in a blanket works great for appetizers. While the recipe below for Baked Dates in Cheddar-Rosemary Pastry (from Gourmet magazine) takes a little more effort, the results are delicious. These date delights are like a savory dessert and make the perfect snack or party nibbler.

Baked Dates in Cheddar-Rosemary Pastry

1/2 cup butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
3/4 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary leaves
1 1/3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
48 pitted Medjool dates (I used another kind)


1. Pulse butter, cheddar, rosemary, flour, salt, and cayenne in a food processor until mixture resembles cornmeal. Add vinegar and 2 T. very cold water and pulse just until mixture holds together. Lay a piece of plastic wrap on your counter and turn dough out onto it. Form dough into a 6-inch square, cover with more plastic wrap, and chill at least 1 hour.

2. Preheat oven to 400. Put chilled dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out into a 12" square. Cut square into 48 1x3" strips. Wrap each date with a strip, then arrange on 2 baking sheets. Bake until pastry is light golden about 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Cheesy Ghosts and Bats

Happy Halloween!

These cheese crackers (appropriately shaped as ghosts and bats for Halloween) are divine. They're made with a pastry-like dough so they melt in your mouth and are quite addictive. These are sure to be a hit with kids and adults. Although you can skip the cookie cutters if you like and just make them into cheese straws or rectangles for the adults.

Cheese Straws/Crackers

1 pound sharp cheddar cheese
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 pound butter

Finely grate cheese; combine with other ingredients and beat until creamy, adding a few drops of water if neccessary to form a firm dough. Divide dough in half. Roll each section 1/4" thick. Cut into strips about 6" x 3/8". Twist. Place on ungreased cookie sheet; chill in freezer 15 minutes or longer to maintain shape. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Makes 5-6 dozen cheese straws.

*The food processor works great for this dough or you can blend my hand and then add a tablespoon of water. If you plan on using cookie cutters then roll dough into a disc and refrigerate for at least an hour before rolling and cutting out. My crackers were fairly thick so they took about 18 minutes to bake. Bake until slightly golden but not brown.

Calamari Fritti

Last night I knew I had to use the calamari that I had de-thawed in my fridge before it went bad. Since it was already 10pm and we were starving, I decided to make a quick calamari; something I've never done before. Now that I own a deep fryer it's a fairly easy meal to make.

I had an unopened box of corn flakes and heard that they made a good coating for calamari. So, I coated the squid in flour, then an egg/milk mixture (1 egg, 1 T. milk), and a final coating of crunched up corn flakes. Then I deep fried each batch for 1-2 minutes until golden.

The calamari were really good. I served them with a roasted red pepper marinara sauce on the side. The calamari were much more tender than I expected (since they had been previously frozen) and the corn flakes provided the perfect crunch and flavor. It didn't even need any spices (although some spice wouldn't have hurt the dish).

For a quick snack or appetizer I definitely recommend making calamari fritti with corn flakes! Or, if you're like me, it can make a quick late-night meal.

Cherry Goat Cheese Bruschetta

This Cherry Goat Cheese Bruschetta couldn't be more simple. Slice a baguette and toast after drizzling with olive oil. Add crumbled goat cheese and diced cherries and serve. Top with frsehly ground black pepper if desired.

You could probably use cherries and goat cheese with a puff pastry base instead. It would end up being a bit more dessert-like but just as pleasing.

Avacado Pate

My favorite go-to appetizer for last minute guests is Avacado pate. I got the recipe from an old Australian Women's Weekly Entertaining Cookbook but I lost it a while ago so I've just been making my own version.

This dip is fantastic served with pita chips. When I make pita chips for myself I just cut pita into triangles, peel apart the layers, and toast. However, if I'm serving this to guests I place the triangles on a big cookie sheet, brush them with melted butter, and sprinkle them with Italian seasoning before toasting in the oven.

Avacado Pate
based on a recipe from a vintage Australian Women's Weekly Entertaining cookbook

3 medium avacados, pitted, peeled and chopped
4 oz. cream cheese
1 medium garlic clove and 1 small shallot (or another medium garlic clove), diced
Juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper to taste

1.) Place all ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth.

2.) Strain in a fine-mesh sieve to remove white pieces of cream cheese.

3.) Scoop into serving dish and chill for several hours before serving so that the flavors can meld and the dip can stiffen.

Optional: For an even better presentation place whole or halved pistachios (shelled) on top of the dip before chilling.

Vietnamese Garden Rolls

These are a favorite of mine but I usually don't have the patience to make them. Not that they take all that long; I just love shrimp and tend to want to eat them right away.

Vietnamese Garden Rolls

You'll need:

Spring Roll Wrappers (you might have to get these in an Asian market)
Lettuce
Thin Vermicelli Rice Noodles (in Asian section of grocery store)
Avacado
Large Cooked Shrimp (tails removed) or tofu cut into rectangles
Shredded carrot
Julienned Cucumber
Bean sprouts
Julienned Red Bell Pepper

Note: All of these vegetables are optional. Tonight I only had avacado and lettuce so that's all I used. The rolls taste much better with additional veggies like carrots and cucumbers.

1.) Soak spring roll wrappers, one or two at a time, in a bowl of cold water. Soak until the wrappers are completely soft. Lightly dry wrapper on a paper towel to soak up extra water.

2.) Soak the noodles in a bowl of hot (but not quite boiling) water for about 3 minutes, until soft.

3.) Place one wrapper down on a plate or cutting board. Place a butterflied shrimp in the center of the wrapper. Top the shrimp with a slice of avacado, a few of each of the vegetables, rice vermicelli noodles, and a small leaf of lettuce.

4.) Fold the top and bottom of the wrapper over the filling. Then fold one side of the wrapper over the filling and roll up towards the opposite side.

5.) Serve with Nuoc Cham dipping sauce or peanut sauce.

Note: the recipe I used this time for Nuoc Cham is not the best one I've ever had. Nigella Lawson actually has a great recipe for it but I can't find it right now. If anyone has it please let me know (I think it's from Nigella Bites). I'd love to get a copy.

Cashew and Basil Tartlets

When I was planning the menu for my dinner party this past Monday I knew I needed to have a mixture of recipes that I were from my repetoire and a few recipes I had never tried before. Usually you aren't supposed to try new recipes when having guests over but I couldn't just serve bread and cheese for an appetizer (not that there is ANYTHING wrong with that..good cheese and bread is heavenly) because my guests had been listening to me go on and on about how much I love to cook. So I felt that I needed to impress. That's when I turned to my Finger Food cookbook from The Australian Women's Weekly.

I had already made some olive tarts (puff pastry, feta, and olives) and had leftover puff pastry dough so I decided to make Cashew and Basil Tartlets. The recipe called for fresh basil which I had just used up the night before for homemade pesto so I decided that the pesto would work fine in its place. The result was quite tasty. My only complaint is that they're called Cashew and Basil Tarts. You can't taste the cashews at all.



Cashew and Basil Tartlets
c. 1998, The Australian Women's Weekly Cookbooks

3 sheets ready rolled shortcrust pastry
paprika

FILLING:
1 oz. butter
1 onion, finely chopped
4 oz. packet cream cheese
1 oz. butter, extra
1/4 cup roasted cashew nuts
2 T. chopped fresh basil
1 egg yolk
1/4 c. cream (or milk)
1/4 c. grated fresh parmesean cheese

Cut 2 inch rounds from pastry, press into lightly greased (or non stick) mini muffin pans, prick well with fork. Bake in moderately hot oven for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned, remove from pan to wire rack.

Filling: Heat butter in pan, add onion, cook, stirring, until onion is soft. Blend or process remaining ingredients until smooth, stir in onion mixture.

Just before serving, spoon filling into mini tartlets and bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Sprinkly lightly with paprika just before serving.

Makes about 60.

Note: Pastry tartlets and filling can be prepared a day ahead.

Mini Shitake Egg Rolls

Last week I made vegetarian spring rolls and was just not satisfied with their turnout. Since I still had a bunch of beansprouts and shitake mushrooms left in the fridge I decided to make my own egg roll recipe. This time I cut the large square wrappers into quarters.



Filling:
1 cup diced shitake mushrooms
1/2 to 1 cup beansprouts
2" piece of ginger, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 chile, seeded and minced
2 T. cilantro, chopped

I cooked the filling in my brand new wok (more about woks in my post about the Wok Shop in San Fran) and fried the filled wrappers in my deep fryer. They were a lot better than the vegetarian rolls I made the other day.


Here is a pictorial explanation on how to make eggrolls:

Mushroom Palmiers

When I was visiting my parents recently I went through my mom's cookbooks and stole her Australian Women's Weekly Finger Foods cookbook. It's mostly filled with appetizers that are perfect for entertaining but I saw several recipes I wanted to try just for my husband and I.

The first recipe I've attempted from the book is Mushroom Palmiers. They looked so cute in the cookbook and seemed like the perfect use of the huge bag of shitake mushrooms I bought at 99 Ranch Market.

My first attempt at this recipe was almost a disaster. I prepared the mushroom filling by chopping and mixing the ingredients and then put them in the puff pastry just like I was instructed to do so in the recipe. While I was doing this I kept wondering why they don't have you cook the filling. Everytime I've made anything with mushrooms they need to be cooked first. I figured I would just follow the recipe and I couldn't go wrong. Well, not cooking the filling was my first mistake. I hadn't noticed that the instructions for the filling were at the end of the recipe (which makes NO sense to me). I didn't realize this until I had taken the rolled up puff pastry out of the fridge. That's when I realized that I had misread the recipe. My second mistake was that I had folded the puff pastry logs in half vertically rather than horizontally.

Fortunately I was able to open the pastry logs up and take the filling out. While I didn't cook it according to the directions (it was too late, I had combined everything at once) the cooked mixture turned out fine). When I fixed the pastry logs they were pretty pathetic looking but I was not about to waste food. Especially since the puff pastry cost me $5 at the store (okay, you can tell how poor I am since I'm complaining about $5). I miss Jon's up in Los Angeles. They have great puff pastry for cheap.

So, long story short, they turned out pretty well despite all of the mistakes I made. The picture below on the left is my first attempt and the picture on the right is my second attempt. The second ones turned out perfectly (with some changes that I made to the recipe; see below).


















Mushroom Palmiers
from Finger Food by The Australian's Women Weekly
c. 1998

Makes about 70.

(translated into American measurements with added notes)

12 oz. package of puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, lightly beaten

Filling:
1 T. oil
1 T. butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, finely chopped
1 cup mushrooms, finely chopped
1 T. plain flour
2 T. water
1 T. chopped fresh chives

To make Filling:

1.) Heat oil and butter in pan. Add garlic and onion and cook, stirring, until soft.
2.) Stir in mushrooms, cook for about 4 minutes or until mushrooms are soft. Stir often.
3.) Add flour, stir over heat for 1 minute, gradually stir in water, stir over heat until mixture boils and thickens.
4.) Remove from heat; cool. Stir chives into mushroom mixture.

To make palmiers:

1.) Preheat oven to 375-400 degrees (When I baked them at 375 they took forever to brown).

2.) Roll pastry on lightly floured surface to 10"x13" rectangle, cut in half lengthways to form 2 rectangles. Spread half the filling over 1 rectangle; repeat with remaining filling and rectangle.

3.) Fold in the long sides or each rectangle so they meet in the center, brush along center with some of the egg, fold in half, press lightly; cover, refrigerate 30 minutes. Cut rolls into 1cm slices and place with cut side up on lightly greased oven trays.

4.) Bake for about 12 minutes (it took me more like 30 minutes at 375 degrees) or until well browned. Serve hot.

Vegetarian Spring Rolls

It didn't take long for me to realize that my new deep fryer was going to be trouble. Last week I made more hot wings (they're so quick and sinfully good) and then fried up a batch of spring rolls.

The recipe came from this cute little Thai cookbook (appropriately called Thai) that I got from a friend that has been my Thai bible. I'm sure there are better cookbooks but it's so small and handy.

VEGETARIAN SPRING ROLLS

1 oz. fine cellophane noodles
2 t. peanut oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 t. grated fresh ginger (see note)
1/2 c. oyster mushrooms, thinly sliced (I used shitake)
2 scallions, finely chopped
1/2 c. beansprouts
1 small carrot, finely shredded
1/2 t. sesame oil
1 T. light soy sauce
1 T. rice wine or dry sherry
1/4 t. ground black pepper
1 T. chopped fresh cilantro
1 T. chopped fresh mint
24 spring/egg roll wrappers
1/2 t. cornstarch
peanut oil for frying

1.) Place noodles in large bowl. Cover with boiling water and let stand for 4 minutes. Drain, rinse in cold water, then drain again. Cut into 2 inch lengths.

2.) Heat the oil in a wok or wide pan over a high heat. Add the garlic, ginger, mushrooms, beansprouts and carrot and stir fry for about 1 minute until just softened.

3.) Stir in the sesame oil, soy sauce, rice wine, pepper, cilantro, and mint, then remove from heat. Stir in noodles.

4.) Arrange the spring roll wrappers on a work surface, pointing diagonally. Mix the cornstarch with 1 T. water ( I used hot water so it dissolved) and brush the edges of 1 wrapper with this. Spoon about 1 T. of filling onto pointed side of wrapper.

5.) Roll the point of wrapper over filling, then fold the sides in over filling. Continue to roll up and moisten wrapper with cornstarch mixture.

6.) Heat oil in wok (or in my case, deep fryer) to 350 degrees. Add rolls in batches and fry for about 2-3 minutes (it took me 5-8) until golden brown and crisp.

I served the eggrolls with two different sauces. In one bowl I had sweet chili sauce (no changes, just served straight from the bottle) and in the other I combined soy sauce (a few tablespoons), honey (about 1-2 t.), and minced Thai chili (just one, they're hot!).

Note: the ginger grater below is the BEST grater you can buy for grating ginger. It keeps the juice and grates it perfectly and effortlessly for any dish. You can find it at Sur La Table or asian markets. I bought mine at The Wok Shop in Chinatown (San Francisco). More to come re: The Wok Shop. Oh, and you can buy plain ones. I just thought the cat was cute!

I also made some mango-avacado sushi with spicy masago for dinner that same night. The spicy masago is a beautiful red and really makes the sushi pop both visually and in your mouth. They are pretty spicy but that's left up to each individual's taste. I LOVE spicy food--the hotter the better. My husband, however, is a little wimpier with the spices. He thought it was pretty spicy but very tasty.

99 Ranch Market carries regular, wasabi, and spicy masago. All are very beautiful and have their own unique flavors.