September 20, 2009

I’m so glad that I was reading Kahakai Kitchen the other day when Deb mentioned the new weekly cooking event, I Heart Cooking Clubs. Luckily, I found out about it just in time to join the fun!

The Cooking Club is presently featuring the recipes of Nigella Lawson and the first weeks’ challenge is Party Treats. Yay!! My favorite course!

You all know that I LOVE appetizers!  I’ve mentioned more than once or twice how much I prefer hosting Hors D’Oeuvres & Cocktail Parties versus hosting a formal sit-down dinner. Most of the time when we have friends over, we end up standing around the kitchen bar and island talking, eating, having a few cocktails, and we never sit down. (It sounds rude, I know, but no one ever wants to sit, including myself!)

So, for this first week on IHCC, I decided to make Nigella’s Shrimp with Garlic and Chili Pepper.  The original recipe can be found online at Food Network. I thought these would be a perfect little party treat to take to a get-together we had planned for last night; and, yes, they were a hit!

I changed it up a bit, like I always do when I cook!  I have three hungry men in my house, so I started with a pound of shrimp instead of a half of a pound. (I did want to have some left to take to my friends after the guys did their little taste test.) Since I started with twice as much shrimp as the original recipe called for, I used 3 T. of olive oil instead of 2 T. and 3 large garlic cloves instead of two. Also, my local store didn’t have red chili peppers, (which ticked me off) so I used a half of a Serrano instead. And, I wanted some red color so I added 1/2 t. crushed red pepper flakes. The combination of the two turned out great!

Nigella’s recipe called for unshelled shrimp but since I wanted to serve these individually on toasted baguette slices, I shelled the shrimp before I cooked it. I also decided to spread a little goat cheese on the toasted bread before sitting the pretty little shrimps on top.  Everyone loved these little party treats!

Shrimp with Garlic and Chili Pepper
(adapted from Nigella Lawson’s Nigella Bites online at Food Network)

3 T. olive oil
1/2 serrano pepper
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 t. crushed red pepper flakes
1 lb. medium to large shelled shrimp
1/2 c. white wine
Pinch of salt
5 oz. package of soft goat cheese
1 baguette bread, sliced diagonally
1 T. chopped Italian parsley

To begin, lightly brush the baguette bread slices with olive oil and toast at 400 degrees for ten minutes or so. Set aside to cool.

Pour the olive oil into a wide, heavy-bottomed frying pan. Then add the pepper and garlic and, over moderate to low heat, to infuse rather than to color, fry for 2 minutes, stirring all the time.

Then turn the heat to high, add the shrimp, and stir-fry them for another 2 minutes or until they turn pink and are just delicately cooked. Pour in the white wine and let it bubble up. Cook for just another minute or so. Season with salt, if necessary.

Spread some goat cheese on each bread slice.

Place a nice juicy shrimp on top, sprinkle with some parsley and serve immediately.

Enjoy! And, don’t forget to check out I Heart Cooking Clubs today for the full roundup of awesome party treats!

~LilSis

August 26, 2009

Being vegetarian, a tomato sandwich in the summertime is one of my staple meals.  Great whole grain bread with mayo, and locally grown tomatoes.  Plus a good dash of salt and Penzeys shallot pepper.  Avocado, pickles and lettuce are optional.  Ah, but there’s another kind of tomato sandwich out there. Let me explain.

Take a nice thick slice of GOOD tomato…do NOT use the crummy pinkish faux tomatoes that the grocery stores try to pass off on us.

Add a thick schmear of goat cheese with a spoonful of pesto mixed in.

Top with another thick slice of tomato.

Roll in seasoned flour, then egg, then panko breadcrumbs and saute til golden brown.

Sprinkle with salt.

Gobble down.

Rinse and repeat.

Are you with me?

I heard about this idea from a tomato recipe contest the Washington Post conducted.  Last year’s winner used this method, but included bacon (I don’t eat Babe), Boursin cheese instead of the goat cheese and pesto, and Italian breadcrumbs instead of the panko.  Besides my pesto version, you could also use a dollop of the Hatch Green Chile and Garlic Goat Cheese that I did a couple of days ago.

Helllooo, my darling Sammie.

Fried Tomato Sandwiches with Pesto and Goat Cheese
(adapted from Mary Joe Sweeney’s winning recipe)

1 large ripe tomato
1 nice thick chunk of goat cheese
1 Tblsp pesto
Flour, well seasoned with salt and pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
Panko breadcrumbs
Olive oil or canola oil for sauteing

Core the tomato and slice it into 4 even slices.  Mix the pesto into the goat cheese.  Add half of it to one slice of tomato, and top with another to make a sandwich.  Repeat with the rest of the goat cheese and the 2 remaining tomato slices.  Dredge in the flour, then the egg, and then the breadcrumbs.  Saute in oil until golden brown, then carefully flip and lightly brown the other side. Remove from heat and immediately salt the sandwiches. Drain briefly on paper towels, and serve hot.  Makes 2 sandwiches.

Like LilSis’ little baby quiches yesterday, this is a recipe that allows you to do whatever you want with it.  Use any soft cheese you like, but remember that if it’s not soft and gooey, it won’t get melty before the tomatoes get yukky.  Add in olives, herbs (chives would be good), garlic, scallions, anything you can think of.  A little shredded parmesan would be good mixed in with the breadcrumbs too.

Fried Tomato Sandwich with Pesto and Goat Cheese

~BigSis

August 25, 2009

Have you ever bought the little frozen mini quiches for a party when you’re in a real pinch for an appetizer and don’t have any time to make them from scratch? Actually, I’ve had to do that a couple of times, but I would much rather serve homemade appetizers. I guess I could compare myself to a baking from scratch snob that doesn’t like cake mixes; I don’t really like store bought appetizers.

If I think back to my childhood days, I may love appetizers as much as I do because SisMama and D always had cheese, crackers, and sardines or chips and dip out for us to snack on before dinner. I always loved that and still do! SirHoney’s mother doesn’t believe in appetizers before dinner because it could spoil your appetite. (Party Pooper!) You might even get your hand slapped if you try to steal an olive off of the relish tray before you sit down to dinner.

To this day, I prefer to go out and share a couple of appetizers for dinner versus ordering a full entree. And, I’d much rather host an Cocktail & Hors D’Oeuvres Party instead of a sit-down dinner party.

For some reason, I’ve never made mini quiches myself.  Yesterday, I was in the mood to do something a little different, plus I was hungry and didn’t want to wait almost an hour for a full size quiche to bake, so I decided to make these. And, I always make my quiche crustless, so the mini cups were also crustless.

Since I wanted these quiche cups to be bite size, I used the mini muffin pan instead of the regular size muffin pan. I browsed the Internet a little bit to peek at some recipes, but I didn’t find anything that ‘blew my socks off’, so I ended up just throwing this together. I saw that a lot of the quiche cup recipes used muffin baking cups but I didn’t see a reason to use those. I just wanted to pop them in my mouth right out of the tin instead of having to remove them from a baking cup.

And, since I was hungry, I got in too big of a hurry and forgot the Frank’s Red Hot that I had intended on adding. (I even had it sitting out on the counter.) I was also going to add some cracked pepper and maybe some shallot pepper but I totally spaced and forgot that too. 

You could vary these ingredients and add ham, bacon bits, spinach or broccoli instead of asparagus, onions, chives, basil, etc.  This is EXACTLY the kind of recipe that I LOVE! You can make it your own and use whatever you happen to be in the mood for that day without worrying that you’ll screw it up! The quantities are not exact and luckily, it doesn’t matter!

These got the ‘thumbs up’ from BigT and HayHay, who both happened to be standing by waiting for them to come out of the oven! You could actually pop the whole little cup in your mouth, but if you happened to bite it in half, here’s what you would find!

Mini Asparagus Tomato Quiche Cups

3 eggs, beaten
3/4 c. grated cheddar cheese
1 small tomato, peeled, seeded, and chopped
12 stalks grilled asparagus (tips cut off and the stalks chopped)
1/4 c. or so of chopped leftover sauteed mushrooms
Pam Cooking Spray

Spray the muffin tin with Pam. Beat the eggs in a small bowl and add the cheese, tomato, chopped asparagus and mushrooms. Stir until blended well. Ladle the quiche into the muffin tins. (I used an ice cream scoop to prevent a mess.) This quantity perfectly filled up the 12 mini cups. Place an asparagus tip on top of each filled cup. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

It doesn’t get much easier than that, does it?

~LilSis

August 24, 2009

The Hatch Green Chile Festival is in full swing! If you haven’t gone “Hatch Crazy” before, now is the time! What’s the big deal about the Hatch Green Chiles? They are green chiles that are only grown in Hatch, New Mexico. They are delicious, and they’re only available for a short time each year. Here in Texas, we’re already hot and spicy so when Hatch time rolls around, we go nuts!

You can do a million things with these flavorful peppers. I wandered through Central Market the other night amidst the Hatch Green Chile frenzy, and they were sampling these things in the store:

• Hatch Green Chile Monterrey Jack Cheese grilled in sourdough bread (unbelievably scrumptious)

• Hatch Green Chile Pesto wrapped up in a tortilla with mild sliced roasted peppers

• Hatch Green Chile Cheese Bread

They also had these items all made with Hatch Green Chiles: tortillas, tortilla chips, sausages, hamburger patties, hamburger and hot dog buns, chili con queso, popcorn, twice-baked potatoes, and meatloaf!  So apparently there isn’t anything that a Hatch Chile can’t do!

I decided to use some of my roasted pepper stash in a goat cheese spread. I’ve been buying a Hatch Green Chile Goat Cheese from a little local goat farm for the last couple of years, but sadly they recently went out of business so I made my own easy version.  I used the mild variety of the peppers, so please check the heat level of your peppers and adjust the quantity you use in this recipe if yours are hot.  Trust me!  The hot ones are hotter than heck, and if you use a whole 1/4 cup of them in this recipe, your hair will absolutely be on fire!  Not to mention other parts of your body!

Hatch Green Chile and Garlic Goat Cheese

Hatch Green Chile and Garlic Goat Cheese

4 garlic cloves, crushed (I used 6 cloves cause that’s how I roll)
1/4 cup roasted and chopped mild Hatch Green Chiles
Olive oil for sauteing
8 ounces goat cheese
Dash of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
Pepper to taste

Saute the crushed garlic in the olive oil over low heat for a minute or two, but do not brown.  Add the chopped chiles and saute for another 30 seconds.  Add to the goat cheese, and mix to blend well.  Add the Frank’s Red Hot and pepper to taste.  Serve with crackers or crudite.

Hatch Green Chile and Garlic Goat Cheese with Tomato Dippers

Whatever your pepper pleasure is, make sure to take advantage of these peppers while they’re in season!

~BigSis

December 30, 2008

New Year’s Eve will be here within a matter of hours, and you may be thinking about what to serve your hungry crowd.  Plain chips? Mixed nuts? Chex Mix?  How about something as easy as those options but tastier?

Salty...savory...slightly spicy...delicious!

I work with G, whose husband C is a great cook.  His family has a recipe for a snack mix they call “IT”. IT is really simple, but IT is so delicious that you can’t stop eating IT!  Fortunately, IT makes a HUGE batch!  You can see that you have lots of leeway in the amounts of dry ingredients to use.  Just use what you like and IT will turn out great!  Don’t leave the curry powder out though.  I don’t usually like curry, but the small amount of it in this recipe gives it a great subtle flavor.  There’s something about the combination of the curry, fresh garlic and butter with the salty ingredients that’s just yummy!  Thanks for this recipe, G and C!

IT rocks!

IT

Mix together in large roasting pan:
2 bags Fritos
1 box CheezIts
Pecans
Walnuts
Sliced Almonds
Popped Popcorn

Mix in saucepan:
1 tsp curry powder
3 dashes Tabasco
1 Tblsp Worcestershire
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 or 2 cloves crushed garlic
1 tsp salt
2 sticks melted butter

Pour heated mixture over dry ingredients and toss to coat evenly.  Cook in slow oven at 250 degrees for 1 hour.  Stir occasionally.  Dump into brown paper bag to drain.  Store in tightly sealed container when cool.

~BigSis

December 10, 2008

If you’re having a Christmas party, or attending one that you need to bring an appetizer to, I have a winning idea for you.  This is an extremely simple no-bake dish called Cheesecake Crunchy that works every time, and it looks fancy.  Plus it’s deeelicious!  I’ve been making it for more than 20 years, and I have no idea of where I got the original recipe.  You’ll want to start it early enough to allow plenty of chilling time.  I usually make it the day before I need it to make sure it’s thoroughly chilled and set.

Cheesecake Crunchy

1/4 stick butter, melted
3/4 cup cheese crackers, crushed (I prefer CheezIts)
1/2 cup pimento-stuffed green olives, drained and chopped
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 cups sour cream
1 pound cream cheese, softened (2 8-ounce blocks)
Dashes of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce to taste
Extra cracker crumbs and olive halves for garnish, optional

Brush the bottom of a 9″ springform pan with the butter, and sprinkle the crushed crackers over it to form a crust.  Combine the remaining ingredients together with a hand mixer until smooth.  Gently pour over the crust and spread evenly.  Garnish by sprinkling a few extra cracker crumbs over the top and arranging the olive halves, if you wish.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate several hours or overnight.  When ready to serve, remove the sides of the springform pan and place cheesecake on a serving platter.  Serve with more CheezIts or other crackers of your choice.

I wish I had a photo to show you, but I don’t dare make this dish right now since I don’t need to take it anywhere and I would eat the whole thing.  Seriously.  Give it a try and let me know how you like it!  If you don’t make it at Christmas, keep it in mind for New Year’s Eve!

~BigSis