From: arielle@taronga.com (Stephanie da Silva)
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 93 17:02:11 CDT
Small, cherry-sized balls of cow's milk mozzarella, packed in sealed plastic containers are available in the dairy section of many supermarkets or speciality stores. 1/2 medium lemon 1 medium garlic clove 2 tbl snipped fresh chives 1/4 cup olive oil 1/4 tsp hot red-pepper flakes 9 ounces fresh mozzarella "cherries" or fresh mozzarrella 15 thin prosciutto slices (6 ounces) If you can find Parma it's worth the extra money. 1 medium bunch dill Squeeze lemon juice into a medium bowl. Peel and crush garlic and put it into the bowl along with the chives, olive oil, and red-pepper flakes. Drain and add cheese "cherries" or cut mozzarella into 3/4- inch cubes and add to the mixture. Marinate at room temperature at least 2 hours. (Can cover and refrigerate overnight). Cut prosciutto slices in half lengthwise. Wrap 1 slice of prosciutto around each piece of cheese and 1 small sprig of dill. Secure with a toothpick and serve. Let me know if you want any others. I have many. Or if it is something special you are looking for. I would be happy to help you knock the socks off of your aunt.
Baked Brie/B>
Also, baked Brie is fabulous. If you want to get fancy with the brie, saute some mushrooms with tarragon, garlic and a bit of wine until the mixture is almost dry (the mushrooms should be sliced or chopped, by the by), take a wheel of brie, slice it in half, put the mushroom mix in the middle, and wrap it in phyllo or puff pastry (the frozen puff pastry works fine). Put in the freezer for 20 minutes to firm everything up. At this point, it can be moved to the fridge and kept until needed. Bake it in a moderate oven until the puff pastry browns. Let sit for 15-20 minutes before cutting. You can also use puff pasty scraps to cut out little leaves and stuff to put on top of the whole thing for decoration. This is best with the small wheels, about 5 inches in diameter.
Steam the peas so they're limp. Boil and peel the shrimp, leaving the tails on. Wrap each shrimp in a pea pod and skewer with a fancy toothpick to keep it on. Have a couple of dipping sauces.
Puff Pastry Calzone with Chevre & Artichoke Hearts
1 PKG frozen pastry shells (6), defrosted
8 oz. Chevre cheese, crumbled or feta cheese
1/4 cup cut up onion slices
8 ounces marinated artichoke hearts, drained & chopped
2 Tablespoons sliced black olives
grated paremasan cheese
Stack 3 pastry shells together & roll them out to
measure 8" (this makes a big one you can do it like
this & have people cut off a slice or make little
ones).
Place pastry on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
When you defrost shells don't let them get too soft -
just so they are still chilled.
Combine the next 4 ingredients & place in center of
pastry leaving a 1" border along the edge. (you can
also add some garlic to the mixture)
Roll out the remaining shells in the same fashion &
place over the filling. Press & sel the edges with
the tines of a fork. Scallop them in a decorative
fashion. Pierce top with fork & brush tip with a
little water & sprinkle with a little grated parmesan
cheese.
You can either bake it now or put it in the fridge
until the next day if need be.
Bake in a 400 oven for about 25 minutes or until top
is a deep golden brown. place in a platter & cut
into wedges to serve. Serves about 6.
If you assemble this in advance that's fine but don't
bake it until just before serving.
1 doz. large (jumbo) eggs 1/2 lbs large mushrooms 1 bunch parsly ground black pepper Mayonnaise (I used Cholestrol Free Kraft) Boil the eggs for 10 minutes or more (until they're hard) let them cool off completely. Chop the mushrooms very finely (a good food processor will help) The goal is to have about 2 cups of chopped mushrooms for every dozen eggs. Chop 1/2 cup of parsly (very very fine, food processor type fine) Cut the eggs in half and take out the yolks. Mix the egg yolks with the mushrooms, parsly and add a tea spoon full of black pepper. Add 1/2 cup mayonnaise and stir the whole thing. You should have a grey, mushroomy paste. Stuff each hollow egg half with heaping teaspoon of the paste. Put a tiny little bit of mayo on top and stick a parsly leaf on. Refrigerate before serving. Most people grabbed 3 - 4 halves, so plan accordingly. If you're handy around the kitchen, 3 dozens of this should not take you more than 1 hour and you can prepare this hours ahead.
1 Boboli (Italian crust in the shape of pizza pre-made up) Pesto sauce sun dried tomatoes grated cheese (Monterey Jack works great) Spread the pesto sauce on the boboli. Lay the sun dried tomatoes on top (I laid them on paper towels to get some of the excess oil off). Cover top with grated cheese. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Cut in diamond shapes, then cut shapes in half to get finger-sized triangles. Serve warm.
(makes around 56 small rolls) 1 Medium Carrot (Julienned) 6 - 8 Scallions (chopped) 2 Medium Cloves of Garlic (crushed) 1/2 Lb. White Mushrooms (chopped) or Shitake if you're from Palm Beach 3/4 Lb. Spinach (stemmed and broken up) 10 oz. Cooked Salmon (canned, or preferrably fresh) 12 - 15 medium to large shrimp (peeled, deveined, and chopped) 2 Tbsp. Chinese Cooking Wine or Dry Sherry 2 Tbsp. Dark Soy Sauce (Kikkoman?) 1 Lb. Package of Won Ton Wrappers About 1/2 Package of "White Sauce" mix (for thickener) Salt and Pepper to taste 1 - 2 Cups Vegetable oil (for deep frying) Filling Preparation: In a fairly large sauce pan or fry pan, saute garlic, scallions, and carrot in a little oil until vegetables are limp. Add wine, soy sauce, spinach, seafood and mushrooms and stir fry, while breaking up the salmon into small pieces. Be careful not to overcook. Shrimp should turn pink and mushrooms and spinach should have rendered their liquid and gone soft. Add some of the White Sauce mix a little at a time until good consitency is reached, and ingredients stick together (like stuffing). Let this mixture cool before making the rolls. Stuffing and Frying: Lay out a sheet of wax paper for a work area, and have within reach a saucer with a little water. It's best to do three at a time, I found. Place about a well rounded teaspoon of filling in the lower third of each Won Ton wrapper. Then fold the two sides part way over the mixture. Wet your finger in the saucer and use it to moisten the top end of the wrapper. Roll it up and seal it. For frying, put enough oil in the pan to just cover the rolls. Fry for 3-5 minutes each until golden brown. You can fry maybe 5-8 at a time depending on the size of the pan. Turn each occasionally to check doneness and color. Drain on paper towels. Dipping Sauce: This one goes well. Just mix about 2 Tbsps. of Grey Poupon (or similar) mustard with 1 Tsp. honey and 1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce. These are not so difficult to make as it may seem. The worst part is the wrapping, but that might take only 15 minutes or so once you get adept and have a little practice. These rolls reheat well by low temp (325) oven or microwave. Heat before serving, but they're OK at room temp.
Prepare a double batch of pie crust or purchase a pie crust mix. Roll out and cut in circles using a donut cutter or cooking cutter. Place circles into bottom of muffin pan so that pie crust curls up the sides by about 1/4 inch. Fill with any combo of filling. I used bacon, mushrooms, onions, and swiss for one filling. The other was broccoli, onions and cheddar cheese. Place just enough filling so it does not go above lip of crust. Beat 2 eggs and 3/4 cup sour cream. Spoon 1 teasp. of egg mixture over each quiche. Bake for 20-25 min in 375 oven. Reheat defrosted quiche for 10 min in a 400 oven.
A Different sort of Rumaki,/B>
Shrimp ( usually use the med size prawns, fresh is better) *Pepper* Bacon (really really it makes a difference) A full large head of garlic several lemons and limes 1 -2 tsp dried red pepper Peel and devein the shrimp. Marinate them with all the garlic (peeled and crushed), the red pepper and enough of equal amounts of fresh lime and lemon juice to cover all the shrimp. Marinate in the 'fridge for 3-6 hours. I usually do this in the morning and let them go all day. After marinating, drain the shrimp (If you are grilling outside I recommend that you save the marinade and baste with it) and cut the bacon strips in half. Wrap the bacon around the shrimp and secure with a toothpick. Either grill over mesquite basting with the reserved marinade (the favored method) or broil in the oven. You may pre-grill these and refrigerate, then warm in the broiler prior to serving. In fact, I think they even taste better that way!
order loaves of bread from a bakery (or bake yourself if you're really ambitious). you can even ask them to make them in pastel shades if you're so inclined. just ask them to slice the bread horizontally for you ... so you have about 5 or 6 long slices. trim the crust and spread/stuff/fill with whatever you like. i've used pate, cream cheese (again, tinted if you want) with chopped olives, cherries, nuts, whatever ... or you can use any one of the prepared flavored cream cheeses in the supermarket. roll up, fasten with toothpicks, wrap first in saran, then in foil (the saran keeps the>
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By trevor Herft