Tropical Fruit Salsa

Despite having absolutely no cultural affiliation to the holiday, my parents take Cinco de Mayo very seriously. 

 

I’m not sure where it started, but years back, my dad suddenly decided this had to be a holiday we celebrated.  He bought sombreros for everyone, a string of jalapeno shaped Christmas lights, a CD of cheesy music, and of course, a boatload of Corona.  We grilled steak and hot peppers, drank margaritas, and lined up empty Corona bottles on the deck, and it became a yearly tradition. 

 

Now, each year we try out new recipes, and I wanted to share some of my favorites.  Today’s recipe is for Tropical Fruit Salsa, a festive, healthy, and delicious addition to the party.  I used this as a dip for chips, but I think it would also be extremely delicious spooned over grilled chicken, or maybe combined with brie into a (admittedly not very Mexican) quesadilla.

 

Take care with dicing your fruit, this is meant as a dip for chips so you want to dice it into very small pieces. 

 

Tropical Fruit Salsa, from Martha Stewart’s Hors d’Oeuvres Handbook

1 medium ripe papaya, small dice (¼ - ½  inch pieces)

1 medium ripe mango, small dice

½ a pineapple, small dice

1 medium jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, minced (taste your jalapeno first- sometimes they’re super mild and sometimes they are crazy hot! Know what you are working with before you move forward)

1 small red onion, small dice

1 tbsp fresh chopped cilantro

1 tbsp lime zest

1 tbsp lime juice

Coarse salt

 

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients.  This can be made up to an hour ahead, but add the papaya just before serving.

 

Buffalo Wings

Kind of randomly, buffalo wings were one of the first recipes I ever learned to make.  When I was a teenager, my parents finished the basement and in late high school and college breaks, I used to love having people over. My group of friends is heavy on the men, so buffalo wings were a staple.

My mom taught me using the recipe she's used for years, the "original" one, supposedly, that she clipped from an issue of Good Housekeeping from before I was born.

This is one of those recipes that's best kept simple; doctoring it up with too much junk doesn't do you any favors. 

Classic Buffalo Wings
Serves 6 as an appetizer

3 lbs wings
2 tbsp oil
Salt
Pepper
Garlic salt
Paprika
4 tbsp butter
1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot (must be Frank's)
1 1/2 tbsp white vinegar
Celery sticks
Carrot sticks
Ranch or blue cheese dressing

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Cut the wings into 3 pieces- the flat, the drumstick, and the wing tip. I find it's easiest to bend the joints in the wrong direction to loosen them, and then to just chop through with a scissor. Or, you can ask your butcher to handle this for you. Discard wing tips or reserve for stock.

Arrange wing pieces on a foil lined baking sheet. Coat with oil, then sprinkle over with the salt, pepper, garlic salt, and paprika. I don't measure this, I just eyeball it- it's not rocket science.

Bake for one hour, turning over halfway through.

Just before wings are done, combine butter, hot sauce, and white vinegar in a saucepan.  Heat through to melt butter. Stir to combine, then add wings and toss to coat.

Arrange wings on platter with dressing of choice and carrot and celery sticks.

These will be gone before you can blink.

Seafood Salad

 

Merry Christmas!! Today, I just have a quick last minute recipe if you’re doing the Italian Seven Fishes Christmas Eve dinner. This comes by way of my friend Laura, a great Italian cook who’s taught me most of what I know in the kitchen. 

Seafood Salad
1 lb fresh calamari, cleaned and sliced into rings
1 red bell pepper, cut into very thin slices
1/3 of a small red onion
Olive oil
Olives
Capers 
Lemon zest, to taste

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Throw in your calamari and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute, just until calamari turns white and opaque. Don’t overcook! (I always remember the old Italian idea, 30 seconds or 30 minutes for squid, anything in between and you have shoe leather).  

Drain calamari well and toss with olive oil to taste- I never measure, sorry! Add your red pepper, onion, zest, olives and capers. I didn’t include amounts for those, just do what you like. I love olives and capers, so I included quite a bit of them. 

Let this sit in the fridge for a few hours before serving.  

To prepare a day in advance, combine everything except the red onion- that tends to get overpowering if left to sit overnight. Add that a few hours before serving. 

Serves 4-6 as an appetizer.

The Easiest Impressive Appetizer: Fig and Goat Cheese Tarts

Recently, my best friend and her husband came over, and I raided my pantry to come up with a quick appetizer I could serve them before going off to dinner. I came up with a fig and goat cheese tart, made with store-bought phyllo dough shells and prepared fig butter. It was delicious, easy, and elegant, making it a perfect recipe to keep on hand for unexpected company, fancy parties, or just an addition to a holiday buffet.

Fig and Goat Cheese Tarts

1 box store bought phyllo dough tart shells (I use Wegman’s brand)

1 jar fig butter (Found this at Trader Joe’s, they currently have seasonal pumpkin and cranberry versions as well)

1 5oz log goat cheese

Defrost your phyllo shells as necessary according to the package directions. I simply let mine sit out for ten minutes as the oven preheated.

Using a quarter to a half teaspoon measure, drop a small amount of fig butter into each shell. This stuff has a very strong, sweet flavor, so I found that a little goes a long way. Of course, you can adjust this to your taste as necessary.  You will have plenty of fig butter and goat cheese left over.

Crumble off large pieces of goat cheese and place in shell. Again, no exact measurements here- the amount you use will depend on the size of your shell. I use enough to fill the shell, but not to come spilling out over it.

Bake in a 425 degree oven for 10 minutes, until the goat cheese is slightly melting and the phyllo shells have turned golden.  Garnish with fresh basil.

You could prepare these up until the baking step and leave in the fridge for a few hours to get them ready before a party. When needed, bake as directed for 10 minutes and serve.

Makes 12 tarts.

This appetizer lends itself to so many variations, beyond just fig and goat cheese. Some ideas:
 

·         Tomatoes and feta

·         Goat cheese and olives

·         Manchego and quince

·         Spinach and artichoke- Whir up some thawed frozen spinach and artichokes with cream cheese in a food processer. Thin with a little cream and bake until golden.

·         Smoked mozzarella and soppresata

·         Mixed sautéed mushrooms

·         Pastry cream and fresh berries, for a dessert variation

Antipasto

Pretty sure antipasto is one of my favorite things in the world. Meat, cheese, olives, bread- I could happily subsist on all of the above. 

It’s also great to serve at a party- there’s something for everyone, and it requires no cooking, just arranging of some purchased cold cuts and jarred items.

I’ve served it as a light lunch for three, crowding a platter with crusty Italian bread, spicy soppressata, roasted red peppers, and olives:

Sometimes, I step things up with the inclusions of mini cheese boards, here featuring mozzarella and robiola. I like a mixed green salad to round things out as well, and I really love arugula lightly tossed with lemon juice and olive oil. 

For a football party recently, I put together this spread:

But basically, you can pick and choose whatever you like, arrange it nicely, and serve up a delicious appetizer with basically no cooking.

Some ideas to include:

·        Artichoke hearts

·        Olives

·        Marinated mushrooms

·        Pepperoncini

·        Cured hard salami

·        Mortadella

·        Prosciutto or speck (its smoked sister)

·        Mini bell peppers

·        Cheese: Provolone, Taleggio, Robiola, Fontina, or hunks of Parmesan

·        Giardinera (pickled vegetables)

·        Breadsticks or crostini

·        Figs

·        Caponata

Presentation: Caprese Salad

It’s been said a lot and I have to agree: you eat with your eyes first. A five star meal doesn’t stand out as much if you serve it in a fast food way. My mom loves to tell the story of my grandmother’s friend Josephine, who was fond of serving crappy cuts of meat and chicken at dinner parties.

 “Josephine made shit, but always put it out on her best china platters and set a nice table, and everyone loved it! Meanwhile your aunt Millie was the best cook, but no one ever commented because she would just dump it from the pan onto a plate.”

Thanks to food blogs and Pinterest, I think people, at least unconsciously, pay more attention to how food looks. So many of my friends have “Entertaining” pin boards, which feature nothing but elegantly arranged cheese boards and cute little appetizer buffets.

 

So I thought I’d start a series of posts called Presentation, where I’ll highlight easy ways to make your dishes look better. The focus will be on simple tricks, so that you don’t spend as much time arranging as you did cooking. I’ll post whenever I have ideas, and to start, here’s a pretty way to serve the classic Caprese Salad.

 
 Here’s my tips:

• Try using various colored tomatoes. I went with red and yellow heirlooms, but I think adding in Green Zebras would make a big impact too.  Use a mix of large tomatoes and small cherry ones too, as the flavor is different, and the visual impact is better.
• When serving large groups, I use Belgioso mozzarella cheese. It comes pre-sliced, which makes life easier, and since you can purchase a double pack in Sam’s Club for around $10, it’s also cost-effective. Of course, if you live near a good Italian deli, get their fresh mutz, or spring for delicious, creamy burrata.
• To assemble, slice your tomatoes about the same size as your cheese. Going around your platter in concentric circles, place a slice of tomato, slice of cheese, slice of basil, over and over till you’ve filled it in. Add some halved cherry tomatoes and torn basil leaves in the center.  The platter can be assembled a couple of hours ahead at this point.
• Garnish just before serving- use loads of fresh basil, big pieces of flaky sea salt, and a bright olive oil. My dad buys me fancy balsamic for my birthday each year, so I added a few drops of that as well.   

Mini Shrimp Rolls

I always find myself gravitating towards the same old party appetizers, so for this year’s Super Bowl, I was determined to change things up.  I wanted something that could be served in individual portions and laid out nicely on a tray, so I opted for Bon Appetit’s Mini Shrimp Rolls.  They’re like lobster rolls, except with a more budget-friendly shrimp filling. Of course, if you love your friends enough to buy them lobster (I don’t), I’m sure that would work quite nicely.

They were a huge hit, the surprise favorite of the party, and simple to make ahead.  Here’s the recipe how I made it, but you can check out the original on Bon Appetit.

Ingredients

• Kosher salt
• 1 bag frozen shrimp, thawed, shelled, deveined
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 small celery stalk, diced
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, plus juice of half a lemon, divided
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 24 King’s Hawaiian mini dinner rolls
• Chopped parsley for garnish  

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400.

Lay out shrimp on baking sheet and toss with the juice of half a lemon, plus salt and pepper. Roast at 400 for 10-12 minutes, until cooked through, depending on the size of your shrimp.  Let cool.

Whisk mayonnaise, celery, chives, oil, lemon juice, and dijon in a medium bowl to blend; season to taste with salt and pepper. Chop shrimp into small pieces and add to bowl with mayonnaise mixture. Stir to coat. Shrimp salad can be made 1 day ahead at this point. Cover and chill.

Preheat oven to 375°. Using a small serrated knife, make a 1/2-inch-deep cut across the top of each dinner roll and gently pry open roll with your fingers to create a mini New England–style hot dog bun. Place on a baking sheet and toast until light golden, about 8 minutes. Let cool slightly. Can be done a few hours ahead at this point.

Divide shrimp mixture among rolls, pressing into cut across top; garnish with chopped parsley.