Category: Appetizers

Appetizer Vegetarian · Appetizers · Holiday Food · Salad

Roasted Delicata Squash, Pomegranate and Arugula Salad

Belinda

This is a gorgeous show stealer for the Thanksgiving table. You can roast the Delicata squash the day before if there is no room in the oven on the day.

Serves 4 to 8

Salad
2 medium delicata squash, around 1 and 1/4 lbs total
1 tbsp olive oil
Fine grain sea salt
4 heaping cups baby arugula (or mixed greens if you prefer)
2/3 cup pomegranate seeds (or a generous handful of dried cherries or cranberries)
1/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas) or pecans
4 oz Greek feta cheese, crumbled

Maple-balsamic vinaigrette
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp real maple syrup
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 F
Wash the squash and scrape off any tough bits of skin with a knife. Slice the squash into 1/2 inch rounds. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds from each round. Drizzle the squash with a generous tbsp of olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt.
Use your fingers to lightly coat all the surfaces of the squash with olive oil.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until the squash is tender and golden, flipping halfway.

In a medium skillet over medium-low heat, toast the pepitas (or pecans), stirring frequently, until they are fragrant and lightly golden on the edges. Remove from the heat.
In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup and Dijon mustard with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Once the squash has had a few minutes to cool, combine the arugula, pomegranate (or dried fruit), pepitas (or pecans), crumbled feta and squash in a serving bowl. Toss with enough dressing to lightly coat the leaves. Serve immediately.

Yields 4 substantial side salads or up to 8 small servings.
To make this recipe vegan, skip the feta or serve it on the side.

Appetizer Vegetarian · Appetizers · Holiday Food

Stilton and apple Welsh rarebit bites

Belinda

Delicious for a Holiday appetizer and SO tasty with one of my favorite cheeses, Stilton

Makes 24 bites

1/2 a thin baguette, cut into 1/2 inch slices
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 small Granny Smith apple, peeled, halved, cored and thinly sliced
8oz crumbled Stilton or blue cheese, at room temperature
3 tbsp creme fraiche
1 tsp Worcester sauce
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp honey
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Brush the baguette slices with melted butter; working in batches, grill, flipping once, until golden on both sides, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet. Layer 2 apple slices on each toast and set aside.

Arrange an oven rack 4” from the broiler and heat the broiler to high. Mix the cheese, creme fraiche, Worcester sauce, Dijon, honey, salt and pepper in a small bowl.

Spread about 1 tbsp of the cheese mixture over each toast. Broil until topping is melted and golden brown, about 4 minutes

 

Appetizers · Do-ahead · Gluten Free

Carrot harissa hummus

Belinda

Delicious and very different. Well worth making. Thank you to Aida Mollenkamp for this recipe.

2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 lb carrots, roughly chopped and ends discarded
2 medium cloves garlic cloves, peeled
1 15 oz can garbanzo beans, drained (chick peas)
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp tahini or almond butter
3 to 4 tbsp harissa paste
4 to 5 large ice cubes
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tbsp runny honey
Kosher salt and pepper

Heat the broth in a small saucepan over high heat and bring to the boil.
Add the carrots and garlic, reduce to medium and cook until very tender, about 10 minutes.
Remove from the stove and cool slightly.

Combine the carrots and 1 1/2 cups of the cooking liquid with the chick peas and garlic in a food processor fitted with a blade.
Process until the mixture is very smooth.

Add olive oil, tahini or almond butter and ice cubes and pulse until the mixture is very smooth.
* Regarding the Harissa paste, this amount makes a fairly spicy hummus, so you might want to start with 1 tbsp and taste it to make sure you can handle the heat.

Pulse in 3 tbsp of the Harissa, (or 1 tbsp to start with if you’re not sure of the spiciness) lemon juice and honey and season well with salt. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more salt, honey or Harissa as desired.

Place in the refrigerator to let the hummus cool off before using, at least 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

* The hummus can be made up to 4 days ahead of time – store it refrigerated in an airtight container until ready to use.

Appetizers · Gluten Free · Holiday Food · Salad

Puy lentils with dried sour cherries, bacon and Gorgonzola

Belinda

Sweet, sour and musky-salty. Such a harmonious mixture in a really heady starter

Serves 2 – 4 as a starter salad

1/2 cup Puy lentils (You can use the vacuum packed precooked ones, but miss out the first stage and just reheat in microwave. Also,use about 3/4 to 1 cup lentils as they are already cooked.)
2 bay leaves
2 – 3 shallots, finely chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp water
1 tsp caster sugar (superfine)
2 oz dried sour cherries (You can use dried cranberries, but the slight sourness of these dried cherries works better against the other flavors)
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
8 rashers of bacon (streaky, preferably)
3 oz baby spinach
4 oz creamy Gorgonzola cheese
salt and black pepper

1/  Wash the lentils under cold running water and then drain. Transfer to a saucepan and add enough water to cover them by 3 times their height. Add the bay leaves, bring to the boil and then simmer for about 20 minutes, until the lentils are al dente.

2/ Meanwhile  make the sauce. Place the shallots in a pan with 2 tbsp of the olive oil and saute over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, until golden.
Add the water, sugar, cherries and vinegar and continue simmering over a low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, until you get a thick sauce. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

3/ Drain the lentils (if you have cooked them yourself) and immediately add them to the sauce so they can soak up all the flavors. Stir together, taste and adjust the salt again.
It will need quite a lot, but remember you are adding bacon and Gorgonzola later, which are salty. Set aside to cool down.

4/ Heat the remaining olive oil in a saucepan and fry the bacon in it for 3 minutes on each side, until it turns quite crisp.
Transfer to a piece of kitchen paper to cool. Tear the bacon into large pieces and add to the lentils, then add the spinach and stir well.
Taste and see if the salad needs any more oil, salt or pepper.

5/ Transfer to serving plates and dot with broken chinks of Gorgonzola

Appetizers · Do-ahead · Holiday Food · Meat · Pasta · Vegetable-related

Pumpkin stuffed with Fontina, Italian sausage and macaroni cheese

Belinda

This is a recipe from a book I purchased recently called ‘Melt” based around different macaroni and cheese recipes. It’s terrific and this is a real winner.

Serves 4

1 sugar pumpkin or other sweet variety (not a carving pumpkin), about 5 lbs
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 lb mild Italian pork sausage, skins removed
4 oz elbow macaroni
5 oz fontina cheese, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
2 oz gruyere cheese, cut into 1/4 inch  cubes
4 scallions, diced
1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 tsp fresh sage, chopped
1 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 350F

Cut out a circle from the top of the pumpkin – the way you would to make a jack-o’-lantern  and set aside.
Scoop out the seeds and strings as best as you can. Generously salt and pepper the inside of the pumpkin, pop the top back on it, place it on a rimmed baking dish (since the pumpkin may leak or weep) and bake for 45 minutes.
 
Meanwhile, warm the olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat.
Crumble the sausage into small chunks and cook until lightly browned.
Remove the sausage from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool.
Discard the drippings or save for the gravy.
 
Also while the pumpkin bakes, cook the pasta in a large pot of salted, boiling water until al dente.
Drain through a colander and rinse with cool water to stop the cooking process.
 
In a bowl, toss together the fontina, gruyere, sausage, pasta, scallions and herbs.
When the pumpkin is done baking, take it out of the oven and fill it with the macaroni and cheese mixture.
Pour the cream over the filling.
Place the top back on the pumpkin and bake for 1 hour, taking the top off for the last 15 minutes of cooking so the cheese on top of the filling can get properly brown.
If the top cream still seems a bit too wobbly, give it another 10 mins in the oven.
The cream may bubble over a bit, which is fine. If the pumpkin splits while baking, as occasionally happens, be thankful you set it in a rimmed baking dish and continue to bake!
Allow the pumpkin to rest for 10 minutes before serving. Be careful moving the dish, as the pumpkin may be fragile. 
You can serve this dish two ways;
Cut it into individual servings or just scoop out the insides, including some of the
pumpkin flesh for each serving. 
Season to taste and enjoy!

Appetizer Vegetarian · Appetizers

Cauliflower and cumin fritters with lime yoghurt sauce

Belinda

These are great eaten either hot or warm. Also lovely to stuff inside a piece of pita bread and served with some hummus and tomato.

Serve 4

1 small cauliflower (about 3/4lb)
4 oz plain flour
3 tbsp chopped Italian parsley, plus a few leaves for decoration
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 shallots, finely chopped
4 free range eggs
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin (I use home roasted)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
16 to 17 fl oz sunflower oil for frying

Lime yoghurt sauce

10 ounces or 1 1/2 cups Greek yoghurt
2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro
grated zest of 1 lime
2 tbsp ime juice
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Put all the yoghurt sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk well. Taste, looking for a vibrant, tart, citrusy flavor – and adjust the seasoning.
Chill or leave out for up to an hour.

To prepare the cauliflower, trim off any leaves and use a small knife to divide the cauliflower into little florets. Add them to a large pan of boiling salted water and simmer for 15 minutes or until very soft. Drain into a colander.

While the cauliflower is cooking, put the flour, chopped parsley, garlic, shallots, eggs, spices, salt and pepper in a bowl and whisk together well to make a batter.
When the mixture is smooth and homogenous, add the warmed cauliflower. Mix to break down the cauliflower into the batter.

Pour the sunflower oil into a wide pan to a depth of 1/2 inch and heat up.
When it is very hot, carefully spoon in generous portions of the cauliflower mixture, 3 tbsp per fritter.
Take care with the hot oil.
Space the fritters apart with a fish slice, making sure they are not overcrowded, as they will steam and not get crispy brown if they’re too close together.
Fry in small batches, controlling the oil temperature so the fritters cook but don’t burn.
They should take 3 to 4 minutes on each side.

Remove from the pan and drain well on a few layers of kitchen paper.
Serve with the sauce on the side

 

Appetizers · Holiday Food · Vegetable-related

Roasted butternut squash, spinach and feta tartlets topped with pine nuts.

Belinda

Once the cooler weather arrives, I just love cooking with pumpkins and squashes.  This is a twist on the Greek dish, Spanakopita but has the addition of roasted butternut squash and pine nuts to add sweetness, along with the spinach and feta cheese. So good!!
You can also add sweet potato instead of the squash and replace the dill with other chopped herbs, like parsley or basil or use sun dried tomatoes, or some diced bacon with the onion. If you don’t like feta cheese, try parmesan or mozzarella or even a blue cheese.

6 sheets filo (phyllo) pastry, thawed
2 cups peeled, diced small butternut squash
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 bunch fresh spinach (around 8 oz) stems removed, chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh dill
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 oz feta cheese, crumbled
1 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp raw pine nuts

Preheat the oven to 350 F
Toss the diced squash with 1 tbsp of olive oil, place in a single layer on a baking tray and cook for 15 minutes.
While the squash bakes, heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat.
Cook the onion for 6 minutes, then add the spinach and cook for 4 minutes, stirring regularly.
Stir in the dill, salt and pepper and remove from the heat.
Stir in the crumbled feta and baked squash (keep the oven heated to 350 F) and set aside.
Combine the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil with the melted butter in a small bowl.
Place 2 filo sheets side by side on a work surface and brush each sheet evenly with the butter-oil mixture.
Place 2 more sheets on top and brush with butter-oil, then repeat once more.
Cut each stack into six 5 inch squares, for a total of 12 stacks with 3 sheets each.
Lightly grease a standard 12 cup muffin pan with butter-oil mixture.
Place each square filo stack into a muffin cup, pressing gently to mould the pastry into the bottom.
Spoon 1/4 cup of the spinach-pumpkin filling into each and fold the extra pastry back over the filling, roughly crumpling around the edges so that the filling is still exposed.
Brush the edges with the remaining butter-oil mix.
Sprinkle pine nuts in the middle of each tart.
Bake for 18 minutes, then remove from the oven and transfer the tarts from the muffin pan to a cooling rack.
Let cool slightly then serve.

Variation ; Instead of making 12 muffin-size tarts, you can make four individual pie-sized tarts or one larger pie

Appetizer Vegetarian · Appetizers · Do-ahead

Marinated feta cheese with olives and capers

Belinda

Perfect to have on hand for when people drop by. (not that they do in LA!)  It’s a great starter for a dinner party and something you have already made at least two weeks earlier!

12 oz Greek feta cheese, cubed
2 large garlic cloves
1/2 tbsp mixed peppercorns
8 coriander seeds
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp capers, drained
1/2 cup Kalamata olives, drained (or your favorite olive)
fresh oregano or thyme sprigs
Olive oil to cover
A large preserving jar
Toasted french bread and chopped tomatoes at serving time

Cube the cheese
Thickly slice the garlic
Lightly crush the peppercorns
Pack the feta cheese into a large preserving jar with the bay leaf – interspersing with garlic, coriander/peppercorns, capers, olives and thyme and/or oregano sprigs
Pour in enough olive oil to cover the cheese
Close tightly and allow to marinate for 2 weeks

To serve, lift out the cheese/olives etc and place on hot toast, garnish with chopped tomatoes and drizzle some of the flavored oil marinade over it all

Appetizer Vegetarian · Appetizers · Do-ahead · Vegetable-related

Roasted butternut squash and ginger hummus

Belinda

This is a really gorgeous hummus from Gordon Ramsey. Ras del hannout is well worth making and adds such an exotic flavor to the roasted butternut squash. With the fresh ginger and garlic added, it’s truly a winner.

 

2014-09-08 17.18.34

Serves 8 to 10

1 butternut squash, (about 1 3/4lbs to 2lbs), peeled, seeded and cubed
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 inch piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
Olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp tahini
1 15 oz can of chick peas (Garbanzo beans)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Warmed or griddled pitta bread or flat bread to serve

For the ras del hannout
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp whole cloves
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1/2 tbsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1/2 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp paprika

First make the Ras del hannout spice blend.
Break the cinnamon stick into pieces. Place in a dry pan with the cloves and all the seeds and toast over medium heat for about 1 minutes, until aromatic and the seeds are popping. (shake the spices in the pan as you heat them to prevent burning)
Once heated, remove from the heat and add the paprika.
Place in a spice grinder, blender or pestle and mortar and grind until the mixture is a powder – sift it if necessary.
The spice blend will keep for up to three months if stored in an airtight container.

Preheat the oven to 350 F

Make the hummus. 
In a large bowl, mix the cubed squash, garlic cloves and ginger with 2 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp of the spice mix.
Season with salt and pepper and scatter in a single layer in a roasting tray.
Place in a preheated oven and cook for 30 minutes until tender all the way through.

Once the squash is soft, add the contents of the tray to a blender or processor, discarding the garlic skins first.
Add the tahini, chickpeas and a squeeze of lemon juice along with 2 tbsp olive oil.
Blend until smooth.
Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary – you might need more lemon juice.

Transfer the hummus to a bowl and sprinkle with a little spice mix (I also used some fresh cilantro in the picture).
Drizzle with olive oil and serve with warmed or griddled pitta bread

 

Appetizer Vegetarian · Appetizers · Do-ahead · Nuts · Vegetable-related

Roquefort and walnut terrine with apple salad

Belinda

Another killer appetizer!

8 first-course servings

2 cups walnuts (about 7 ounces)
1 lb Roquefort cheese, at room temperature
1 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
4 medium Granny Smith apples
2 tbsp plus 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup pure olive oil
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Crust bread, for serving

Preheat the oven to 350 F
Spread the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast for about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned and fragrant. Let cool.

Line a 7 by 5 inch loaf pan with plastic, leaving 3 inches of overhang all around. In a large bowl, break up the Roquefort with a fork until slightly chunky.

Add the walnuts and creme fraiche and mix thoroughly. Scrape the mixture into the loaf pan and smooth the top.
Cover with the overhanging plastic wrap and refrigerate until very firm, at least 6 hours or overnight.

Peel, core and thinly slice the apples. In a medium bowl, toss the apples with 2 tbsp of the lemon juice.

In a small bowl combine the remaining 2 tsp of lemon juice with the olive oil, mustard and balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Pour the vinaigrette over the apples and toss well.

Unmold the Roquefort terrine and discard the plastic wrap.
Run a thin knife under hot water and wipe it off, then cut the terrine into 3/4 inch-thick slices, rinsing and drying the knife after each cut.
Arrange the slices on small plates and serve with the apple salad and bread