Party Hors d'Oeuvres

It's party season and most of us will be invited to at least one party where we have to take something and my favorite things to take - whether it's to a cocktail-style party or a dinner party is hors d'oeuvres. Hors d'Oeuvre literally means "out of hours" — a reference to the fact these flavorful tidbits are not eaten at a meal. Traditionally the French don't snack or eat at all outside of mealtimes at which time they sit down and have a proper meal (although a proper meal may simply be a croissant and cup of coffee), so these little treats are eaten outside of meals — outside of proper eating times.

Some of these recipes can be completely prepared in advance while others only need a few minutes in an oven. These are all finger foods, suitable for eating with no fancier implement than a cocktail napkin.

Enticing Empanadas: Empanadas, at least the finger-sized version, are primarily a Latin American dish. I only found one Spanish recipe in my searching — which surprised me. They certainly make nice two-bite morsels suitable for munching with a glass of sherry or wine and, because I was catering a tapas party, I though it would be easy enough to create a recipe that tasted more of Spain than Honduras or Cuba so that's what I did.

Duck Rillettes: Rillettes are made from confit, which is some kind of meat (rabbit, pork, goose, or in this case, duck) slowly cooked — eseentially poached — in fat and then pounded into a paste. Confit is an old method of preserving meat, very much a peasant dish in origin and rillettes, spread on bread or crackers, is a great and simple way to enjoy it.

Sausage Balls: I was nine or 10 when I got the assignment: make sausage balls. I suspect I brought it on myself. My memory from so long ago is fuzzy but I seem to recall lobbying my mother to make them one Christmas (she must have made them the previous year) and, as she was wont to do, her response was, "If you want them, you make them." I've made them every year since then — making them the only dish I've ever made so long and so consistently.

Humus bi Tahini: Every time I make humus I'm reminded of an elegant (there's that word again) Lebanese lady who once told me I made the best humus she'd eaten in the US. She said, "It's tart, but not sour. It has good garlic, but not too much. I like the 'pepperness.'" Here is a dish that couldn't be more humble or more common. But it also has an elegance of flavor. Serve with crudities and triangles of pita bread.

Stuffed Mushrooms:
I developed this recipe for a client who has both celiac disease and an allergy to shell fish. I didn't have to make stuffed mushrooms, but I'd fixated on the idea of mushrooms being part of the overall mixture of finger foods I was making — and important pasrt of the complete picture of flavor, texture, and temperature. So I skipped the bread crumbs and subbed pancetta and sun-dried tomato for the shrimp or crab. Delicious.

Southern Pâté: I can't abide most liver (I do like foie gras) so I usually avoid pâtés. But I came across a liver-free recipe a few years ago and decided to tweak it into a recipe for a Southerm pât&eactue;. It turned out beautifully. I've served it with rye cocktail bread and with toast points, but I like it best with little bite-sized biscuits.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | party | tapas meze

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Apple/Sausage Stuffing

A Thanksgiving Favorite



This recipe for stuffing (or dressing as we say in the South) features Italian sausage, apples, and raisins and is specifically intended to complement my recipe for Apple-brined Turkey for Two. You can prep the bread, sausage, and vegetables a day in advance and then store in separate sealed containers (don't refrigerate the bread cubes) until ready to combine and bake.

Recipe here...

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | stuffing | dressing | side dish | thanksgiving

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Smoked Duck with Cranberry Coulis

A Small Affair



This past Thanksgiving day dawned gray and chilly. There's still a bit of color on the trees, but most of the leaves have fallen. To some degree this harks back to childhood Thanksgivings when it was often cold and rainy, although it was usually colder than this and almost all of the trees would be bare except the oaks, which keep their brown leaves throughout the winter.

I spent most of the day on the phone working the Chefsline hotline. It was a busy day, as you might expect, but not as interesting as last year, no really weird questions or tough problems. The most common question this year was about cooking two turkey breasts at once. It's a good question but the answer is simple — treat as separate birds (not one big bird) but allow some extra time for cooking. And between calls I managed to do my prep for dinner.

Thanksgiving was a small affair this year

Thanksgiving was a small affair this year, my sister wasn't able to join us and as usual my brothers' families and their distance from here prevented them from coming. So it was just my parents and myself. I made some Cece Fritos to munch on before dinner, and brined a couple of duck breasts in a cider brine. I smoked the breasts and made a cranberry/orange coulis to go on them.

My mother and I both had an urge for dressing, so she made some and I made a smoked-turkey gravy thinking the smoky flavor in the gravy would complement the smoky flavor of the duck — it did. We also had braised red cabbage, sautéed green beans, and store-bought plum pudding with assorted cheeses for dessert.

Smoked Duck Breasts w/Cranberry Coulis
Serves 4.

Duck Breasts & Brine:
3 1/2-lb duck breasts
2 c apple cider
1/4 c kosher salt
2 tbsp sugar
4 cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Place all ingredients except breasts in a small sauce pan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar and salt. Cool to room temperature, place in the refrigerator and chill. Score the skin of the breasts in a cross-hatch pattern, being careful not to cut through to the skin. Put breasts in a zip-lock bag and add brine. Seal and refrigerate for 8 hours.

Lightly season the skin side of breasts with salt and pepper. Smoke breasts in a stove-top smoker for 30 - 35 minutes. Pour the rendered fat into a skillet, place over medium-high heat, and briefly cook the breasts, skin-side down, to crisp the skin. Slice, plate, and spoon warm cranberry coulis over the slices.

Cranberry Coulis

6 oz cranberries — picked over
1 lg orange — zested and juiced
1/4 c sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 c orange liqueur (Triple Sec, Cointreau, Grand Marnier)

You should have about a cup of fresh orange juice, if not, add water (or more orange juice to bring to 1 cup). Put all ingredients in a small sauce pan including orange zest but excluding liqueur and simmer until berries burst — 15 - 18 minutes. Add liqueur and process in a blender or food processor until pureed. (Note, this is a case where I love my immersion blender because it minimizes cleanup.) Warm before serving.

This coulis is also excellent on roasted pork, lamb, turkey, and chicken.

A simple meal but good and festive, and we were happy to share it with each other. After all, that's what Thanksgiving's about.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | smoked duck | cranberry coulis | thanksgiving | holiday

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Bourbon Cake

Marvelous Stuff!



This article was originally posted in 2006.

Thanksgiving is America's best holiday. It's unencumbered with gifts and cards and similar commercial holiday paraphernalia. There is no long, drawn-out prelude to the holiday beginning after Labor Day. And although the point is giving thanks to whichever deity one believes in, it doesn't harp on the issue — a shared prayer at the dinner table is generally regarded as sufficient. Following that prayer is the high point and main point of the holiday — an over-the-top feast shared with family and friends. What more could one ask for? And why, if this is the way I feel, am I bringing it up a month early?

Bear with me.

Growing up, everyone in my house contributed something to the feast whether it was making cranberry relish or baking a pie. Lots of focused, shared activity and good smells. Around four in the afternoon, if it wasn't raining, my father would organize a walk. We'd tramp through the sere fields and bare woods of our farm. Often it was cold, but if it wasn't cloudy as well Dad would take pictures of us. (Something I particularly hated.) Then we'd return to a waiting fire and the last minute organization of the meal.

Like many families, the day after Thanksgiving marked the beginning of the Christmas season. Unlike most families this didn't mean shopping. Instead Mom and Dad would begin preparing the Christmas feast. Dad made his eggnog base (which then aged for a month) and a fruit cake. Mom made her mother's (Mummo's) Bourbon Cake.

With an electric mixer, she'd beat the butter and sugar together in a large stainless steel bowl and then mix in the eggs, flour, and bourbon producing an unremarkable cake batter. Then Dad would haul down "the big bowl" for the final step.

The big bowl, cut from a single block of mahogany, was about 20" in diameter and about 7" deep. It needed to be big to accommodate the exertions required to incorporate a pound of nuts and a pound-and-a-half or raisins in a single bowl of batter. I can see Mom, in faded shirt, dark curley hair disarrayed, sweating slightly, wielding a wooden spoon to incorporate the nuts and raisins into the batter. Once mixed, the cake went into a tube pan and then baked for 3-1/2 hours, filling the house with the most wonderful odors. This cake is a serious investment in time and effort. But, oh, how the investment paid off.

When the cake had cooled it was doused with more bourbon, wrapped in aluminum foil, and sealed in a cake tin. Then, once a week until Christmas, the cake would be uncovered and doused with more bourbon. Although potent, even as kids we were permitted a thin slice of it when it was finally served. We loved it. In fact, everyone who tried it loved it. The cake was rich, moist, spicy, chewey, and pungent with bourbon. Marvelous stuff!

I've posted the recipe before, but I wanted to post it again — and do so in time, for those of you interested in a holiday cake recipe dating back to the early 1900s (or earlier), to make it. Note: a good stand mixer obviates the need for "the big bowl."

Mummo's Bourbon Cake

1 c butter — softened
2 c sugar
4 c flour — sifted
4 ea eggs
1 lb pecan pieces
1 1/2 lb white or golden raisins
1 c bourbon
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground nutmeg
1 tbsp soda
1/2 tsp salt

Heat oven to 275F. Sift 1 cup flour and mix with nuts and raisins. Sift remaining flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and soda together. Grease a tube pan and line bottom with parchment paper.

Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, making sure each is incorporated before adding the next one. Alternately add bourbon and flour. Add nuts and raisins.

Pour into tube pan and bake 3 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and cool thoroughly.

Sprinkle generously with additional bourbon, wrap it in aluminum foil with a couple of apple wedges to keep it moist, and place in an air-tight container. Each weekend leading up to Christmas, unwrap cake and sprinkle again with additional bourbon.

My mother no longer makes the cake, but I have her tube pan and her recipe and I'm trying to make it every year and share it with my parents and siblings. Fortunately, it's pretty much immune to spoiling so mailing it to Vermont or Virginia isn't a problem. And given that I made it almost a month early this year, it should be particularly well-seasoned.

Technorati: Food | dessert | cake | bourbon cake | holiday

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Thanksgiving Side Dishes

Choosing Sides



I think we've pretty much decided on smoked duck breasts for Thanksgiving. Something could alter that decision, but probably won't. I'm planning to brine the breasts in an apple cider mixture, then use a stove-top smoker to cook them, and at the end I'll crisp the skin in a frying pan. I'll also do some kind of apple topping. At the moment I'm thinking I'll render some pancetta in a skillet and then sauté some chopped apples in the fat — adding a little porky goodness to the dish.

Moving on to other dishes, I went back through my archives and found these possibilities. Not all are suitable accompaniments to the duck, but I figured I'd mention them here in case you're also wondering about sides. These are all suitable for a fancy feast and most of them can be prepared, at least partially, in advance.

To begin with, I always like to have a little something to munch on while waiting for dinner. An hors d'ouevre of some sort keeps people out of the kitchen, momentarily satisfies their hunger (and helps cover for delays in the meal), and there's something immently civilized about having a glass of wine or a cocktail with some small amusement for the palate before dinner.

Fried chick peas, Cece Fritos, are easy to make and are a great nibble with a glass of wine or beer.

These Gougèress are phenomenally good and although the recipe appears frightening if you've never made pâum;te à choux, it's really not difficult at all. If you make them in advance, you'll need to reheat them in the oven before serving.

If canapés appeal to you, here are three that I'm quite fond of. I particularly like the Prosciutto & Cheese spread.

As for accompaniments for the turkey (or whatever), these can also be mostly made in advance and then either finish cooking or be warmed up in the microwave just prior to serving.

You might want to consider Herbed Roasted Rutabaga. These are delightfully sweet and savory. You can prep them a couple of days in advance and then roast them with the turkey.

Or how about Braised Brussels Sprouts. I mentioned this recipe a week ago, but it's so good it's worth mentioning again. You can pre-cook the sprouts and then reheat them in a skillet with the mustard and balsamic vinegar.

Instead of sweet potatoes, go with winter squash. This recipe for Buttercup Squash (butternut would work as well) includes a taste of horseradish. Give it a try, it really is surprisingly good.

How's about Honey-Dijon Roasted Beets? This a particularly festive dish if you can find several different colors of beets. But even if you only have access to red beets, their garnet color is gorgeous on a plate.

If you'd like bread with your dinner, these Beer Rolls have a wonderfully crisp crust, moist interior, and make outstanding little turkey sandwiches.

For a feast, dessert is a requirement. You can of course stick with the traditional pumpkin pie, apple pie, and mincemeat, or you can do something more unexpected.

The most unexpected, and yet still traditional, dessert I can imagine is Cranberry Mousse. Cranberries are a traditional part of the Thanksgiving table, but the mousse presents them as a new and delicious sweet/tart dessert. It's also a light dessert after such a typically heavy meal.

The pear season is almost, but not quite over and this Pear Tart is an excellent way and elegant way of using them in a dessert.

If you insist on Pumpkin Pie, this version with Maple Whipped Cream Topping is very good.

One last comment. I spent the week before Thanksgiving last year on the phone helping people plan menus, choose and find recipes, and recover from near disasters. I loved it. I was helping people create great Thanksgiving meals one-on-one and it was huge fun as well as deeply rewarding — except for the money. Not so good. Nevertheless, I'll be manning the phone and keyboard again this year for the same reason I post here on SG, to help people cook more successfully and make it a more satisfying part of their life. And if this little promotion bothers you, forgive me for being an enthusiastic believer in what I think is great service.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | side dishes | thanksgiving | holiday food

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Spot-On: T-Day Minus 17 — Start Now!

It's November. In three short weeks a holiday considered the epitome of food and the epicenter of its cultural, political, ideological, and psychological significance in this country will take place. It is a celebration focused on cooking and eating and even those who consider grilling a steak ambitious think about roasting a turkey with dressing, making gravy, and searching the Internet for that horrible green bean and cream soup casserole.

In other words, it's Thanksgiving.

You can read the complete article at Spot-On.

Technorati: Food | essay | kevin d weeks | seriously good | thanksgiving | spot-on

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