Holiday Appetizer’s

March 15, 2019December 31, 2015 by Michel

Holiday Appetizer’s

iphone pictures 572 The first holiday appetizer I have for you is my baked asparagus wrapped in Prosciutto that has a smear of a cream cheese, sweet onion and Parmesan spread on the Prosciutto. These Proscuitto wrapped Asparagus are one of my favorite appetizers and can be a topping to a salad or a pretty side vegetable to lunch or dinner. I first had these delicious little bundles at my sister-in-law’s, Anita’s house, twenty years ago. She is an amazing chef who’s always cooking up a storm. They can totally be made a day ahead, placed on a cookie tray and stored in the frig until you need them. The asparagus is blanched and shocked in an ice bath to stop the cooking and to keep that vibrant green color before they are wrapped with Proscuitto. You want to make sure you buy “Proscuitto di Parma” for this holiday appetizer because it’s the best and most delicate in flavor. There are other tasty Prosciutto’s out there but they won’t be as tender as the Parma and may get too salty or waxy after baking.

The second quick and easy, gourmet tidbit i have for you are my holiday crostinis with Gorgonzola, fresh chopped tomato, basil and garlic that bakes for seven minutes. These take the same amount of time as the asparagus-Prosciutto appetizer’s. How convenient is that? You can buy already crumbled Gorgonzola at the market in small plastic containers. A little chopping of cherry or grape tomatoes and basil and voilà! The crostinis are beyond simple to make and you can check out that recipe by the hyper-link.

The last wicked easy and delicious holiday appetizer I have for you is something a little sweet. It’s a dollop of goat cheese, fig jam, fresh chopped pear and a mint leave all in a pre-baked fillo shell. Yes, I said pre-baked!!! Can you believe that one? This one you serve at room temperature so all you need to do is thaw the pre-baked shells which takes all of two minutes. It just can’t get any easier than that.

You can totally be flexible with these perfect little holiday appetizer’s too. If you don’t like Gorgonzola switch it out with some cubed up fresh mozzarella to top the crostinis and tomato-basil mixture. As for the pre-baked phylo cups, you can always swap out the goat cheese for a slice of brie if that’s more your taste.

I hope these last minute holiday appetizer’s help you out for your party! I wish you all a joyous New Year! You can certainly swap out or add in other hors d’ oeurves if you are feeling ambitious like baked coconut shrimp, zucchini torta, roasted chick peas, or smoked salmon on crostinis with cream cheese-caper spread. Enjoy 😉

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Baked Asparagus Wrapped in Prosciutto

Ingredients:

20 large asparagus (the bigger the better)
1/4 lb Prosciutto di Parma sliced thinly
4 oz cream cheese room temp (Philadelphia)
1 Tbsp grated vidalia onion (yellow or white is fine too)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 Tsp fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 400º.
Hold the asparagus with your fingers in the middle and on the end and bend.
The asparagus will break where it’s supposed to.
Line them up and cut evenly across the bottom so they are all at a consistent length.
Bring salted water to a boil and add in asparagus …Blanch 2 minutes
Drain and put into a ice bath.
Dry the asparagus with paper towels.
At this point you can pop them into a zip lock and into the frig until you are ready for them.
Mix together in a small bowl the room temperature cream cheese, grated onion, Parmesan and lemon juice just til combined
Take a piece of Prosciutto and smear 1 Tbsp of the cream cheese mixture down the length of it.
Place the asparagus on a bit of a diagonal (see photo) and roll up.
Place onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 7 minutes – you are heating thru only
Use a spatula to remove from pan and be sure to flip them over when you plate them to see the lovely caramelization on the under side.
Optional: Drizzle a little olive oil, a fresh squeeze of lemon and some shaves of Parmesan on top for a little extra!

TIP: Using a micro-plane grater or rasp to grate the onion is a wonderful culinary tool which actually started out back in the day as a wood planer for woodworkers!

Baked Crostinis with Gorgonzola, Fresh Tomato, Basil & Garlic

Ingredients:

1 french baguette sliced into 20 – 1/4″ pieces
Crostini Recipe
1 cup chopped cherry or grape tomatoes
2 tbsp fresh julienne basil
1 garlic clove put thru garlic press
dash salt and pepper
1 small container crumbled Gorgonzola cheese 4 oz. OR diced up fresh Mozzarella

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400º
Top crostini with tomato-basil mixture and a tsp of crumbled Gorgonzola OR Mozzarella
Bake for 7 minutes

Goat Cheese, Fig Jam, Fresh Pear and Mint in Pre-Baked Fillo Cups

Ingredients:

1-2 pkg of pre-baked fillo cups (if you can’t find these just buy pre-formed pastry cups that you can quickly bake)
2 oz. goat cheese OR wedge of your favorite dbl cream brie…Saint Albray for example
fig jam
1/2 cup fresh chopped pear
Wedge of fresh lemon
fresh peppermint leaves

Directions:

Chopped the pear and give a squeeze of a wedge of lemon
Thaw the pre-baked fillo cups
Place fresh mint leaf into cups
Place a dollop of goat cheese or slice of brie into the cup
Top with 1/2 tsp of fig jam
Then top with diced fresh pear
Serve room temperature

Easy Icebox Dinner Rolls

March 15, 2019December 18, 2015 by Michel

Easy Icebox Dinner Rolls

2014 – Laura, my loyal friend and follower making the icebox rolls for the holidays!

There’s nothing better than the aromas of homemade fresh baked bread, sweet onion and rosemary to wet the appetite! I was thrilled to find this icebox dinner roll recipe about fifteen years ago and have been making them ever since. The recipe card was from “easytobake” and I have tried to access their website but it doesn’t exist anymore. I have made many different bread dough’s in my life, kneading by hand, proofing, kneading again and it can all be exhausting. The whole idea behind icebox dough is that kneading is not necessary. The flavor and soft, tender texture develops as it proofs right in the refrigerator. Once you see how easy it is to make these melt in your mouth icebox dinner rolls you may never pick up store bought rolls again.

Laura making the icebox rolls for her 2015 Thanksgiving!

I have added lots of chopped green onion and fresh rosemary in my rolls but they are just as delicious plain too! It takes all of fifteen minutes to make this dough and can be made up to 4 days ahead. The dough stays in the refrigerator, hence the name “icebox” rolls. You take the dough out of the frig the morning of your dinner party. It get’s formed into dough balls mixing in chopped green onion and fresh rosemary. Then the rolls get lined up on a buttery baking tray and back into the frig. Two hours before you want to serve the homemade icebox dinner rolls you take them out of the frig and let them rise for an hour and a half to two hours. When they have doubled in size, give them an egg wash for a little shine, then bake.

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Hope you enjoy these scrumptious “easy icebox dinner rolls” as much as our family and friends do. They will be asking you for the recipe for sure! These homemade dinner rolls aren’t just for holidays they are great for any day. Try them with my turkey stuffed peppers where you can dunk them in the sauce and pepper juices, the Au Jus in my Boeuf Bourguignon, or Bolognese Sauce. After all this savoriness you may need a chocolate fix with my perfectly chocolate chocolate cake or for a light and refreshing sweet try this amazing Pavlova!

Ingredients: Makes 24 Dinner Rolls

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 packets active dry yeast (NOT rapid rise)
1 cup warm water (105 -115 degrees)
3 lg eggs (if you use extra large eggs you will need to add a little more flour to compensate)
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tsp salt
2 bunches of green onions chopped to 1/8″ pieces -(from white/greenish part to ends)
1/2 cup fresh chopped rosemary
1/3 stick room temp butter to coat the cookie tray or inside of the 10″x 15″ baking dish

Directions:

Using a KitchenAid mixer OR lg mixing bowl pour in the 2 packets of yeast then add in 1 cup of 105º – 110 º water.
Then add 1 Tbsp of sugar (from the 1/2 of cup of sugar that you add later) now because it feeds the yeast and really gets it activated.
Let this sit for about 5 minutes and you will see it get foamy.
Add in the eggs, melted butter, sugar, and salt and whisk- make sure the butter is not hot because it can kill the yeast if too hot
Begin to beat in a 1/2 cup of flour at a time using the whisk the whole time until the dough gets too stiff to mix.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, place the big ball of dough into a large Ziploc baggy and put it into the refrigerator for 2 hours…. up to 4 days.
When you are ready to make the rolls just cut the dough right out of the zip lock with scissors nice and easy…..then turn out the chilled dough onto a floured work surface and divide equally into 24 pieces with a pastry scraper
Roll each piece into a ball then firmly push into the pile of chopped green onion and freshly chopped rosemary and re-roll into a ball again. You can keep some of the rolls plain.
Coat 4 Tbsp of softened butter all over a cookie tray with 1/2″ sides or a 10″ x 15″ baking dish for taller rolls
Place the dough balls into the buttered baking tray, cover with Saran wrap and let them rise for 1-2 hours depending how warm your kitchen is (they need to dbl in size) OR you can put them back into the frig until 1 1/2 hours before you need them then take them rolls back out of the frig and let them begin to rise and double in size
Pre-Heat the oven to 375º
Whisk 1 whole egg with 1 tbsp water and brush a good coating onto the rolls after they rise and before putting them into the oven
Bake for 13-18 minutes until a dark golden color…it depends how warm the rolls got while rising so you’ll need to peak at them to see if they’re golden yet.

TIP: It’s a good idea to warm the stainless steel mixing bowl by running hot water into it before you begin so the cold bowl doesn’t take the necessary temperature of the water down.

Amazing German Pancake!

November 1, 2024December 10, 2015 by Michel

Amazing German Pancake!

This amazing German pancake is an awesome dish to make for your holiday guests! It’s festive and quite spectacular when your guests see how your pancake has puffed to enormous heights when you take it out of the oven. Not only does it make for a wonderful presentation but it’s made with little effort and can be served for breakfast or as a dessert!

A German pancake is really a giant popover. “Dutch baby” is another name for this pancake and rumor has it that the reason behind this name came about when a chef’s young child couldn’t pronounce the German word for German, “Deutsche”. Supposedly, this mis-pronunciation lead German Pancakes to the alternative name “Dutch Babies”. A couple other names that this German pancake has been called are “Dutch puff” and “Bismark”.

My kids get very excited for that moment when this amazing German pancake comes out of the oven! It has a bit of a custard like texture inside yet very light. We love eating these pancakes and have come to the conclusion that they taste like something in between a pancake, french toast and a crêpe!

My Vermont friends turned me on to this recipe years ago and I have been making them ever since. It’s fun for me to play around with recipes and see what works best so to this recipe I have added another egg, some vanilla and a little cinnamon. You can add grated nutmeg instead if you prefer. Originally, these homemade pancakes were served with lemon and confectioners sugar. I like to served them with confectioners sugar, real maple syrup, fresh blue berries and a dollop of my favorite “Wild Blueberry Preserves” by Bonne Maman, a product of France (sold right in our local market at Stop and Shop). German pancakes are so easy to make, taking on the same amount of time as making ordinary pancakes. The wonderful thing here is you are not glued to the stove pouring batter every few minutes.

Using cast iron is the way to go here because it holds in the heat evenly distributing it throughout the pan but I have made them in other oven proof pans and it comes out great. Some recipes have you pre-heating the pan in the oven, pulling out the rack, pouring in the batter, then pushing the rack back into the oven and in my opinion, this is a disaster waiting to happen since the batter can easily swoosh over the sides causing the oven to smoke ! The easiest way to start these homemade German pancakes is heat the pan in the oven then add butter and whisked, warm batter. The finished product will make you will feel like a french pastry chef all day. This could also make for a great dessert to an impressive dinner with entrees like turkey stuffed peppers, pulled beef tacos & mango salsa or yogurt-chicken kabobs & tzatziki. Enjoy!

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Ingredients for Traditional German Pancake:

5 extra LG eggs ROOM temperature eggs (place eggs in a bowl of warm water for 20 minutes or leave on counter for 1 hr)
1 cup Milk – WARM the milk (not hot)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 Tsp. salt
1/4 Tsp cinnamon
1 Tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp melted butter (warm)
3 Tbsp butter – cut up to add to pan before you pour in batter

Ingredients for savory German Pancake:

5 extra LG eggs (or 6 large) ROOM TEMP.
1 cup Milk – WARM
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 Tsp. salt
1/2 cup swiss cheese OR cheddar
1/2 cup thin diced ham OR sauteed mushrooms
1/3 cup green onion OR sauteed sweet onion
NOTE: If you are going the cheddar, sauteed mushroom & onion route add 1 cup fresh baby spinach too!
3 Tbsp butter -cut up into 4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) COLD

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 425º
Add the cast iron pan to the oven while pre-heating
Whisk milk, vanilla, salt and flour first in a large bowl
Then whisk in 1 egg at a time just until combined
Whisk in melted butter, final mix of batter should be WARM not cold (you can microwave for 10 seconds at a time and stir in between to get to WARM temperature if need be, DO NOT go longer then 10 seconds at a time in the microwave or batter will cook
Take heated pan out of the pre-heated oven and add in 3 tbsp butter, let melt
Once the butter is melted pour in WARM batter (If making a savory pancake add veggies and cheese now on top of the poured batter)
NOTE: A savory pancake or blueberry pancake will not puff as much a plain German pancake!
Bake for 21 minutes until puffed
Remove from oven and transfer to a plate or cutting board with a spatula and sprinkle with confectioners sugar.
Slice into wedges and serve with maple syrup, warm fresh strawberry jam/sauce (Recipe BELOW) and whipped cream! …mmm!

Ingrediesnts and Directions for EASY STRAWBERRY JAM/SAUCE:

1 lb. hulled and chopped fresh stawberries
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup fresh sqeezed lemon juice

Finely dice strawberries and add to a wide 8″ sauce pan with 1 cup sugar and lemon juice
Over med/high heat bring to a rolling simmer
Keep an eye on the mixture, keep simmering for 15 min. – make sure it doesn’t boil over
Skim off white foam that accumulates around the edges while simmering as this will make the jam cloudy (its just air bubbles that form in the jamming process)
Remove from heat and serve warm with German pancake
Jar the remaining strawberry sauce and refrigerate as it will thicken into a jam as it cools! It will stay good for 2 weeks in the frig.