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Post by tod2 on Dec 14, 2010 15:39:07 GMT
Bixa - I have found a better recipe for Cognac Sauce in my Anton Mosimann 'Shellfish' recipe book:
This sauce is for lobster but I think you could use it for prawns too.
100g/4oz good mayonnaise 2 teaspoons tomato puree 1 tablespoon cognac , or brandy 2 teaspoons lime or lemon juice a generous pinch of ground ginger 12-15 drops Tabasco sauce 1 teaspoon sweet paprika salt 80ml whipped cream
Mix all together except cream which you fold in at the end.
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Post by joanne28 on Dec 14, 2010 16:30:28 GMT
Cheery, your cake looks absolutely gorgeous. That is in NO WAY a food abomination.
Bixa, don't be silly, the cheddar chutney tarts aren't my recipe. I find something that works & stick to it. The most innovative thing I do is replace mayo with tzatziki sauce in a lot of things. It works really well in tuna salad.
The cheddar chutney tart (actually tartlet) recipe was originally one of my SILs and extremely popular at family parties. Very simple also - unless you feel like making your own puff pastry. Life's too short for that. I thought I had already posted this.
8 oz cream cheese, softened 1 cup old Cheddar chese (4 oz), shredded 1 clove garlic, minced 1 tsp curry powder 1/3 cup Mango Chutney (chopped fine) or your own "English type" Chutney - I use a peach mango chutney 4 green onions, finely chopped - what some people call scallions 1 tsp dry sherry or apple juice pinch of cayenne pepper (optional) - have never bothered with it dash Worcesteshire sauce 1 pkg (14 oz) frozen puff pastry, thawed and separated into 2 blocks - the stuff I buy, anyways.
Filling: (can be made several days ahead, covered and refrigerated) Mash cream cheese, add Cheddar cheese, garlic and curry powder, mix well. Mix in chutney, onions, sherry, cayenne and Worcestershire sauce.
Roll out half the pastry into a 12 inch square, cut into 2-inch squares, press squares into 1/2 inch deep tartlets cups and prick with a fork. Spoon 1 tsp filling into each. - I use a 24 mini-tart tray and can make 48 tartlets.
Bake in 400F over till golden. Serve hot.
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Post by bjd on Dec 14, 2010 17:51:53 GMT
I just started to look at this thread as I sterilize my jars of foie gras. I bought two livers at the store this afternoon and just spent some time jamming them into small jars. Actually, I still have 2 jars from last year.
One really tasty snack but that has to be served hot is large shrimps, cooked and cleaned. You fry the cooked shrimps in some olive oil and garlic. When they are hot (not long -- just a couple of minutes), you pour some Pastis into the pan and light it (still on the burner, otherwise it doesn't work). When the alcohol burns off, you serve the shrimps.
I personally hate the taste of anise and never drink Pastis, but these shrimps only keep the herb taste. Really good.
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Post by lagatta on Dec 19, 2010 13:46:31 GMT
A bit more than nibbles as we thawed my lamb's liver, heart and kidneys: I busied myself cutting this offal stuff up into little bites, also chopping up garlic and flatleaf parsley. I didn't have any booze for the lamb, though a bit of something - perhaps Ouzo, indeed, could have worked. Also some very good smoked salmon (sorry, Jack) - Atlantic salmon smoked near Québec City, at "La Fée des grèves". Various local cheeses, baguettes and savoury crackers rounded out the spread. Prosecco and Catalan Cava as the sparklers, then mostly Argentine wines, if I recall, to treat our Argentine friend C who hosted us - mostly because she is a smoker and wanted to be able to smoke. No, I'm not a meddling North American who lectures people about smoking - rather silly, with all the rich food and booze - but I do have a touch of asthma and easily contract bronchitis so I really can't have smoking at my place. I want to make some kind of savoury tart - a full-sized tart, not tartlets - but have to figure out what to put in it. No meat (meat overload at that last spread) and I'm not making a short crust or puff pastry (I never make the latter, though I do know how). I like a rustic tart with a "yeasted olive-oil crust", sort of a rich pizza that forms up better for calzones and co. as it contains some egg. There are many recipes for this type of crust - Deborah Madison has one in her "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" book and here is another from the New York Times: www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/science/22recipehealth.html I don't really use a recipe any more. Martha Rose Shulman is using whole wheat flour, but I don't: just unbleached organic flour. In the pic she is also making a two-crust pie; I always make a tart for this type of dish; I only make meat pies with two crusts. Another friend is making us duck tourtière this year.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2010 15:23:26 GMT
I probably still eat more smoked salmon than any of you -- that's why I'm sick of it. Once or twice a week at a bare minimum. If I accepted more invitations, I would probably find myself eating it 5 times a week.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2010 15:51:19 GMT
I went to a holiday party last evening and aside from the usual array of cheeses,dips,etc. were some real standouts. Rumaki,which I adore, (chicken liver and water chestnut wrapped in bacon with a savoury sweet and sour sauce on the side),and another,which I had to refrain from eating too many of were venison empanadas,(ground venison meat with just the perfect seasoning added to). There were two long tables of desserts...
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2010 16:13:57 GMT
One of the few things I have not yet learned to appreciate are "bacon-wrapped" items. Either the bacon overwhelms the item it is wrapping, or else it cools down and congeals into something even worse.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2010 16:19:58 GMT
One of the few things I have not yet learned to appreciate are "bacon-wrapped" items. Either the bacon overwhelms the item it is wrapping, or else it cools down and congeals into something even worse. I agree totally,and rarely order rumaki when I see it on a menu because I'm frequently all too disappointed with the result being one or all of the above.(many times the bacon is dried up... ) These were being served at a small party in a neighbor's home and were being put out straight away from the frying pan onto the platter into my mouth!!!
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Post by lagatta on Dec 19, 2010 17:17:18 GMT
I've made venison and bison empanaditas. The flavour of the meat is lovely, but those are very lean meats, so usually one adds some minced pork or mild sausage meat. Only prob with empanaditas is that they take quite a while to make even using preformed empanada tapas (shells, crusts) and people hoover them up in a few seconds.
I've never had bacon-wrapped things I liked either; indeed they would have to be made right on the spot. Usually if I buy bacon it is double-smoked flanc bacon from a Hungarian butcher shop I like (they have very reasonable prices too) and that isn't suitable for wrapping things, more for lardons.
Yes, smoked salmon is popular here, but even more so in Paris; I also got several bits of smoked salmon the last week I was there.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 20, 2010 18:08:45 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2013 21:42:57 GMT
Yesterday I had some excellent hummus with pine nuts and sesame seeds. I didn't have any Turkish bread on hand, so some slices of fresh baguette did the trick for dipping.
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Post by lagatta on Dec 8, 2013 13:29:45 GMT
To me, the baguette just looks wrong there, as Lebanese bread is about as common where i live as baguettes are. Jack, did you make or buy the hummus?
Reading over this, I'd like to make the cheese straws.Things like that are very common in the Netherlands -surplus gouda?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2013 14:54:00 GMT
That particular hummus was from Yarden, the big Israeli brand. I added the sesame seeds, along with olive oil and lime juice.
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