Culinary Corner: Entertaining with Appetizers

Anne Van Gieson, our Culinary Corner hostess, showed us how to create some delicious appetizers on Wednesday, January 27th. Split into small teams, we each learned to make one or two small dishes that we then presented to the rest of the group and enjoyed along with a glass of delicious wine. Anne's next Culinary Corner is in March, featuring Easter Traditions.

Here are just a few of the useful tips passed on by Anne - along with a recipe for you to try.

Entertaining with appetizers is a new and less traditional way to entertain guests and family. It is particularly suitable for those of us who live in smaller spaces without a large, formal dining room. In taking the plunge to do so there are a few simple guidelines to remember:

1. How much to prepare? Allow 6 pieces per person for the first hour, and another 4 pieces per person for every additional hour.
2. It is important to have some appetizers that can be prepared several hours ahead.
3. Have a mix of both hot and cold appetizers.
4. Try to have back up platters in the kitchen, ready to replenish the ones on your serving table as they become depleted.
5. If serving appetizers before a dinner, don't overdo it! A mere 3 or 4 items person willbe enough.
6. When placing items on platters, allow enough space between them so that your guests can easily pick them up without their fingers touching the neighbouring appetizer.
7. A good indication that a party is coming to an end is to bring out small chocolates, cookies, etc.

Pistachio Chicken

This recipe makes about 30 pieces. They can be eaten warm, room temperature or from the refrigerator.

2 lbs chicken pieces (off the bone)

Marinade:

2 cups buttermilk

1 tbsp mustard

1 tsp chili flakes

1 tbsp basil

1 tbsp oregano

Coating:

1 lb pistachios, finely chopped to make about 4 cups (other nuts - hazelnuts or smoked almonds - can be used in combination with, or as a replacement to pistachios)

3/4 cups breadcrumbs (try using whole wheat or sourdough)

3 eggwhites, beaten well

3/4 cup flour

sea salt and pepper

Rapeseed or canola oil for frying

Method

Combine buttermilk, mustard, and spices in a bowl. Cut chicken filets if required into 1.5" inch pieces. Pound lightly if necessary to reduce thickness so that they cook evenly when fried. Add to marinade being sure all pieces are covered. Marinade for a min. of 6 hours or overnight if possible.

Grind or chop nuts to a point where most are well ground but with some little chunks left for texture. Combine with breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Place on a flat plate when you're ready to coat.

After marinating, coat chicken pieces first with flour, then the eggwhites and finally the nuts. Put coated pieces in the fridge to set for 30 minutes. When ready to fry, heat a few tablespoons of oil. Fry slowly, at a medium to low heat for 5 - 7 minutes, turning a couple of times to be sure chicken is cooked through and has turned a golden brown. Serve right away or place on a tray to cool. You may wish to season with a bit of extra salt and pepper - to your own taste! Although delicious on their own, you may wish to serve with a small bowl of a light yoghurt for dipping.

Submitted by Anne Van Gieson

Culinary Corner Catch-up

With 2010 fast approaching it's a good time to catch up with a few events that didn't make it onto the blog.

In October, Anne Van Gieson (third from right) hosted another one of her very popular culinary corners. With the theme of 'Entertaining a Crowd: The Buffet Table', Anne passed on her extremely helpful tips on how to prepare ahead, how best to plan the menu and more.

As with all culinary corner sessions, we then got busy preparing a gorgeous array of buffet dishes: chicken with garlic/lemon/rosemary, spelt salad, sesame green beans, and a gorgeous spinach salad.

Recipe for Spelt Salad

This dish (shown at about 7 o'clock in the photo above) will make a healthy and delicious salad to serve over the holidays. It's super quick and easy to prepare, and looks gorgeous with freshly chopped mint and parsley sprinkled on top!

Serves 8 - 10

• 2.5 cups uncooked spelt, rinsed and drained (or can substitute bulgar wheat)
• 5 cups water - use vegetable stock if possible
• half cup of fresh mint - chopped
• half cup of fresh parsley - chopped
• half cup of minced red onion
• 6 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 or 2 tins of artichoke hearts, drained and chopped (or use roasted artichokes, but drain excess oil)
• 5 oz crumbled feta cheese
• 1 cup toasted pine nuts

Method: Rince and drain spelt or bulgur wheat grains. It helps to keep them from sticking together when cooking. Place in a saucepan and cover with most of the hot stock. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until tender. Stir occasionally and add more liquid if necessary.

Combine cooked spelt, chopped mint, parsley, onion and rest of ingredients! Stir, season to taste - and that's it! Serve at room temperature.

Borough Market Visit

Last Friday, Barbara Richards and I visited Borough Market - here I am trying to decide just what to do with those gorgeous wild mushrooms!


If you have never been, you really must go, particularly if you are a "foodie" as we are. Just a word of caution - try to go on a Friday afternoon, because the Saturday crowds can be overwhelming. If you choose a Saturday, go early. By lunchtime it is hard to move from one stall to another! Accessibility by tube is really easy with London Bridge station at the doorstep to the market. For more information on Borough Market, here’s the link.

Here is one of my favourite wintertime recipes for those cold, wintery evenings. I call it Vegetable Heartsaver Soup because it is very healthy, very delicious, very easy, and low in fat!

Vegetable Heartsaver Soup – serves 6

Ingredients:

80 oz of vegetable or chicken stock, use cubes for ease
1/2 cup of smoked bacon lardons
2 - 3 tbsp olive oil or rapeseed oil
1 large onion, cut into manageable pieces
1 cup shredded cabbage
1 tin of plum tomatoes with juice
1 large parsnip cut into slices
2 large carrots cut into slices
2 small or one larger zucchini cut into slices
1 good handful of wild mushrooms or chestnut mushrooms, sliced (optional)
1 good handful of topped green beans
1 large or 2 medium potatoes cut into chunks
1 small - medium celeriac, peeled and cut into chunks (optional)
small jar of pesto

Method:

Slowly sauté the lardons in oil, along with the onions and cabbage. If using mushrooms, sauté them separately in small pan and a little oil until very lightly browned, about 10 minutes then set aside. Add stock, tomatoes and juice, carrots, parsnip, potatoes, celeriac if using and cook for about 25 minutes slowly. Add potatoes, green beans and zucchini and cook another 25 minutes or so. Add mushrooms if using at the end. Before serving, add 2 - 3 tbsp of pesto to soup and stir. When ladling into dishes, you can put a tsp of pesto into the bottom of each bowl.

Enjoy! Any questions - you can give me a call. And I’ll look forward to seeing you at the next Culinary Corner!

Posted by Anne Van Giesen.

Culinary Corner

What could be more glorious than cooking with, and for, friends, and enjoying good conversation & sunshine! That is what the culinary group did this past July 16 when the goal of the day was to create great food for friends, and yet do it an a stress-free way without being a slave to the kitchen.

We enjoyed Grilled Prawn & Chorizo Salad, Tortilla Ham Wraps, Spinach Salad and Spaghetti Salad - any combination of which would achieve your goal. You may want to try this Spaghetti Salad as part of a small buffet or as a side dish the next time you have friends coming. Serve it with chicken, ribs, chops - or whatever strikes your fancy! Best of all, don't be afraid to prepare it the day before. It's just as delicious after a day in the fridge!

Spaghetti Salad

Serves 8 as a starter or side

4 oz red wine vinegar
4 oz sun dried tomatoes (not in oil is preferable so rinse off oil)
4 oz extra virgin olive oil
a pinch of dried, crushed chilis (to taste) or could be 1/2 tsp for this amount
5 - 6 bruised garlic cloves
5 - 6 toothpicks to pierce garlic so it can be removed later
15 (or so) shredded basil leaves - shred by hand!
30 (or so) black olives, pitted, and halved
8 oz spaghetti - either wholewheat (healthier) or regular
salt to taste
handful of chopped flatleaf parsley

Method:
Heat vinegar with an equal amount of water. When boiling, pour over sundried tomatoes and leave to soak for at least 30 minutes. Dry on paper towels then cut into thin strips with scissors. Bring water to a boil with plenty of salt. Drop in pasta when boiling, then bring back to boil. Remove when not quite ready (according to package) and drain, retaining about 1/2 cup of the boiling water. Tip: if pasta package says 10 minutes, start checking at 8 - 9 minutes. Place in large bowl and add garlic on picks, olives, basil, tomatoes, chilis, some of the olive oil, and keep stirring. You can add some of the pasta water to moisten along with the oil. Stir frequently, and let sit for at least 2 - 3 hours to allow flavours to permeate. Stir in parsley at end before serving. And you can then remove the garlic (and their toothpicks!) before serving (the pasta will have absorbed the flavour by now).

The longer this sits, the better. It can be prepared the day before but brought back to room temperature before serving.

And although we didn't have a camera with us on the day, here's a photo of one of our classes from a few month's ago. Once activities get underway again in the fall, I do hope you'll join us!



Message posted by Anne Van Gieson