Gourmet Cookie Bouquets Recipe Blog

Archive for July, 2008

Banderillas (also known as Palitos) are long toothpicks laden with bits of colorfully combined delicacies. For example, a Banderillas might be made up of pickled vegetables (carrot, cauliflower, and onion) alternated with slices of hot pickled peppers and pitted green olives. Anything that can be threaded on a toothpick and eaten with cocktails can be used. Some of the foods suitable for banderillas are ham, cheese, smoked fish (trout, eel, and salmon), capers, anchovies, pitted olives, shrimp, mussels, clams, pimiento, sausages, and cold meats.

Fritos - Fried Appetizers

Fried appetizers are served warm or hot in bite-size pieces to be eaten with toothpicks. Shellfish are particularly popular: clams, mussels, shrimp, and scallops. Some of these can be partially prepared in advance.

Fried Clams

Rinse small fresh clams under running water and soak 1 hour in a bowl of cool water to eliminate sand. Drain and put in a pan with enough white wine to cover the bottom of pan to depth of ½ inch. Season with wine and ground pepper. Heat over moderate fire until clams open. Shake pan occasionally during cooking so that the shellfish heat evenly. Once all have opened, allow them to cool in the liquid. (All the preceding can be done hours before you plan to serve.) Remove meat from shells, roll in flour, dip in beaten egg, and fry in hot olive oil deep enough to cover the shellfish. Serve hot on toothpicks.

Fried Mussels

Substitute mussels for clams in the above recipe.

Fried Shrimp

Cook shrimp for 3 minutes in boiling salted water. Strain, let cool, and remove shell. With a knife, remove the alimentary canal or black line along the back of the shrimp. (This much can be done hours in advance.) Shortly before serving, roll shrimp in flour, dip in beaten egg, and fry in enough hot olive oil to cover the shrimp.

Fried Scallops

Remove scallops from their shells, cut in slices, dip in dry bread crumbs, then in beaten egg, and fry in enough hot olive oil to cover the scallops.

Fried Clams in the Shell

These can be prepared in 2 or three minutes (after the clams have been rinsed and soaked in a bowl of cool water for 1 hour to eliminate sand). Small clams are best for this recipe. Drain clams and fry in a small quantity of hot olive oil (just enough to cover the bottom of the skillet). Sprinkle clams with salt as you fry and remove them as soon as all are open. They are delicious eaten off the shell, but you can remove the meat and serve it on toothpicks if you prefer. Serve hot.

I'm sure it surprises you to find delicious meal ideas here, instead of cookies, but we're all about sharing!

For more seafood recipes, try these:

• Easy Crab Scramble Brunch Recipe
• Bunuelitos De Bacalao - Cod Fritters
• Fish Kugel
• Clams and Vegetables in Soy Sauce - Hamanabe
• Fish Chowder - Sinigang Na Isda

If you are looking for a hearty meal option, this is it. Perfect for a complete meal gift for your family!

• 1 cup pearl barley
• 4 cups boiling water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 pound chopped mushrooms
• 2 onions, sliced
• 2 tablespoons fat or butter
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 2 eggs, beaten

Stir the barley into the water. Bring to a boil; add the salt, cover and cook over low heat or until soft. Drain.  Brown the mushrooms and onions in the fat or butter.  Add to the barley with the pepper and eggs. Taste for seasoning. Turn into a greased baking dish or casserole. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes or until browned and set. Serves 6 as a substitute for potatoes.

If you enjoyed the mushrooms in this recipe, you'll really love this recipe for Balsamic Chicken with Mushrooms.

The quickest canapés are those made with foods that need no more preparation than being cut into bits and put on squares of toast. A few suggestions are: cheese, cured ham, chorizo sausage, smoked trout, smoked eel, smoked salmon, canned sardines, and rolled or flat fillets of canned anchovy. To decorate, use chopped cured ham, chopped or sliced black or green olives, chopped hard-boiled egg, minced parsley, bits of tomato or canned pimento, capers, and truffles. A dab of sauce such as All-i-oli or Romesco will transform cold meat canapés. Canape spreads can be made rapidly from canned or precooked foods as in the following:

Canape of Pureed Sardine

Remove bones from canned sardine, mash fish in mortar, spread on toast, and decorate with chopped hard-boiled egg.

Canape of Pureed Tuna

Mash tuna in mortar with yolks of hard boiled egg and mix with mayonnaise until it spreads easily on toast.

Canape of Pureed Chicken

Crush leftover chicken meat in a mortar with a few toasted almonds, season with salt and white pepper, and add sherry until the paste has the desired consistency. Serve on toast.

Canape of Pureed Hake

Use leftover cooked hake or simmer a slice of fresh fish until cooked through (5-10 minutes). Any white fish may be substituted for hake. When fish is cool, mash with a fork, mix with a little mayonnaise, season with salt and pepper to taste, and spread on toast. Sprinkle with chopped hard-boil egg. Whole fillets of small fish make delicious canapés. Any small, flat fish, such as young flounder, may be substituted for sole in the following recipe.

Canape of Baby Sole

Wash cleaned soles, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. Reduce flame and let fish simmer until cooked through (a very few minutes). When fish has cooled, carefully cut out the fillets, put them on strips of toast, and decorate with capers.

I know. It's not the usual recipe for gourmet cookies, but sometimes you have to switch it up a little bit!

For more dinner recipes, try some of the following:

• Potato Pizza Casserole
• Jiggs Dinner - Corned Beef and Cabbage
• Balsamic Chicken with Mushrooms
• Chicken Caesar Pita Pocket

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So you got a pasta gift basket from a friend and you're not sure how to make use of it without breaking down and making spaghetti. Well here is a wonderful recipe to help you create a truly tasty gourmet meal for your family.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound cream cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 cups cooked medium noodles, drained
• 2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
• 3 tablespoons melted butter

Cream the cheese with the eggs, sugar and salt. Stir in the noodles. Turn into a buttered 9 inch ring mold. Sprinkle with the bread crumbs and butter. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 40 minutes or until brown. Unmold carefully. Serves 6.

Or, you can opt to make something completely opposite, Pasta Salad!

For something different from cookies and other desserts, you have to try this recipe for a very tasty family meal.

Ingredients:

• 1 slender chorizo (or pepperoni) sausage cut in about 40 slices
• 1 raw egg yolk
• 1 recipe Empanadilla dough

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Divide the dough in two. Roll out half; place sausage slices on rolled dough, pressing them down slightly. Roll out other half of dough and put it over the sausages. Using a cookie cutter or a thin edged glass, cut out a circle around each sausage slice large enough to leave a margin of dough around the sausage. Pinch the edges of the two halves together, brush tops with beaten egg yolks diluted in a little water, prick pastries with a fork, and bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until brown.

Try our South of the border recipes:

• Authentic Mexican Salsa & Guacamole
• Mexican Red Salsa
• Spanish Hamburger