3 posts tagged “appetizer”
Slices of seared black sesame encrusted ahi served atop dollops of avocado mousse make a perfect appetizer for any dinner party. Plus everything can be made beforehand so this dish gets extra time saver points.
The mousse is simply made with three ingredients: avocados, heavy cream and lemon juice. Give it all a whirl in the food processor but be sure to add the cream slowly with the processor on. Mixing fat and fat can be a bit disastrous otherwise. Next season with salt, cover and store in the fridge until it's time. For the ahi, heat a pan to medium high. Drizzle the ahi with olive oil and give it a rub to coat both sides. Sprinkle sesame seeds, salt and a generous amount of black pepper on both sides. The olive oil should help everything stick on nicely. All it needs now is about a minute on each side to get a nice sear and to leave the middle beautifully rare. Set it aside and have yourself a glass of wine for all that hard work. :)
Once your guests begin to arrive, use a very sharp knife to cut your ahi steak into thin slices. Plating is easy as pie. One dollop of avocado mousse onto your tray/plate. I like to do the dollop and then smear it with the back of the spoon for a little flair. Place the slice of ahi on top and drizzle with grapefruit oil, lemon zest and fleur de sel.
I felt like I had won the lottery on Saturday, when I found these organic, free range chicken livers. Oh what luck! I love chicken livers, especially when they're all whipped up and luscious. Since I had loads of pickled vegetables leftover from my banh mi experiment, I naturally thought to create a mini banh mi amuse bouche. Banh mi is commonly made with pork pate, so a creamy chicken liver mousse would be a nice substitute. Here I toasted up some sliced baguette and topped each with a quenelle of mousse, daikon, carrots, jalapeño and cilantro. The acid from the pickled vegetables cut through the richness of the mousse perfectly. Isn't mini-sized food great?
Here's a healthy take on the oh so evil french fry. Instead of frying, I baked them and instead of using russet potatoes, I used sweet potatoes. Though they're not as crispy as the real thing, they're every bit as tasty. On the plus side, sweet potatoes are very nutritionally balanced. I prefer this method to busting out the Fry Daddy any day (just another one of my single-tasking kitchen appliances that's permanently in hibernation, sigh!). For this appetizer, I sliced up two large sweet potatoes, drizzled them with olive oil, fresh thyme, chili powder, cracked pepper and sea salt. I baked these at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes, making sure to check on them at ten minute intervals. Once they were golden brown, I tossed them with some more sea salt and some chopped parsley. Some sauted garlic would have been good too, now that I think of it. To accompany the fries, I roasted up a red bell pepper and gave it a whirl in the food processer with some homemade yogurt cheese. Creamy and sweet. Since I'm a huge mustard fan, I also served it with whole grain, dijon and plain ol' yellow mustard. These were very well received by B and me. Neither of us can ever pass up the sweet potato fries when we're at the Father's Office or The Counter (both have excellent sweet potato fries).
*Is it just me or do french fries made from sweet potatoes just not seem like junk food?*
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