This is not your average mayonnaise. Not even for homemade. Made with rice vinegar, soy sauce and toasted sesame oil, it is delicious as a dip for asparagus, snap and snow peas, radishes and other spring vegetables. I’ve made this many times, especially for large-scale spring gatherings, where I can arrange lightly blanched asparagus bouquet-style [...]
Archive for the ‘Appetizers’ Category
Homemade Sesame Mayonnaise: Vegetable Dip and a Chicken and Pepper Salad
Posted in Appetizers, Asparagus, Chicken, Condiments, tagged Homemade mayonnaise on May 29, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Homemade Lemony Herbed Ricotta
Posted in Appetizers, Cheese, tagged Homemade ricotta, ricotta herb lemon spread on May 19, 2012 | 1 Comment »
With a party coming up and a pot garden full of fresh herbs, I decided to make homemade fresh cheese that resembles ricotta, and combine it with lemon zest, snipped leaves of tarragon, lovage and chives, and the magenta chive flowerets. This was a delicious spread with black bread but could be served any number [...]
Marinated Snowcap Beans for a Salad or Appetizer
Posted in Appetizers, Beans and legumes, tagged Bean antipasto, Rancho Gordo snowcap beans on April 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Those big oval creamy lupini beans from the so-called olive bar at grocery stores are deliciously addictive eaten as part of an antipasto or tossed into a salad. I haven’t found a good or reasonably priced source for them, and I hear they need quite a lot of preparation. Those beans are native to Italy [...]
Parmesan Cheese Wafers with Poppy Seeds
Posted in Appetizers, Crackers, tagged Parmesan cheese wafers for cocktails on March 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
I’m working on my repertoire of savory “cookies” and crackers for a cocktail party that I’m going to cook for in a couple of months. I always fantasize that I am going to make the crackers in addition to the other dishes and at the last minute, I give up and buy them. This time, [...]
Dark Days 6: Love a Duck Part 1, Rillettes with Pickled Cherries
Posted in Appetizers, Dark Days Challenge, Duck and other poultry, tagged Duck rillettes, Making small batch duck confit, Rendering duck fat on January 6, 2012 | 1 Comment »
A continuing series on weekly meals that use sustainable, organic, local and ethical food during the challenging winter months. For more information, go here to the DDC section of Not Dabbling in Normal’s website: Dark Days Challenge “Lor-love-a-duck, it’s the missus!” exclaims an astonished ‘30s character caught off guard in a pub. The utterance came [...]
Greatest Hits of 2011
Posted in Appetizers, Celery and celeriac, Condiments, Flowers, Paper Chef, Preserving, Quick breads and muffins, Soup, Tigress Can Jam on December 31, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
So what clicked the most with my readers this year? A few conspicuous trends, heavy on the cannin’ and jammin’ as you would expect from a blog with the word “pantry” in the title. It was definitely a good year for the pantry, with over 250 jars added, not counting the ones I already gave [...]
Marinated Mushrooms with Saba
Posted in Appetizers, Mushrooms, tagged Cooking with saba, Sweet tart marinated mushrooms on December 11, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Whenever I cook for a party, marinated mushrooms are inevitably on the menu. I make them lots of different ways – mysteriously spiced with cinnamon, seasoned with various herbs (I especially like them with tarragon), and here, a sweet-sour version. These mushrooms are lightly poached in a balsamic vinaigrette with plenty of herbs. Before serving, [...]
Cinnamon Pickled Grapes and a Refreshing Grape Shrub
Posted in Appetizers, Grapes, Preserving, Preserving with Plagemann & Fisher, Spice Rack Challenge, tagged Pickled grapes, Shrub drink, Spice Rack Challenge on November 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Getting ready for the year-end holidays, I decided to pickle a new batch of grapes with a cinnamon stick and simple syrup made of sugar and vinegar. Brilliantly easy, provocatively mysterious yet delicious, the grapes can be served with pâté, meats and poultry, and probably with a root vegetable terrine of some sort. They’re addictive, [...]
Chicken in Salsa Verde: Quesadillas and Enchiladas
Posted in Appetizers, Chicken, Salsa, Tomatillo, tagged Quesadillas with salsa verde on November 15, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
With the abundant tomatillos and poblano peppers at the end of the growing season, I made great salsa verde two ways: roasted in a hot oven and gently poached on the stovetop. I had lots of chicken meat from a roast chicken, and the last bit of cilantro from the garden, so I made a [...]
