i don't really know that it qualifies as a dinner party but i hosted a dinner for three the other day. i was contemplating appetizers when i realized that i had all i needed in the house already!
goat cheese appetizers
4 ounces goat cheese
4 ounces cream cheese
4 cloves roasted garlic*
1/4 cup whole almonds
freshly ground pepper
crackers of your choice (i used erica's kitchen shortcrust savoury boats. i purchased them at the grocery outlet. so cute in their little boat shape.)
bring the goat cheese and cream cheese to room temperature. mash cloves of roasted garlic with a fork. chop almonds, reserving a few whole almonds for garnish. toast almonds in oven. combine goat cheese, cream cheese, roasted garlic, and chopped toasted almond and mix well. add cracked pepper to taste. portion goat cheese mixture onto crackers and garnish with a whole toasted almond. number of servings depends on the type of cracker used.
* to make roasted garlic preheat the oven to 350 degrees. take a bulb of garlic and slice in half so all of the cloves are exposed. brush exposed cloves with olive oil and place both halves face up in an oven proof dish. cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for approximately 45 minutes.
for dinner we had korean short ribs, some sort of chinese vegetable, and steamed rice. the dinner wasn't fancy or anything so i didn't take any pictures. dessert was fun to make thought. i've had tarts on the brain ever since i tried my hand at a peach tart the other day.
i've always been afraid of crust. it's a fear likely instilled in my by my mom. in her own words, "i hate making crust. it always turns out really hard. and all that work!" but since i tried the shortbread crust and that turned out ok i thought i would try out another one. the food processor method seems pretty quick and easy so i tried another recipe that used the same method. gourmet food plaza posted a recipe for a pear tart with cornmeal crust so i gave it a whirl. i have to say that the recipe was pretty disappointing. while it looked tasty the flavor was completely lacking. the poached pears were pretty bland and the custard mostly just tasted like scrambled eggs. guess i'll have to try my hand at tarts one more time to get a winner! any suggestions for a recipe?
3 comments:
cute boats.
Also, you didn't say how the crust turned out! Did it work? I think there was a Cook's Illustrated issue from summer 2004(?) that talks about making fruit tarts and a certain method of rolling the dough so that it's flakier, but as for pear tart recipes, I don't know. Oh! Pear tarte tatin from epicurious is a good one, but there's no custard invovled.
actually the crust turned out pretty good. not tough and pretty darned easy to make. unfortunately i had to toss the pears yesterday. =p
Post a Comment