Tag Archives: appetizer

Sep7

Dinner in the Mediterranean: Chicken Shawarma, Spiced Rice, Israeli salads

Posted on September 7, 2015 by athaidek

My college friends and I are all approaching our twenty-fifth year this year, and I find this dinner party an appropriate step-up to be a half-century old. I love entertaining and am always on the hunt for a good themed dinner or party, so any excuse to serve slow-cooked meat is on my radar. My roommates and I moved in together earlier this summer and wanted to bring our old and new friends together to get to know each other better, make new friends, and have any excuse to talk all things girl talk. Thanks lovely ladies for making this a special evening and for the delicious sides!! Our friend Caroline made green goddess hummus, Julia made a quinoa tabbouleh salad, Kate brought an amazing Israeli salad, Wesley brought yummy wine, Jess brought traditional hummus, Kelly made the beautiful settings along with contributing delicious wine. All my roommate Kelley and I had to do was make veggies, rice, and chicken.

Before I get into the recipe, let’s talk life lately. I recently went on a wonderful retreat with a church near me. A thoroughly reflective experience, the retreat also offered an old-fashioned “compact disc” for us to listen to the songs featured on the retreat. There’s one song in particular that has stuck with me called “Beauty for Ashes” by Chris Mclarney (listen!).

Now I’m in the camp that likes catchy songs and sometimes I don’t pay attention to all the words, so for about two weeks, there was this one verse that I kept glazing over. I kept thinking he was saying “you turned my morning into dancing,” and thought, wow, what a great pick me up for a hard day. YES, God, you turn my mornings into a dance through life. You get up and get to work harnessing the gifts God gave you to invest in the world around you. I thought that was such a beautiful metaphor.

So, as it turns out, he’s saying “you turned my MOURNING into dancing.” Equally as beautiful, but definitely a completely different meaning. What do you think, mourning or morning? Ramona Quimby had some similar experiences growing up – did you guys reach Ramona Quimby, Age 8? Ramona thought that in the national anthem, it said “by the dawnzer’s lee light” instead of “by the dawn’s early light.” She proceeded to ask her mother to turn on the “dawnzer,” and her mom had to explain that dawnzer is actually not another name for a lamp!! Sometimes we’ve all got a little Amelia Bedelia or Ramona in us, right?

As I’ve been dancing through mornings the past couple weeks, I’ve also been reminiscing on this wonderful dinner party! I think this is a great dish for you to try entertaining with because it’s pretty hands off when you want to start prepping and saying hi and pouring drinks. The gist is: marinate chicken, bake chicken, chop into pieces right before serving, garnish with lemon/herbs. I ended up adding rice on the side but you could easily just do store-bought pita bread.

Mediterranean as a theme (and rather vague) is quite easy for your guests to bring items as well. For those who don’t want/know how to cook, ask to pick up a bag of pita chips or hummus and a bottle or two of wine. For those who want to get a bit more involved, a few people made some Israeli type salads. These consist of chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, and sometimes a bit of quinoa, lemon and chopped fresh herbs. This chicken recipe was recommended to me from my friend Jessica who had it with her lunch club in medical school. Thanks so much for the recipe Jess and thanks for making some delicious hummus 🙂

Oven-roased Chicken Shawarma, from the New York Times

serves 4-6 (I doubled the recipe)

2 lemons, juiced
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
6 cloves garlic, peeled, smashed and minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
½ teaspoon turmeric
A pinch ground cinnamon
Red-pepper flakes, to taste
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 large red onion, peeled and quartered
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Marinate chicken in the morning: Whisk lemon juice, 1/2 cup olive oil, gahhhlic, salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, turmeric, cinnamon and pinch of red pepper flakes together in a large bowl. Put chicken in freezer bags and pour the marinade over the chicken in the bags. Press as much air out of the bags as you can, seal, and swish the marinade all around the chicken to make sure it’s distributed evenly.
Put the bags on a plate in your refrigerator at least an hour and up to 12.
When you’re ready to cook, take the chicken out of the refrigerator about 30 mins – 1 hr before ready to cook to bring the chicken to room temperature. Preheat oven to 425 and take a break from doing your hair to grease a large rimmed baking sheet or 9×13 pan with a bit of olive oil.
Add quartered onion to the marinate in the bags and swish around again. Remove chicken and onion onto the sheet pan, spread out, and bake for 30-40 minutes. At this point your guests are here, you’re pouring wine, chatting over One Direction, and ready to EAT!
Once the chicken is ready, take out of the oven, let rest for 2 minutes and cut into thin strips. Serve alongside lemon slices and top with parsley. Bon appetit!

Spiced rice (the recipe calls it aromatic, to me that sounds like a spa)

1.5 cups white rice (I used jasmine, I don’t really think it matters what kind you use except for the timing)
3 cups water
10 cardamom pods
2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
6 whole cloves

salt according to the rice package instructions

Boil water and rice together in a large saucepan. Add salt, cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves.
Once boiling, turn heat down so the mixture is at a slight simmer and cover. Cook according to package timing.
Once cooked, fluff rice and take out cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, and cardamom pods.
Serve on the side of chicken!

Set up one table with all your dishes and set another table with flowers, candles and plates. If you’re in need of some healthy dinnertime conversation, hit up my friends Julia and Kate they are the queens of witty questions 😉

Apr16

Sriracha Hummus and my new favorite party app

Posted on April 16, 2015 by athaidek

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Today I write to you with a new view on life. Let me tell you about the new, Argentine Katie, and how I’d like to convene with those of you who may share the same new views as me. I recently returned from an amazing trip with my cousins, aunt, uncle, and their grandmother to Buenos Aires. To be honest with you, I had no idea what to expect and had an amazing time exploring the city, meeting new people, and spending time with my cousin’s girlfriend’s amazing family.

While in Buenos Aires, I learned that we wait for EVERYONE to arrive before eating*. I’d like to really pronounce this as “eating asterisk” because what it really means is, let’s have a very large spread of appetizers and drink beer and be joyous until the last person arrives and then let’s still eat a completely normal meal as if we didn’t eat any of those apps.

SO, we found out that there is a tradition of serving “picada” before the meal. While I don’t think my family totally figured out what actually is included in the picada (apparently it really means there has to be some specific forms of meat and cheese), we associated it with a few key items.

While I did love the olives, cheese, and crackers they served, nothing compared to the saltiest salt-mine bag of peanuts that you could find at any grocery store. We were so amazed at the amount of salt in these snack bags we seriously considering draining them in a colander and saving the leftover salt at the bottom of the bag. This is the ULTIMATE pre-dinner snack which paired well with the Imperial beer.

Second, PRINGLES. A great app that also went well with beer. From now on, I’m going to try and find the salt mine peanuts and have pringles when I entertain. These were party starters. Next time I go back, I want to bring this hummus with me and see if they’d like the American tradition to their picada. The only thing is, apparently Argentines don’t like spicy food :/. Until then, more for me!

This hummus recipe is an original from my friend Mike who is master of all spicy foods. An avid sriracha fan, Mike went so far as to carry a sriracha flag with him throughout a festival in Atlanta as the reference point for all of us to find throughout the day. Serve this up at your next dinner party and adjust the spice to your liking 🙂

Sriracha Hummus – easily adaptable to all spice pallettes

1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed

1-2 cloves garlic, chopped slightly

3 TBS tahini

juice of 1 lemon

salt and pepper to taste

1/4-1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

SRIRACHA – looks like we used maybe 1.5-2 TBS sriracha

1. Combine all ingredients except olive oil in the bowl of your food processor, magic bullet, or blender. Preferably you want to use a food processor here, but if you have either of the others they will work. Pulse in the food processor until the mixture starts to become smooth.

2. Once you’ve broken up the chickpeas and can see the garlic is small, slowly stream in olive oil. This is the part where you can start with a little bit and add more depending on how thick you like it. Mike likes his on the thicker side so that’s what you’ll see here…it’s on the lower end of the olive oil scale. Puree until smooth or keep a bit chunky if thats how you like it.

3. Finish off with a heart-shaped sriracha garnish and a few sesame seeds. Serve with carrots, pita, cucumbers, or on top of a salad/sandwich.

Can’t wait to share the SWEETS I fell in love with in Argentina…I know you’re all on the edge of your chair wondering if I mean desserts or men amirite??? jajaja bon appetit! Let me know how the peanut picada works for you next time you have people over!

Dec27

ReelBeets: Blue cheese gougeres and a video!

Posted on December 27, 2013 by athaidek

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Le first video post, my friends! Dear Smitten Kitchen, thank you again for following through on this delicious recipe. Blue cheese and black pepper light and fluffy appetizer puffs? Please and thank you. This was filmed in my friend Cessie’s kitchen, and filmed by our fabulous videographer friend Walle.

Are you ready for fancy, ooey, gooey, yummy, cheesy, sassy puffs? Dig in and join the holiday party! Merry merry Christmas dear friends. Also, get all gussied up and wear your holiday ribbons in your hair, k?

It’s an iPhone video, bear with us 🙂

Dec23

Samosas Round 2: Lamb, Sweet Potato, and Pea Samosas

Posted on December 23, 2013 by athaidek

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So I ate a REALLY GOOD lamb samosa from a package yesterday and was so curious about how I could re-create the hearty spice of a lamb samosa mixed with the richness of a sweet potato. I’ve seen a few sweet potato + lamb recipes before, but really, I adapted a strictly lamb-based samosa to create these as my parsnip samosas came out a little too sweet for my liking last time.

Keep your eyes peeled for the first video post in the works! This is my first try so stay patient with me here. Ok I love these samosas because they are very forgiving. I started with happyyolk’s referenced Saveur recipe for the dough after trying a healthier one last time. For a baked samosa, you’re not going to get much better than this. The dough is not super flakey like a galette kind of dough, but it has just enough butter to give it enough flake to have a crunch to it. If you’re not frying these babies, then that’s the closest you’re gonna get.

There’s a methodology to this madness guys. Don’t put yourself in a cook vs. baker category. We can do both here. Get the dough right and you’ll be much more confident experimenting with the filling. Besides, I told you already, there’s butter in this dough, so if you are lacking a little flavor in the filling, you still got the butter going for ya.

Are you one of those people that wants a filling-ish appetizer? I am. I need one of these meat and potato pockets to keep myself going until dinner-time. Whatever time you eat these, they are a good afternoon snack or appetizer.

Here’s how we start. First, prep your dough. Follow Saveur’s recipe to make the dough. They suggest using around 6 tablespoons of water, but mine came out to about 8. And if you have a food processor, by all means use it here. Wrap up your dough and let it refrigerate while we make the filling.

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato, cooked in the microwave until mostly soft, about 6-8 minutes

1/4 lb ground lamb

2/3 cup frozen peas

1 onion, chopped

2 big or 3 small garlic cloves

2 TBS olive oil

1/2 tsp tumeric

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp coriander

3/4 tsp cumin

a pinch of whole mustard and whole cumin seeds (and fenugreek if you have it)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock, plus more in case

Start by toasting your whole mustard and cumin seeds to bloom the spices. If you don’t have these, don’t worry about it. Honestly I was just experimenting with using whole seeds :). Once fragrant, empty into a small bowl and set aside.

Heat olive oil on medium heat, add your chopped onion and let soften until translucent, about 5 minutes. Then add garlic for one more minute. Add in the curry powder, cumin, salt, coriander, tumeric, and coat the onion and garlic with them.

Add the lamb and break it up into small crumbles. Peel your soft sweet potato and cut into small chunks while the lamb starts to brown. Once it browns, add in your sweet potato. Now add in your hot pepper flakes and the whole toasted seeds. At this point, the oil will be mostly taken by the lamb, so add in your chicken stock and add the frozen peas.

Let it simmer on medium heat, slowly breaking up the sweet potato as it softens. Continue to add chicken stock if it looks dry. Once the peas have lost their frost, turn the heat down to very low, put a cover on the skillet, and let the filling absorb the stock and spices. The point here is to make sure you’ve got a thick enough filling.

There’s no worry on this step, timing and look of the filling is entirely up to you and your eyes only. Just think about what texture you want when you bite into a spicy pillow with a little crunch on the outside. Now we’re in a happy place! One it looks about ready, turn off the heat, cover, and lets get those pillows ready.

Take the dough out of the fridge and prep your oven to 450 degrees F. Break off your dough into ten even pieces and roll them into little balls. I cut the dough in half and made each half into 5 pieces. Cover the balls you are not using with a towel. Starting with the first ball, roll it into a flat circle. Add a spoonful of filling on one half, making sure there is room at the edge for crimping. Swiftly fold over the other side into a half moon and press the top and bottom layer together lightly to close. Some of your filling might puff out, that’s okay! It’s rustic remember.

Starting at one end, fold the edge together toward the filling, snuggling in the pocket. Continue to fold the edges over one another, crimping the open edge inward so it again, “snuggles” the filling in tightly! It’s okay if it doesn’t work out the first time, you’ll get the hang of it. The key is to just keep going in the same direction so there are no air pockets in the seam. Place the samosa on a greased cookie sheet and continue with the others, until you have 10 samosas.

Bake for 15 minutes at 450 on the middle rack, then turn the samosas over and cook for another 3-5 minutes until both sides are speckly golden brown. Let cool for about 5-10 minutes. Enjoy with some chutney, Indian pickle, or by itself!

May26

Easy crowd pleaser – White bean garlic dill dip

Posted on May 26, 2013 by athaidek

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I’ve made this dip before for my grandparents and it was even better the second time around! It’s tricky to serve up a healthy dip when all you really want to do before the meal comes out is gorge on some buffalo chicken dip (amiright?) So, say you’re starving. You show up at as a guest at someone’s house and not wanting to be rude, you don’t ask what’s for dinner. But then, you’re like, okay what if the food is not going to be enough? Then I’m just stuck at the dinner table trying to stay engaged in the conversation whilst chewing on what would be a delicious paella if the guy next to you hadn’t taken all the chicken and sausage. So now you’re just eating some spanish rice and wishing you would have eaten more of the delicious chile con carne dip served during cocktail hour.

Um, point being, (where’s my point…) you need a dip that’s hearty but not too hearty as to overpower the meal if it is going to be alot!! Whew. We had a delicious tandoori chicken, Indian cauliflower, and curry-peanut slaw for dinner, and this dip was a light yet wonderful hors d’oeuvres for the meal. My mom is growing some dill outside, so she asked me to come up with some kind of dip that could use this up. I’ve made HowSweetEats’ version before, and it’s SO SIMPLE to add/subtract from.

My version with only one ingredient-chopping necessary: Add 2-3 cloves chopped garlic, a few squeezes of dijon mustard, one can of rinsed white northern beans, about 2-3 tsps lemon juice, a few sprigs of washed fresh dill, salt, pepper, and a little less that 1/4 cup olive oil to a food processor. Puree until it reaches the kind of chunkiness you’re looking for. Refrigerate to thicken it up for ~30 minutes or serve immediately with crackers or cucumbers