Mini Goat Cheese Tarts

As soon as I hear about a party, a holiday or really any event, I immediately start planning the food I'm going to bring. So when my friend Eileen had a house warming party, I decided to pull out all the stops and make some really fun appetizers.

I was a little worried that people wouldn't be into goat cheese, but these were a huge success. I assembled them at the party so there was no trouble with transport.

The cornmeal tart crust recipe is borrowed from my friend Hans and the rest was just sort of an experiment.


Mini Goat Cheese Tarts
(makes 48-60 tarts)
8 oz soft goat cheese
8 oz cream cheese, softened
handful of fresh herbs, minced (parsley, chives, whatever you have)

2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup, 1 tbsp cornmeal
1 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, cold, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup of cold water

20 cherry tomatoes.

Mix goat cheese, cream cheese and fresh herbs. Transfer to a piping bag or plastic baggie.

Slice tomatoes and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
With a pastry blender or a food processor, mix the flour with the cornmeal and salt. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is the size of small peas. Sprinkle with the water and pulse just until the pastry is evenly moistened. Transfer to a lightly floured board and pat into a disk. Wrap and refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes (or overnight, till you need it basically).

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the pastry dough. Cut off enough to fit into mini tart pan and repeat as necessary until desired amount are made. Cook until firm and remove. (About 15 minutes.) Let them cool, then pipe goat cheese into each tart.

Top them with a slice of tomato.

Cheese Puffs

The quintessential party snack Cheese Puffs are light, fluffy and of course very cheesy.

They require a few steps, but the end result looks effortless and tastes delicious. I think these will be joining my roster of surefire hits.

There are plenty of recipes for these out there, but I used this one, they gave instructions for freezing too, if you're in a make ahead mood.

Don't be intimidated by making the dough, I made a similar one for the Croquembouche and if you follow the instructions it's super simple. You can use whatever kind of cheese you want, but it should be something sharp and very flavorful, something like mozzarella wouldn't work as well.

You might want to make a double batch though, these were devoured in minutes.

Cheese Puffs
1 cup water
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
large pinch of cayenne pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
24 chives, finely-minced (can be omitted)
1 1/2 cups (about 6 ounces) cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
In a saucepan, heat the water, butter, salt and cayenne pepper just until the butter is melted (don't let it simmer or boil).

Add all the flour at once and stir vigorously until it forms a smooth ball and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Take it off the heat and let it rest for 2 minutes.

Transfer to a stand mixer or a bowl, add the eggs one at a time. After the first 2 eggs the dough should start to become shiny and smooth.

After the eggs, add the cheese and chives.

Scoop all of the dough into a plastic baggy or piping bag (of course I always use a plastic baggy). Pipe about a tablespoon sized circles about an inch apart on the parchment.

Dip your finger in water and smooth the tops of the each puff. Sprinkle each with a little cheese.

Bake at 425 for 10 minutes then turn the oven down to 375 and bake for another 20 minutes.

Serve warm.

Pretzel Heaven

Please, please don't disregard this recipe because of the multiple steps!
These pretzels were fabulous and a total crowd pleaser.


Yes, you have to let the dough rise and briefly boil them. However, when you pull these pieces of golden dough-y joy out of the oven and present them to your family/friends, I promise it will be totally worth it.

Another unnecessary worry I'd like to address: yeast. My mother is afraid of using yeast. It's totally crazy. Yeast takes care of itself. Add it to the dough, cover it, and go watch a movie.

The pretzels tasted most like Auntie Anne's (the pretzel stand in malls). The original recipe is here.

Soft Pretzels

3 1/4 cups flour
3 tbs unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups tepid water
1 tsp instant yeast
2 1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup baking soda for boiling (note: you needn’t double this amount for a double recipe)
Pretzel salt (I used kosher, but it wasn't large enough, it all dissolved)

Mix together the flour and butter in a large bowl. Add the water and combine until it forms dough (it'll be a little sticky). Add the yeast to one side of the dough and the salt to the other. Work them into the dough.

Knead the dough on a floured surface for about 10 minutes. Place it in a oiled bowl (spraying it with non-stick spray is good enough) and cover it. Leave it somewhere safe for an hour.

The dough won't double in size like bread, but it should rise a little. Now remove it and place it on a floured surface. Cut into 8 pieces, roll into 8 balls, cover and let rest for about 10 minutes.

Muster up all your childhood Play-Doh rolling skills and roll the balls of dough out into 18 inch strips (or snakes!) I think it's easier to show you a picture of the pretzel motions rather than describe them.

Now let the pretzels rest on an oiled tray in the fridge for 2-24 hours (so you could do all those steps the day before if you wanted).

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Fill a big pot up with water and heat it to a boil. Carefully add the baking soda and reduce the heat to a simmer.

Add the pretzels one at a time (they'll sink and gradually float up). Let them cook on each side for 20 seconds. Then set them back of the tray and let them drain.

Once all the pretzels are boiled, place on a greased baking sheet, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with pretzel salt.

Bake for 35 minutes or until brown.

Dim Sum Experiments

Recently had my first experience with steamed won-tons, at Haru in Boston.

I ordered the King Crab Dumplings which were delicate and delicious. I knew I couldn’t do them justice with the crab available to me, but I really wanted to steam some dumplings. I decided to experiment with ground turkey.

To ensure that my dad and sister would really like something I make tonight, I decided to make a back-up (inspired by these).

I wanted to make another dim sum, but couldn’t decide between the taco ones from the link above and these. I let my sister decide and of course she went with the taco version. I turned out to be a pretty good choice because after dropping off the taco dim sum for my dad and sister to try while I steamed dumplings, I returned to find all but two eaten (luckily I’d saved a few in the kitchen for myself).

All in all, the dim sum went over well, the sausage in the Italian won-tons was a little spicier than I thought it would be, and after making the soy vinaigrette I found out that my sister hates soy sauce. Nothing ever turns out perfect though.

Turkey Asian Won-tons

1/3 lb ground turkey

½ spring onion (minced)

2 tbs. stir-fry sauce

About 15-18 won-tons (I ended up with 16 filled won-tons)

Egg wash

Mix turkey, spring onion and stir-fry sauce.

Brush two sides of a won-ton with egg wash, place 1 tsp of filling in the center, fold the won-ton over, press to seal and then fold in corners. Repeat until you are out of filling.

If using a metal steamer, spray it with non-stick spray.

Place 6-8 won-tons in the steamer (don’t overcrowd) and cover. Steam for 5-7 minutes or until filling is firm.

Soy vinaigrette

2 tbs. soy sauce

1 tbs. rice vinegar

3 tbs. oil

4-6 drops of srircacha

Whisk together soy sauce, vinegar and srircacha. Whisk in oil.

Italian Won-tons

1/3 lb Italian sausage

¼ cup shredded parmesan cheese

2 tbs. marinara sauce

15-18 won-ton wrappers (I ended up with 18 filled won-tons)

Mix sausage, parmesan cheese and marinara sauce.

Brush two sides of a won-ton with egg wash, place 1 tsp of filling in the center, fold the won-ton over, press to seal and then fold in corners. Repeat until you are out of filling.

If using a metal steamer, spray it with non-stick spray.

Place 6-8 won-tons in the steamer (don’t overcrowd) and cover. Steam for 5-7 minutes or until filling is firm.

Assembling the Won-tons

Get all your ingredients together.

Add the filling.Fold in half.

Fold in the corners.

And like magic you'll have...

Time to steam!

Taco Dim Sum

2 cups flour

2/3 cup boiling water (and a little cold water)

Salt

cilantro/parsley/something green

½ cup taco cheese

1 cup of taco meat

Mix the boiling water into the flour, once it gets crumbly and the water is absorbed, start kneading by hand. Once the dough is well mixed, roll into a ball and cover with a damp paper towel for 30 minutes.

Prepare taco meat and let cool.

Roll out the dough, get it as close to a rectangle as you can.

Cover with a thin layer of taco meat, cheese, and cilantro/parsley/something green.

Roll up and seal the edge with a little water.

At least point because I wasn’t cooking them immediately I wrapped

the roll up really tight in plastic wrap,

but this step can be skipped.

Slice into 1 inch thick rounds. Place rounds in a hot sauté pan (that you have sprayed with non-stick spray or added a few teaspoons of oil to). Flip when the bottoms are brown.