Appetizer Night at Nancy's

Well, out September dinner goes on record as the smallest.  Only Nancy, Martha and Janet made it.  So we enjoyed a nice evening sipping some wine that Hawaii-bound Monica had dropped off late in the afternoon.

We had a nice variety of finger foods ... Janet contributed a mock pate and a flourless hazelnut chocolate cake, of which there are no photos (sorry).  Nancy made shrimp cocktail, marinated mushrooms and stuffed red potatoes.  Martha made a mushroom stuffed baked brie and deviled quail eggs.  Recipes and the photos that were taken will show up in the next few days.

November is at Janet's house on the 19th and she mentioned osso bucco!  I'm sure we'll hear more from her soon.

Dulce de Leche Crepes by Martha

I used a basic crepe recipe, which can be found in any standard cookbook. I like Julia Child's recipe in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", and used her suggestion to include some Grand Marnier in the batter. Crepes are relatively easy to make and there's probably nothing I can add to Julia's directions, right?

For the dulce de leche, I decided to try to make my own and found a neat little recipe on line for using the microwave. It worked beautifully and took about 8 - 10 minutes, compared to 2 - 3 hours it would have taken in the over. (I know you can buy dulce de leche in any Latin grocery. I just like to try it from scratch, at least for the first time I'm making something.)

Dulce de Leche

Empty one 15 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk into a fairly large glass bowl. Place in microwave for two minutes at 50% power. Remove and gently whisk. (At this point, you won't notice anything different.) Repeat this process three or four times. When you remove the bowl from the microwave and notice that the milk is looking curdled, it's time to stop. Whisk until the dulce de leche is smooth. (By the way, if you continue this cooking process you would ultimatly end up with dulce de leche candy, which is a fine tasting caramel.)

Plating the dish

Place about 1-1/2 tablespoon of dulce de leche in the center of one crepe. Fold the crepe in half and then into a quarter fold. Arrange on an oven proof dish. Continue the process until you've either used up all of the crepes or exhausted the dulce de leche.

Prior to serving, place the dish of crepes in the oven at 300 for about 20 minutes. You can then bring the dish to the table, pour a 1/4 cup grand marnier and flambe the dish, or if you wish, you can omit the flambe.

Tomato Salad

I can't remember who made this wonderful tomato salad, but it was amazingly refreshing and I'd sure like to have the recipe, so can the chef step up to the plate and load the recipe?  Thanks.

by Monica

Monica made this beautiful dish .... hopefully she'll be able to add the recipe here soon!

Empanadas by Monica

Pink Clams by Janet

Scallops Parmesan Style (or Clams or Mussels) by Janet

Ingredients: 2-3 scallops/person (if using mussels or clams, 5/person;) 1shallot, peeled and quartered; 2 T. salted butter; 4 T. fresh lemon juice; 1 T. dry white wine; 1 small garlic clove, peeled; ½ t. salt + 1 pinch; 2 sprigs cilantro, very finely chopped; 3 T. shredded Parmesan cheese.

In Chile, the shellfish of choice for this dish is a pink clam called Macha, but it’s not easy to find here in the US. I found them online, canned, and they work great.

Preparation: In a food processor, place the shallot, garlic, 1 T. butter, pinch salt, 2 T. lemon juice, pinch of salt and process to a paste. Add the shredded Parmesan and chopped cilantro and blend quickly.

In a baking dish, place the remaining lemon juice and butter, wine and ½ t. salt and mix well to coat the bottom of the dish. Arrange the seafood in the dish and top each with a (generous) dollop of the paste. Bake at 375 for about 5-7 minutes, or until lightly golden. Serve warm as an appetizer.

Queen Style Avocadoes with egg mix filling, nestled in Fava Bean Salad made in Susan's Kitchen

(Note from Martha:  I am so far behind in posting the photos from both September and October and I'm hoping to get a caught up today, so prepare for an avalanche of wonderful recipes!)

Ingredients for stuffed avocadoes: ½ avocado per person, peeled and pit removed; hard boiled eggs (about 2 eggs for 3 avocado halves; 4 eggs/6 avocado halves and so on); 1 T. extra virgin olive oil/2 eggs; salt to taste; 1/3 tsp. hot sauce/2 eggs (Cholula or Frank’s Red Hot sauces work best;)

Preparation: in a bowl mash up the hard boiled eggs with the olive oil to a smooth paste; mix the eggs paste with the hot sauce and salt to taste. Cover and refrigerate until ready to stuff the avocadoes.

Ingredients for Fava Bean Salad: 2 cups of peeled and cooked favas (skin removed) or 1, 280z package of frozen favas (La Fe are the best and can be found in the frozen veggies section of most Asian/international markets or at El Chaparral, across from Whole Foods in Wilson Blvd.) If you can’t find favas, you can substitute with finely chopped Romaine lettuce for the “nest” sprinkling the romaine with a little salt, vinegar and oil so the lettuce is not bland; 1 t. salt; 2 T. red wine vinegar; 3 T. grapeseed or canola oil; 1 shallot, peeled, halved and finely chopped; ½ t. salt; the juice of 1 freshly squeezed lemon; 1 T. grapeseed or canola oil; 1 T. finely chopped cilantro.

Preparation: Cook the fava beans until tender, making sure that they don’t turn to mush; if using frozen favas, add to salted boiling water without thawing. Once they cool enough to handle peel and place in a deep bowl. The fava beans should be still warm enough that they can absorb the vinegar. Add the vinegar and salt first and stir well, then add the oil. In a separate bowl, mix the chopped shallot with salt and lemon juice and let steep for at least 10 minutes (a little longer is always better, 20 minutes ideally, but 10 minutes works in a pinch;) then add the oil and the cilantro, stir well and add to the dressed favas. Mix well and make a small nest on a dish, where the stuffed avocado will be placed in the center of the plate.

Cut and peel the avocadoes with a soup spoon, remove pit and stuff each half with the egg mix. Serve atop the fava bean salad nest or chopped romaine in lieu of favas.

Another salad that works well to plate the avocadoes is fresh green cabbage salad. I usually buy the shredded cabbage packages and salt it first, then following the recipe for the fava beans dressing. I also add a 1/3 t. ground cumin so it’s not so heavy to digest.