You might have noticed I haven’t been posting for a while. My followers knew I had a business project, it’s actually going pretty well. And hardly leaves me much time to do anything else…

I’ll keep posting in the near future but maybe not as regularly as I would like to. But don’t worry, I keep cooking and shooting to share new recipes with you when I get a little more free time

So here come my Blue cheese, walnuts & bresaola roll-ups! You know I have a thing for cheese… I’ts a perfect ingredient for tasty finger food. You can use any type of blue cheese for these ones. If you go for a creamy one, like a good Gorgonzola, you won’t even need to mix it with cream cheese. I made mine with roquefort, it definitely needed it to be easily spreadable on the crepe.

I’m not sure if you can find Bresaola easily wherever you live. Here is a list of equivalent products you could substitute breasaola with.

Preparation time: 15 minutes – Refrigeration time : at least 4 hours

Ingredients (for 16 to 20 rolls)

5.3 oz (150 g) of blue cheese
3.5 oz (100 g) of cream cheese
2.1 oz (60 g) of walnut halves
8 Bresaola slices
2 buckwheat galettes (recipe here)

Instructions

1/ Pour walnut halves into a mortar (or food processor) and grind with a pesel for a few minutes until you get a mix of a fine consistency and small pieces that will add crunchiness to your rolls.

2/ In a bowl, mash blue cheese, cheese spread and ground walnuts.

3/ Line a plastic wrap on your work surface and place a galette on top of it. Spread a thick layer of your cheese mixture on the galette. Be careful no to break it! Top with breasaola slices like you would do on a pizza.

4/ Wrap into a firm roll. To do so, you need to tuck the end of your galette to start the roll. Then carefully bring the bottom part of your plastic wrap up and over the ingredients and roll tightly pulling back the plastic wrap as necessary so it doesn’t get rolled into your roll-ups. Wrap the plastic wrap around your roll and roll a few times on your work surface so it gets perfectly circular.

5/ Repeat operation with the second buckwheat galette.

6/ Refrigerate your rolls for at least 4 hours. If you don’t have enough time left, you can also place them in the freezer for an hour.

7/ Cut both extremities so you only get nice little rolls and cut your rolls into 8 to 10 pieces each.

Serve as an appetizer.

My life is pretty crazy right now, I’m having a hard time finding moments to post
But don’t worry, I keep cooking and shooting so I’ll have a lot of dishes to share with you once I can escape more often from by business!

This lamb and pistachio skewers recipe was inspired by the French « Saveurs » magazine although it ended up a lot different from the original. These kebabs are a variation of the Mediterranean kofta. Like the original, they’re served with a mint and yogurt sauce and can be eaten with some salad in a flatbread.

Preparation time: 30 minutes – Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

Lamb and pistachio skewers

1.3 lbs (600 g) of  ground lamb meat
1 oz (30 g) of shelled pistachio nuts
6 sprigs of fresh parsley
1 egg
1 onion
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground cilantro
1 squeeze of lemon juice
Salt & pepper

Yogurt sauce

2 Greek yogurts
30 mint leaves
1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Prepare mint yogurt sauce: Peel and chop garlic finely. Rinse, dry and chop mint leaves. Combine yogurt, garlic, mint, olive oil, salt and pepper. Keep in the fridge.

2/ Prepare skewers: Rinse, dry and chop parsley. Peel and chop onion. Chop pistachio nuts.

3/ Break egg in a small bowl and whisk it with a fork.

4/ Keep some chopped pistachios aside for sprinkling. In a large salad bowl, combine lamb meat, onion, pistachios, parsley, olive oil, breadcrumbs and whisked eggs.

5/ Add one squeeze of lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper and scrunch all together with your hands.

6/ Preheat oven over grill position. Line a baking sheet on a baking tray. Wash your hands with cold water. Don’t get them totally dry, meat will stick less on your hands.

7/ Mold lamb mixture around each skewer into a kind of flat sausage. Place kebabs on the baking tray as they’re made.

8/ Bake in oven for 10 minutes, turning them after 5 minutes.

9/ Sprinkle with chopped pistachios and serve with mint yogurt sauce.

Appetizer spoons are great for an « apéritif dinatoire » when your guests are only going to eat finger food. But they’re also perfect as an elaborated amuse-bouche to be served before a nice meal. We’re in the middle of holiday season, it’s a perfect time to share with you this delicious coconut ceviche recipe. Believe me, it would make a great appetizer for your Christmas or New year’s eve dinner.

Ceviche is a Peruvian dish in which citrus marinade contributes to « cook » the fish. That’s why the indicated marinating time can vary depending on your tastes. If you like eating raw fish, then you won’t let it marinate for long. On the contrary, if raw fish doesn’t appeal you at all, you can even prepare it the day before so it marinates overnight and gets a harder consistence.

Preparation time: 10 mn – Marinating time: 15 to 30 minutes

Ingredients (for 10 to 15 spoons)

1/2 lbs (225 g) of white fish fillets (sole, bass, hake, cod etc.)
1 lemon
1 lime
5 tablespoons of thick coconut milk
1 tablespoon of small chive
1 tablespoon of cilantro
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of grated ginger
1 teaspoon of grated coconut (optional)
Salt

Instructions

1/ Rinse fish fillets and dry them with kitchen paper. Take bones away and dice them (size around 1 square inch).

2/ Rinse and chop small chives and cilantro.

3/ Rinse lime and lemon and grate their zest (optional: you can keep some for decoration, you’ll grate the rest over the spoons before serving them).

4/ In a soup plate, combine fish, lemon and lime zest, small chives, cilantro and a pinch of salt.

5/ Squeeze lime and lemon and add juice to the fish mixture. Cover and refrigerate at least 15 minutes (depending on how raw you want to serve it).

6/ Combine in a bowl coconut milk and turmeric.

7/ Fill spoons with ceviche (leaving lemon juice in the marinating plate) and coconut sauce.  Top with grated zests, ginger and coconut (optional).

I’m sure you all know Gazpacho, but have you ever tried Salmorejo? It’s from Spanish Andalusia as well, you eat it cold too but it has a thicker texture which makes it a cream rather than a liquid soup. You can eat it as a starter or as an appetizer. In Spain, people usually dip it with bread but it’s also pretty good with crude veggies (pepper, cucumber, Portobello mushrooms, zucchini etc.). Vegetarians can skip this part, the others will top it with a hard boiled egg and some cured ham.

Preparation time: 10 mn

Ingredients (for 6 servings)

Salmorejo

2.2 lbs (1 kg) ripe tomatoes
7 oz (200 g) of bread from the previous day
1 cup (250 ml) of olive oil (click here to buy online)
1 garlic clove
2 tablespoons of vinegar
Salt

Topping

1 egg
3 slices of cured ham

Instructions

1/ Heat tomatoes in a pan filled with water until their skin gets easy to take away. Let them cool down a little off the water.

2/ Cut bread into pieces.

3/ Peel tomatoes and garlic clove.

4/ Mix bread, tomatoes, garlic, vinegar and olive oil in a blender.

5/ Season with salt and keep in the fridge.

6/ Before serving, get water to a boil in a small pan. Add egg thoroughly with a tablespoon and leave in boiling water for 9 minutes.

7/ Rinse egg with cold water, let it cool a little and shell.

8/ Dice cured ham and egg.

9/ Serve salmorejo in individual dishes or in a salad bowl for dipping and sharing. Top with egg, ham and a dash of olive oil.

Enjoy

I’ll finish this ‘appetizer spoons week’ by one recipe I discovered not long ago but I already know I’ll be making it quite often. Unlike the other recipes I posted along the week, you’ll need some cooking for that one . I caramelized shallots but you can also use onions as long as you slice them into thin pieces. They help sweeten blue cheese’s strong taste. The three flavors go just perfect together… I used raspberry vinegar when caramelizing shallots, it adds a delicious fruity taste; but you can replace it by red wine if you like.

Preparation time: 35 mn

Ingredients (for 10 spoons)

3 prosciutto slices
6 shallots (or 2 onions)
2 oz (55 g) of blue cheese
2 tablespoons of raspberry vinegar (or red wine)  (Click here to buy online)
1 1/2 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Peel and chop shallots.

2/ Melt butter in a frying pan over low heat. (Be careful it doesn’t get brown, it’s very bad for health.)

3/ When butter has melt, add chopped shallots. Leave covered, stirring frequently, for about 10 mn or until translucent.

4/ Add sugar and stir. Let shallots caramelize for a couple of minutes, then add raspberry vinegar. At that time, you should probably go for medium heat. It’s important when adding alcohol to get it to a (smooth ) boil so the strong taste evaporates. When the strong smell is gone, you’re done. Take pan off heat.

5/ Cut prosciutto into small pieces.

6/ Dice blue cheese.

7/ Fill the bottom of your Chinese soup spoons with caramelized shallots. Add a dice of blue cheese and top with prosciutto pieces.

8/ Serve right away.

Here is another appetizer spoon recipe I made last week when having friends over. I really like this one because I’m sure it has plenty of great variations. I only had dried fig and raisin; next time I’ll try with dried apricot . The goat cheese I used is called ‘Crottin de Chavignol‘. Its a perfect cheese for this recipe because of its soft texture. The goat cheese you’ll choose for these appetizer spoons shouldn’t be too creamy so it doesn’t make a cheese paste when you dice it. Other than that I’m sure any other medium strengh goat cheese will do the job.

Preparation time: 10 mn

Ingredients (for 10 spoons)

3 1/2 oz (100 g) of goat cheese
2 dried figs
30 raisins
1 tablespoon of small chive
2 tablespoons of walnut oil
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Scrape cheese and dice it.

2/ Rinse and chop small chives.

3/ In a bowl blend cheese, small chives, walnut oil, salt and pepper. Cover and set aside for at least 30 mn.

4/ Cut the fig’s hard part on top and slice it.

5/ Fill spoons with cheese and top with raisins and dried fig slices.

One only appetizer spoons recipe won’t serve you much so we’ll keep on going for several posts . I told you possibilities were endless! You can use salmon chopped ’scraps’, they’re much cheaper and they do fine. All you have to do is mix apple with salmon and Greek yogurt. I don’t know if Greek yogurt is known (or available) in many countries but I found this little explanation on what it is. There is even a recipe if you’re ready to make your own. Granny Smith apples are perfect with salmon and give these appetizer spoons a very pleasant refreshing taste. They’ll be perfect with white wine.

Preparation time: 10 mn

Ingredients (for 10 spoons)

4 smoked salmon slices (or the equivalent in chopped ’scraps’)
1 Greek yogurt
1/2 Granny Smith apple
1/4 cup of lump-fish roe
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Peel, take center out and chop apple.

2/ Cut salmon into small pieces. Set some aside for decoration when spoons are filled.

3/ In a bowl, blend yogurt, salmon, apple dices, oil, salt & pepper.

4/ Fill spoons with the mixture and top with salmon and lump-fish roe.

See…It takes no time and I bet your guests will be impressed

Have you ever tried appetizer spoons? It’s the solution to turn any dish you like into finger-food! Possibilities are endless, all you need is Chinese soup spoons and a little imagination…Mix textures and flavors, have fun! You can make sweet ones, warm ones…They’re just great when you need to feed many people but don’t have space enough to have them all around a dinner table. Parisian appartments are pretty small (or expensive!), it explains I’m a huge fan of appetizer spoons

These ones are made with smoked duck and pear slices, but what gives it a special flavor is its spice and honey vinaigrette. Four spices blend is a widely used mixture in France, made with cinnamon, ginger, clove and nutmeg. if you can’t find it already made, mix 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon with 1 teaspoon of ground ginger, 1 teaspoon of ground clove and 1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg. you can also add it 1 teaspoon of ground white pepper if you like. In that case, don’t add pepper to the below recipe.

Preparation time: 10 mn

Ingredients (for 10 spoons)

10 smoked duck slices
3/4 pear
2 tablespoons of walnut oil
1/2 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of honey
1/2 teaspoon of four spices mix
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ In a bowl, blend oil, vinegar, honey and spices (including salt & pepper).

2/ Peel and slice pear.

3/ Fill spoons with a piece of pear, topped with a smoked duck slice and another pear piece.

4/ Add a little vinaigrette to your spoons.

5/ That’s it! Ready to serve

Here’s a great appetizer recipe, very easy although it takes a little time  to make .
It’s very common in France to have friends over for a pre-dinner drink (apéritif). But we also often invite them for what we call « apéritif dinatoire » which means there is no dinner after it, you eat while drinking! In these occasions, I make different finger-food like Spanish tapas. It’s important to vary tastes and types so your guests don’t get bored.  There are tons of delicious recipes I’ll try to share with you in the finger-food pages.

Preparation time: 15 minutes – Marinating time: at least 30 minutes

Ingredients (for 20 skewers)

20 toothpicks

20 tomatoes cherry
20 small mozzarella balls
10 basil leaves (5 if they’re big)
2 tablespoons of parsley
2 tablespoons of small chive
2 tablesoons of olive oil
salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Chop parsley and small chive. Pour mozzarella balls in a bowl. Add olive oil, parsley, small chive, salt and pepper. Cover and leave aside for at least 30 mn. (If you can leave it overnight, even better).

2/ Cut tomatoes and basil leaves in half. On a toothpick, line up one half of tomato, a piece of basil leaf, a mozarella ball and finish with the second tomato half.