Here is a recipe I like to make often. It’s fast, easy and really tasty! I love Mediterranean flavors and these ones really enhance a good beef meat. I used green olives, but it’s only a matter of taste, you can replace them by black olives if you prefer. Replace capers by sun-dried tomatoes and you have a new Mediterranean meatballs recipe .

Preparation time: 20 mn  Cooking time: 15 mn

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

18 oz (500 g) of ground beef meat
5 tablespoons of stoned green olives
5 oz (140 g) of feta cheese (1 1/2 oz for topping + 3 1/2 for mixture)
4 tablespoons of dried breadcrumbs
7 tablespoons of milk
4 tomatoes
2 eggs
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 big onion
2 teaspoons of capers
Salt and pepper

Instructions

1/ Soak breadcrumbs in milk in a small bowl.

2/ Peel and chop onion.

3/ Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add onion and let it melt gently.

4/ In a salad bowl combine meat, eggs and breadcrumbs. Add salt.

5/ When onions are translucent and soft, take them off heat and let them cool down.

6/ Chop olives and feta cheese. Combine with meat mixture.

7/ When onions have cooled down a little, add to mixture along with capers.

8/ Shape into meatballs. (Don’t make them too big, they would be more difficult to keep in one piece. A good size is slightly  bigger than the tomato slice you’re going to add on top )

9/ Preheat oven to 350° F (180° C/Th 6).

10/ Heat in a pan over medium/high heat 2 minutes on each side.

11/ Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to an ovenproof dish and dispose meatballs.

12/ Rinse and slice tomatoes.

13/ Add a tomato slice on top of each meatball. Top with feta cheese, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper.

14/ Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until feta cheese has a nice golden color.

Serve with gratin dauphinois,  green asparagus, mushroom baked potatoes or spinach soufflés.

Have you ever tried Comté cheese? It’s a cooked cheese like Gruyère although it is much tastier. It has a great nutty flavor which makes it perfect for a zucchini gratin. If you can’t find any, don’t worry, zucchini marries much more cheese varieties You can make this zucchini gratin recipe with swiss cheese or cheddar if you like.

Preparation time: 15 mn  Cooking time: 30 mn

Ingredients (for 4 to 6 servings)

2.2 lbs (1 kg) of zucchini
2 eggs
6 oz (20 cl) of creme fraiche
1/4 lb (125 g) of Comté cheese
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 pinch of nutmeg
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Peel zucchini and slice top off.

2/ Cut zucchini into thin slices. (If you slice them too thick, they’ll take a long time to cook.)

3/ Heat a pan over medium heat. Add oil and cook zucchini covered for about 15 minutes stirring regularly. Add salt and pepper.

4/ Preheat oven to 350° F (180° C/Th 6)

5/ In a bowl, mix eggs, creme fraiche, half of cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

6/ Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a baking pan. Then add a layer of zucchini topped with creme fraiche and cheese mixture. Repeat with another layer of zucchini, the rest of the mixture and finish with cheese.

7/ Top with salt and pepper. (Zucchini have a pretty sweet taste, they need to get more salt than other vegetables. Don’t hesitate to try and season according to your own taste.)

8/ Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until your gratin has a nice golden color.

9/ Serve right away.

It’s a perfect side dish for lemon stuffed chicken or fish for example. For a vegetarian meal, you can serve this zucchini and Comté cheese gratin with a carrot and orange soup and a nice salad.

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.

We always hear soufflé is very difficult to make. The truth is, it’s very difficult to get it to the table all nice and up but it is still very good even if you never get to that part . You can see mine got down before I took the picture and nobody complained! I cooked them as a side dish for a Bordeaux style fish and didn’t have enough space in my oven to bake them together… So, here is the rule: whatever happens, get your soufflés right from the oven to the table!

Preparation time: 45 mn – Baking time: 35 mn

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

2 lbs (900g) of fresh spinach
1/2 cup (125 ml) of milk
3 oz (85g) of butter (1/2 oz + 2 1/2 oz)
3 oz (85g) of grated cheese
4 eggs
4 shallots
4 tablespoons of flour
1 garlic clove
1 pinch of nutmeg
salt & pepper

Instructions

1/ Get a salted water filled pan to a boil. Clean and hull spinach. Leave them in boiling water for 5 mn then strain and press spinach to take water off.

2/ Peel and chop shallots and garlic. Heat a cooking pan over low medium heat. Melt 1/2 oz of butter, add shallots and garlic. Leave covered for 5 mn, moving it a few times. Add spinach. After 5 to 7 mn, add salt and pepper and set aside.

3/ Melt 2 1/2 oz of butter in a cooking pan. Sprinkle with flour, let it get a golden color and add cold milk. Add a little salt, pepper and nutmeg. Then add cheese. Stir well and take off heat.

4/ Separate egg whites from yolks. (The easiest way to do it is by taking the broken egg in one hand and let white fall in a bowl when keeping yolk over your fingers). Add yolks to cheese sauce. Beat egg whites until stiff.

5/ Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C/ Th 6).

6/ Add cheese sauce to spinach. Stir well. Fold stiff eggs thoroughly into mixture.

7/ Grease a muffin pan and fill it with mixture. Bake in oven for 25 mn.

Serve it right away