Roasted Brussels Sprout Chips with Lemon and Parmigiano

Are all the Christmas cookies and sweets making you crave a little ruffage? All the rich holiday dinners and party food causing your body to beg for some wholesome veggies? Brussels sprouts to the rescue.

Marlowe, SF

The inspiration for this recipe comes from Marlowe. Chef Jennifer Puccio's Crispy Brussels Sprout Chips with Meyer Lemon and Sea Salt were love at first sight. She separates the individual leaves of the Brussels sprouts, then flash-fries them to a delicate, light crisp. A spray of lemon juice, fragrant Meyer lemon zest, and sprinkle of sea salt are all that's needed to brighten up these "chips."

For my at-home remake version, I opted to roast the Brussels sprouts rather than fry them. A tip on separating the leaves -- I found that the easiest way to do so was to keep trimming the bottom stem as I peeled away the layers. This was the most time consuming part, but once it is done, the rest is a breeze.

Top the roasted Brussels sprout chips with some lemon zest and parmigiano, and this is one addictive snack! Salty, crispy, flavorful, and best of all, a healthy dose of vegetables.

Brussels Sprout leaves tossed in olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper

Roasted Brussels Sprout Chips with Lemon and Parmigiano

Serves: 2 as an appetizer

Ingredients:
1 pound Brussels Sprouts
3 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
Juice of half a lemon
Zest of one lemon
¼ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven 350 F
2. Wash Brussels sprouts. Trim the bottom stems and discard. Remove any wilted outer leaves and discard.
3. Cut each sprout in half. Remove loose leaves. Combine halves and leaves in a bowl and toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet with the halved sides facing down.
4. Roast for 20-30 minutes or until outside of the Brussels sprouts are golden and crisp.
5. Top with lemon zest and grated cheese. Serve immediately.

Pineapple-Mango Salsa

A few weeks ago, my mom and I enlisted the help of my big brother to assist in putting together the menu for my bridal shower luncheon. I requested lots of fruit and veggies, easy finger foods, and minimal use of the oven. If I do say so myself, we ended up with a lovely Bridal Shower Menu:

• Veggie Crudite
• Chips & Dips (Pineapple-Mango Salsa, French Onion Dip, Pepperoni Dip, and Avocado Mousse)
• Crostini with Lemon Mascarpone spread and Roasted Red Peppers
• Heirloom Tomato Tart in a Parmesan Crust
• Antipasto Misto of Grilled Zucchini, Portobello Mushrooms, and Eggplant
• Pesto Shrimp and Cherry Tomato Kebabs
• Wheat Berry Salad
• Chicken Orzo Salad
• Italian Sausage and Eggplant Baked Rigatoni
• Roasted Pork Tenderloin

To drink we had Watermelonade and White Sangria with Strawberries, Peaches, and Mango.

And dessert. Don't even get me started! My mom made her famous Flan, full of deep, caramel flavor, we also had a rich Dark Chocolate Cake glistening with ganache, Pineapple Angel Food Cake, a Nectarine-Allspice Cake, and my favorite, a Frangipane Tart with Poached Pears that my Auntie Betsy made. Uh…so much for wedding diet.

Big Bro Salsa-Making

Today, I thought I'd share the stellar Pineapple-Mango Salsa my Big Brother T whipped up. This easy recipe for fancy-pants salsa is a keeper. First of all, it is just so pretty looking with all the bright, summery colors of the fruits and veggies. Secondly, the flavor is a knockout. Bright and fresh, it's amazing that all you really need is that citrusy lime flavor to really bring out the best in these ingredients.

Makings of a bright bold salsa

The key to this simple recipe is chopping all the ingredients finely and uniformly so that you get that beautiful confetti-like feel to it. You can certainly bust out the food processor for a quicker prep, but be careful not to over-process it. You don't want to end up with a puree. I go old school style on this and just hand chop so I can control the texture.

On cutting a mango

If you've never cut a mango before, here's a neat trick. The pit of a mango is a long, flat, oblong shape. Make two slices, on either end of the flat sides of the pit, so that you end up with two semi-circles. Then, cross-hatch the flesh with your knife, and pop it open. You can easily remove flesh now in a neat dice using the edge of a large spoon, scraping where the peel and flesh meet.

We devoured this salsa with Tostito Scoops. If you have some leftover, it's also great over some grilled salmon, or served with quesadillas.

Quesadilla with Pineapple-Mango Salsa

Pineapple-Mango Salsa

Serves: 10-12

Ingredients:
12 oz. fresh pineapple
2 large mangoes
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 small red onion
1 serrano pepper (optional if you want more heat – I prefer omitting it)
zest of 3 limes
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon OJ
salt, pepper, chili powder to taste

Preparation:
1) Finely dice the pineapple, mangos, peppers, and onion to about the same size.
2) Mix together with lime zest, lime juice, and OJ. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and chili powder.

Note: Can be made a day or two in advance and stored in an airtight container.

Walnut Date Cups with Blue Cheese and Candied Bacon

These fancy little walnut date cups are the perfect savory-sweet treat for a special holiday brunch or cocktail party. It's a prettier take on one of my favorite easy appetizers, a nut and blue cheese-stuffed date wrapped in bacon and broiled until crispy and caramelized.

For this dressed up version, the walnut and dates are ground together and combined to form the heart of this delightful bite. The mellow, nutty flavor of the walnuts is brought out by the natural sweetness of the dates, and the orange adds a bright, floral note to the mix. The blue cheese is just pungent enough to bring some depth to the flavors, the candied bacon is pure indulgence, and the phyllo cup is a crispy, edible vessel for it all!

I did have some trouble getting the candied bacon as crispy as I wanted it (I was shooting for a brittle texture that I could snap into shards). Any consummate bacon confectioners out there who can shed some light?

Crispy Nutty Date Cups meet Candied Bacon

Walnut Date Cups with Blue Cheese and Candied Bacon

Servings: 24 pieces

Ingredients:
1 cup walnuts, toasted
12 ounces Medjool dates, pitted
1 teaspoon orange zest
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
4 (18"x12") sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed and brought to room temperature
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
½ cup blue cheese, crumbled (Recommended: Point Reyes original blue)
Candied Bacon

Special Equipment:
24-count mini muffin pan
2 baking sheets
Microplane or grater
Parchment paper

Preparation:
1. Make Candied Bacon (see recipe below) and set aside to cool.
2. Place an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F.
3. In a food processor, pulse together the walnuts, dates, orange zest, and orange juice until a coarse, nutty spread is formed. I prefer my filling on the chunky side, but evenly combined.
4. Place a sheet of phyllo dough on a work surface. Brush the dough with melted butter. Place another sheet of dough on top and brush with melted butter. Repeat until you have 4 sheets of dough stacked.
5. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 24 (3-inch) square pieces.
6. Gently press each piece of dough into the muffin pan. Spoon the walnut and date filling into the cups.
7. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes until the pastry is golden. Remove from the oven and let the phyllo cups cool for 10 minutes.
8. Using a small spoon, remove the phyllo cups from the pan. Arrange the cups on a platter, top each one with a little blue cheese and garnish with a piece of candied bacon. Serve immediately.

Candied Bacon
Recipe adapted from Alex Guarnaschelli

Ingredients:
3 slices bacon, about 1/4-inch thick (or more, for fun)
1/4 cup brown sugar

Preparation:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Sprinkle the bacon with the brown sugar, coating both sides.
3. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange the bacon in a single layer on top. Place a second piece of parchment paper on top, and cover with another baking sheet. The baking sheet will keep the bacon from curling up as it cooks.
4. Place the tray in the center of the oven and bake for 20 minutes. If it is not golden brown and crispy, bake it for another 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Transfer the bacon to a wire rack (not paper towels because the sugar will make it stick) and let it harden up a bit more. Break each strip into small shards. Set aside for garnishing.

Figs photo by James Ormsby

Figs are sexy. Why? Is it their smooth, barely downy skin, so much like a soft cheek? Is it their plump, curvy shape, swerving out and in like a hip or breast you can surreptitiously palm right there in the produce aisle? Is it the drop of nectar that drips from the flower end at the moment of perfect readiness? Unlike the other fruit of our late summer, the plums and peaches, the raspberries and early apples, figs are all seedy lushness. There is no sweet-tangy snap, no whiplash between sugar and acid. Instead, figs are fleshy, breaking apart easily against the tongue, an odalisque who needs no convincing to roll back and give in.

Which makes gilding the lily, or the fig, even more alluring. A naked fig is nice, but a fig burnished with pomegranate syrup, rolled in prosciutto, and stuffed with a pinkie's worth of goat or blue cheese, is divine.

Tracing the genesis of a recipe that you think is original is always an entertaining exercise in the anxiety of influence.

I'd cede the original concept to a fabulous salad of grilled fig, arugula, and pancetta dressed with a port and fig-vinegar vinaigrette that I had at The Girl & the Fig restaurant, back in Glen Ellen sometime in the late 90s.

Then there was the cold plate of figs and proscuitto shared with a date at an Italian restaurant in New York City on a balmy summer night some ten years later. Good, we agreed, but it could be better. A month or so later, my old pal Bucky and I ended up at the posh Brandy Library bar in Tribeca, sipping Ukiah's Germain-Robin XO brandy and nibbling what the kitchen there had dubbed Figs & Pigs, in which heat had definitely been applied to said proscuitto and figs, to fine effect.

Hitching a ride along the way was my fondness, nay, obsession with pomegranate molasses, the perfect way to add a fruity zing to earthy vegetables, like beets, which are all sweetness with no snap.

Finally, it all came together in my Brooklyn living room, late summer 2005. I invited the Italian-restaurant date home for my own version of Figs & Pigs. September figs, maybe Black Missions or Kadotas, were cut crosswise halfway through and plumped with a nubbin of cheese, soft goat for me, blue for her. Then the figs were tightly swaddled with a strip of proscuitto and perched on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Meanwhile, a half-and-half mixture of balsamic vinegar and pomegranate molassses was simmering on the stove over medium heat, bubbling down to a runny syrup. When it was just slightly thickened, it was drizzled lightly over the figs, the whole tray then popped into a hot oven, about 400 degrees. A few minutes, 5 at the most, and the fig were oozing and yielding, the cheese slightly melted and the syrup just sticky.

Out of the oven, onto a plate, they were drizzled with more syrup and served one by one from my hand to her lips while reclining on the couch.

And if there's another appetizer that can more emphatically assure that you'll never get to the main course, I haven't met it.

Mushroom 500 Flatbread

Every once in awhile I will dine out and happen upon a dish that is so good I spend the entire evening scheming about how I can recreate it at home.

COCO500's truffled mushroom flatbread with sea salt and chili is one of them. It is the perfect bite of crispy flatbread, earthy, robust mushroom, and salty parmigiano.

I knew it would be hard to fully recreate the experience -- so much of it is in the flatbread -- but I knew I could come close, and while I would love nothing more than to jaunt off to COCO500 every time I had a hankering, this is much easier.

For my take on this, I opted to scale down the fancy factor so it could be an easy and inexpensive snack or party hors d'oeuvre. The beauty of this recipe is in its flexibility. Ambitious? Make your own flatbread. Not so ambitious? Store-bought whole wheat pita works wonderfully. Or, try slicing and toasting up some baguette for a crostini.

Also, feel free to play with the type of mushrooms you use. If the button mushrooms are looking good at the market this week, go for those. My favorite has been baby portabellos lately. And since I came across some spring morel mushrooms, I decided to sautee them up and throw them on top for this last batch.

The recipe below is the basic base for your dish, but the fun is in tweaking it and making it your own.

Mushroom 500 Flatbread
With inspiration from COCO500's truffled mushroom flatbread with sea salt and chili.

Feel free to play with the type of mushrooms you use for your base of duxelles (fancy French for "mushroom spread"). If you want to go all out, by all means, add some shaved truffle, or finish it off with truffle oil or salt. Not necessary though, this is perfectly delicious without the expensive stuff.

Servings: 4

Ingredients:
For the duxelles:
1 pound baby portabello mushrooms, cleaned
¼ cup shallots (or 1/2 medium onion)
4 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine
Salt and pepper to taste
A few dashes Worcestershire sauce

Parmigiano Reggiano
Flatbread or pita

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375 F.

Roughly chop mushrooms, shallots (or onion), and garlic, and place in food processor. Process until everything is finely minced.

Heat butter and oil in a pan. Place mushroom mixture in, add the rest of the ingredients, and sautee until it becomes a paste-like consistency.

Spread the duxelles on flatbread. Sprinkle liberally with Parmigiano Reggiano, and bake until cheese is melted and golden (about 8-10 minutes).

Hors d'oeuvres. Tapas. Appetizers. Small plates. There are many names and countries of origin for those little bites of deliciousness. From canapés and dips to dumplings and kabobs, the small plate is varied and versatile. Although appetizers were once used primarily to sate guests until the main course arrived, they have more recently achieved a higher status in the entertaining world. I have attended everything from cozy gatherings to large weddings where only small plates were served. This is always fine with me, as I love variety and a dinner made up of appetizers offers just that.

In honor of Oscar night Sunday, I wanted to share a couple of my own favorite quick and easy small plate recipes. Although I think I’ve only seen one movie up for the Best Picture award (this is the sad state of movie-going affairs in our house after our two favorite babysitters left for college), I see Sunday as an excuse to curl up on the couch with a couple of my favorite hors d'oeuvres and a glass of wine while my daughters comment on the red carpet fashions.

The first recipe is for a white cannellini bean dip. This is my standard appetizer when we have unexpected guests--I can make it in less than five minutes and always have all the ingredients on hand. It’s similar to hummus in texture, but has more Italian than Middle Eastern seasonings. You can make it with or without hot pepper sauce, so you can customize the spices to your own taste. I like to serve this dish with bruschetta, but crackers, pita chips, or bread sticks would work just as well.

The second recipe was created by mistake. I wanted to try out a new appetizer recipe but forgot to look at it and write down the ingredients before I went to the store. I knew the general idea was stuffed dates, but that was it. After wandering around the store and picking out ingredients for the varied dishes I was making that evening for guests, I went home and saw that other than the dates, my groceries didn't include any of the required ingredients. After a good laugh with my husband about my inability to take a list with me to the grocery story, I immediately got to work to see if I could concoct something with what I had bought. I had some goat cheese on hand for a salad, but decided to use it instead as a stuffing for the dates because I thought the velvety rich texture would counteract the sweet denseness of the fruit. I had also gone to the deli section to buy prosciutto for sandwiches the next day. I had plenty, so decided to use a few slices in the hopes that the salty flavor of the cured ham would accent the other sweet and creamy flavors. After tasting one of my new creations, I realized each flavor was too distinct. In the hopes of melding the tastes of dates, cheese, and cured pork together, I set everything in a 350-degree oven for about five minutes. The result was what my friend Jeff called “pork candy”: goat cheese oozing into the sweet date meat with a crisp salty finish. Just the thing when watching those starlets ham it up on the red carpet.

Cannellini Bean Dip

Ingredients
1 can cannellini beans drained and rinsed
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon salt
Dash of pepper
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp lemon juice
A few dashes of hot sauce
1/4 cup cooked or raw red onion

Preparation
1. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and puree.
2. Taste and add more salt, pepper, lemon juice or hot sauce as desired.
3. Place in a bowl and drizzle the top with olive oil and a sprig of parsley.
4. Serve with bruschetta, crackers, pita chips, or bread sticks.

Note: I am not a big fan of raw onion so I like to sauté the red onion in a drizzle of olive oil for a minute or two before I add it to the rest of the ingredients. If I get an exceptionally sweet onion, I’ll skip the sautéing process.

Serves 4-6 people

Pork Candy (a.k.a. Stuffed Dates with Goat Cheese and Prosciutto)

Ingredients
12 fresh dates
2 ounces goat cheese
6 slices of prosciutto cut in half
Olive oil

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Pit dates and remove stems.
3. Spoon enough goat cheese into each date to fill the centers.
4. Wrap dates with between a quarter to a half slice of prosciutto each (depending on the size of the dates).
5. Lay stuffed and wrapped dates on a baking tray.
6. Drizzle with olive oil.
7. Bake for 5 minutes, or until prosciutto crisps up.
8. Serve warm.

Serves 4-6 people