Appetizers: piquant snacks, creamy dips, savory spreads, and easy finger food to whet (and sometimes dampen) the appetite, are often called hors d’oeuvres, French for “apart from the main work,” or the main meal.
Sauté onions in oil until golden. Chop and grind together the peas, eggs, cooked string beans, and walnuts. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with crackers.
Servings: 6
Quesadillas are traditional Mexican cornflour pockets or folded tortillas (corn or wheat) filled with many savory stuffings, from sauteed hot chiles and onions (rajas) to beans and from squash blossoms and huitlacoche (corn fungus) to seasoned ground beef. They usually, although not always, contain cheese. When using ready-made corn or flour tortillas, they can be pan-grilled with very little or no oil. When using fresh masa harina, they are deep fried in very hot grease.
Mix dry ingredients well; add butter, egg and enough milk to form a fairly stiff dough. Form into medium-thin tortillas rounds either using a tortilla press, rolling or patting between palms of hands. Stuff with any of the following stuffings, fold and seal the edges by pinching together, and fry in hot lard or oil. Drain and serve.
Stuffings: Cheese and epazote herb (known as Mexican Tea or wormseed). Mushrooms sauteed with onions and peppers. Squash bloosoms seauteed with onions. Spiced ground beef. Beans.
The common Spanish name, epazote (sometimes spelled and pronounced ipasote or ypasote), is derived from Nahuatl: epazōtl (pronounced [eˈpasoːt͡ɬ]) meaning skunk sweat.
Wikipedia contributors. “Dysphania ambrosioides.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Feb. 2016. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.
In a pot combine vinegar, spices and garlic. Add mushrooms and simmer 10 minutes. remove garlic and place the mushrooms and liquid into a 1-quart container. Slowly pour in oil. Secure with plastic wrap and cover. Marinate, refrigerated, 1 week.
Little Shrimp Fritters — Tortillitas de Camarón
Mix onion and chopped parsley with chopped shrimp. Add flour and baking powder, then stir in water and wine to make a heavy batter. Season with salt and cayenne. Cover and chill in fridge for 3 hours. Heat oil and drop in teaspoonfuls of batter. Fry until golden brown. Drain and serve. hot.
This recipe is here because Mom would sometimes throw together these ingredients to make a “homemade” snack, even though it was based on processed foods. I’m banking on the fact that cereals back in the 50s and 60s weren’t as laden with preservatives, sugar, and salt as they are these days.
Melt butter. Stir in steak sauce and salt. Add cereals, pretzels and nuts. Mix over low heat until coated. Place on cookie sheet or flat pan and heat in a very slow over (about 250 F) for 1 hour. Stir every 15 minutes or so. Spread on paper towels to cool.
Croquettes are popular appetizers, bite-sized and easy to handle in party situations. They’re usually made with mashed potatoes or some other starchy base combined with other ingredients such as fish, mushrooms, herbs, meat, etc., that impart flavor. Egg or a white sauce is often added as a binder. Croquettes are breaded or rolled in breadcrumbs or cracker meal and then deep fried until golden.
In Spain, croquetas are found on all tapas menus, many times flavored with Spanish Serrano ham (jamón Serrano, cod, mackerel, or shrimp.
Ingredients for Potato-Mushroom Croquettes
Boil potatoes in water until tender. Drain and mash.
In a separate pan, saute onions and mushrooms in oil and water over medium heat for three minutes.
In a large bowl, combine mashed potatoes, sauteed onions and mushrooms, seasonings and matzo meal.
Form into 10 croquettes.
Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and fry croquettes for 8 minutes on each side.
Okay, so a bunch of chicken fat and livers and eggs might not sound healthy, but it’s what we used to eat all the time when we devoured chopped liver sandwiches on rye with a pickle on the side…
Saute liver in 2 T chicken fat for 10 minutes. Chop liver coarsely with onions and hard-cooked eggs. Blend in 2 T chicken fat, salt and pepper to taste. Chill. Serve with crackers or toast.
Gefilte fish is poached minced fish appetizer popular on Jewish holidays but also eaten year-round.
Grind fish and onion together. Place in wooden bowl. Add 2 t salt, 3/4 t pepper, sugar, eggs, 1/2 cup water and cracker meal. Chop well. Place head and skin of fish in pot. Add rest of onion, carrots, water, salt and pepper. Boil.
Shape chopped fish into 2″ balls. Drop into boiling broth. Cover and cook 1-1/2 hours. Remove fish balls. Strain and chill stock until jellied. Serve gefilte fish balls and jelly with horseradish.
3 medium potatoes, peeled
2 medium onions, finely chopped
vegetable oil for frying
1 large eggplant
2 cloves garlic, minced/crushed
2 T chopped fresh parsley
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
paprika
matzo meal as required
Get the preparation instructions for vegetarian version of Gefilte Fish from http://www.jewishfood-list.com/recipes/fish/gfish/gfishveg01.html
Tapas lovers, here is a recipe that is somewhat laborious but worth the effort. Salt cod with potatoes is a traditional Portuguese combination.
A vegan recipe for a savory spread or dip made from white cannellini beans, often known as white navy beans or haricots and in Mexico called alubias.
Remove loose skins from garlic heads and place whole heads, root-side down, in a 350 F oven for 1-1/4 hours, or in microwave for about 5 minutes, until soft. Squeeze the soft garlic into a blender or food processor, discarding skins.
Add beans, oil, salt and cayenne. Blend until smooth. If the mixture doesn’t blend easily, add a bit of the reserved bean liquid. Refrigerate until ready to use. Serve as a spread for crackers or as a dip for veggies. Will store up to 3 weeks.
Separated garlic cloves can also be roasted in their skins in a cast iron pan on the stove top. Shake the cloves often while toasting so that they don’t burn. They’re ready when they are soft.
