Week 49 -- Appetizers (Hors d'Oeuvres)

Appetizers are also known as hors d'oeuvres. They are small portions of food, usually one or two bites, that are intended to stimulate the palate or excite the appetite. They may be served before people sit down for dinner, as in a "cocktail" setting, or after everyone is seated. The French term "hors d'oeuvres" literally means "outside the work." In the early days of French (Parisian) restaurants, it was up to the service people (the servers, waiters or waitresses) to prepare tidbits of food for their clientele to tide them over until the main meal courses were served. Over time the appetizers themselves became a course itself served as an introduction to the meal. There are only two limitations to what an appetizer might be: 1) the imagination of the chef or server, or 2) what food products are available. Guidelines for appetizers: 1) Two bites is optimal (one bite may not be enough, but three bites is too much); 2) they must be finger foods (no knife or fork required, especially in stand up service); 3) they should be visually attractive, but more importantly, they must compliment the food that is about to be served, without necessarily duplicating the flavors of the main courses.

There are five categories of appetizers/hors d'oeuvres:

  • Filled Pastry Shells of Platforms
    • One of the most versatile forms, much variety possible
    • Tartlets, pate choux puffs, puff pastry, phyllo dough, bruschetta, crostini, canapes, other small dough products (eg. garlic knots), wonton wrappers, egg roll wrappers
    • Fillings can be vegetable bits (brunoise, julienne), seafood (eg, shrimp or fish or scallops), savory salads (eg. egg salad, ham salad, chicken salad, tuna or seafood salad), pieces of meat (beef, ham, poultry, lamb), purees of vegetable or meat or seafood, mini-wellingtons (puff pastry, beef, poultry, seafood), various meat pates (pork, poultry, beef, liver, seafood, vegetables)
    • When filling some form of pastry or dough that should be crispy, ensure that the filling is reasonably dry, and fill just before serving, lest they sit around for a while and get soggy
    • Sometimes the food product itself can produce its own pastry/pasta shell -- think mac & cheese bites baked in a mini-muffin pan for 2-bite mac & cheese puffs, and how about adding a bit of crumbled bacon to the mac & cheese
    • Filled mushroom caps, clams or oysters on half shell
  • Brochettes, Skewers, Kabobs
    • Any small skewers (sticks) that hold small bites of vegetable, meat, poultry, seafood, cheese
    • Usually roasted, grilled, barbecued, broiled, or steamed
    • Often served with a dipping sauce
    • Sometimes served cold, such as a caprese skewer of cherry tomatoes, mozzarella balls, and folded basil leaves
  • Meatballs
    • Ground beef, lamb, poultry, pork, little sausages, chickpeas (falafel), tofu balls, fish and shell fish or mushrooms can be bound with egg whites to make balls then steamed, fried crabcake, fishcake, shrimpcake is a meatball
    • Often served in a barbecue or other sauce in a crockpot with toothpicks, or small wooden forks, or can be skewered
    • Often served with a dipping sauce (as in steamed seafood balls)
    • BBQ meatballs or sausages, Swedish meatballs, Italian meatballs, Greek meatballs, Turkish meatballs (kofta), etc
  • Rumaki
    • Traditionally rumaki is marinated chicken livers, often accompanied by water chestnet slices (primarily for texture and flavor contrast/mitigation), wrapped in bacon then broiled, grilled or roasted
    • Rumaki seems to have been born or popularized during the Tiki Bar era of the 20th Century (most popular during the 1950s and 1960s); however, it's difficult to imagine that people had not already been wrapping various food products in bacon before the 20th C, and will continue wrapping food products in bacon long after the 20th Century is gone
    • Today rumaki on a menu is anything wrapped in bacon then broiled, grilled or roasted
    • For many food products, it pays to parcook the bacon, eg. when scallops are wrapped in bacon the scallops will cook far more quickly than the bacon unless the bacon is parcooked (bacon can be parcooked in the oven by roasting, or by parboiling)
    • Most meats can be bacon wrapped and roasted with good results (beef, poultry, pork, lamb, sausages, seafood (shrimp, scallops, lobster, octopus)), consider shrimp stuffed with crabmeat stuffing (Ritz Crackers or Captain Wafers crumb stuffing) then bacon wrapped
    • Vegetables can also be bacon wrapped with good results, eg. two to three asparagus spears wrapped in bacon (parcooked) and grilled, broiled, or roasted, or consider bacon wrapped water chestnuts, jalapeno poppers, bacon wrapped pineapple chunks, one's imagination is the only limitation
    • Consider wrapping various food products with prosciutto, or thin slice deli ham, or thin sliced cucumber or zucchini
  • Stuffed Wonton or Phyllo
    • Wonton skins are Asian noodle dough that's flattened out as a wrapper
    • Crab and cream cheese wrapped in wonton skin, then deep fried, steamed, or pan fried like gyozas, filled with anything, like ground pork, beef, lamb, poultry, vegetables, cheese, mini eggrolls
    • Think wonton skins, eggroll wrappers, phyllo, or puff pastry in a mini-muffin pan, stuffed with various fillings, meats, seafood, cheese, vegetables, etc, how about phyllo stuffed with crumbled bacon, spinach, and feta cheese (mini-spanakopita), again, how about ricotta and feta cheese filled phyllo dough (tiropitas)
    • Serve with various dipping sauces to compliment the stuffed product

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100+ Quick and Easy Appetizer Recipes

  • Source: allrecipes.com
  • Go to RECIPES with descriptions and images

Dozens of Easy Appetizers

  • Source: finedinings.com
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52 Puff Pastry Recipes

  • Source: epicurious.com
  • Go to RECIPES with descriptions and images

25 Skewer Appetizers

  • Source: insanelygoodrecipes.com
  • Go to RECIPES with descriptions and images

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Rumaki Variations

  • Source: tfrecipes.com
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50 Simple Hors d'Ouevres

  • Source: tasteofhome.com
  • Go to RECIPES with descriptions and images

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