Stylish Entertaining Archives - Page 26 of 63

Holiday Fried Honey Cookies with Cinnamon Ginger Syrup

Holiday Fried Honey Cookies with Cinnamon Ginger Syrup
Garnished with Pine Nuts, Red & Green Sparkling Sugars
Korean Yakgwa 약과

Looking for a different type of sweet treat to add to your holiday cookie repertoire this year? Try Korean yakgwa. These fried cookies soaked in a cinnamon ginger syrup have a unique biscuit-like texture and are bursting with an unexpected flavor combination of toasted sesame oil, cinnamon, and ginger. This time of year I sprinkle them with red and green sparkling sugars along with the traditional chopped pine nuts. They are petite, super-sticky, and honey-sweet with an interesting savory element – and make a delightful addition to the Christmas dessert buffet.

Holiday Yakgwa Recipe

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Malted and Salted: Milk Chocolate Pots de Creme

Malted & Salted: Milk Chocolate Pots de Crème

The term “Petits Pots de Crème” refers both to a soft baked custard and to the small ceramic pots, often with lids, that they are baked in. The dainty authentic petits pots pictured above were made in France. They belonged to my grandmother-in-law, Evelyn Dawn. While I only have six porcelain petit pots, and am cooking for a crowd, I supplement my collection with espresso cups.

Pots de Crème are a fabulous dessert to serve at a diner party. They look adorable, are impossibly rich and velvety, and petite enough to be elegant and sophisticated. Adding malted milk powder to a supremely French dessert gives this version an unexpected light-hearted twist. And as a bonus, they are prepared a day ahead. Just add the quick garnish of fleur de sel and/or malted milk balls, and they are ready to go.

Malted milk powder was invented by James Horlicks in 1883. It is a combination of sprouted grain that is quickly dried (barley malt) then ground up and added to powdered milk and wheat flour. It was originally meant as a nutritious non-spoiling supplement for babies’ diets, but gained popularity among explorers who found it portable as well as tasty…and became a hit at soda shops all around the country when added to ice cream to make a “malt” and as a candy marketed as “malted milk balls.”

Pots de Crème Recipe

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Cocktail Nibbles Inspired by The Late Great James Beard

For the Civilized Tradition of Cocktail Entertaining
Nibbles Inspired by The Late Great James Beard

well washed down with the drink of your choosing
flavored with good will and love and understanding

Simple and Sublime. Tomato and Onion. Plus my favorite cocktail, and yours. He wrote the first major cookbook devoted exclusively to cocktail food and drink in 1940! His entertaining advice is pithy, precious, and ultimately timeless. These bites are not meant to satiate, but to leave one hungry, hungry for what comes next…

“The food, no matter how simple, should show some degree of imagination,” wrote James Beard, Dean of American Cookery.

featuring

Mini Sweet Onion Sandwiches with Mayo and Fresh Herbs
and
Mini Heirloom Tomatoes Dipped in Absinthe and Kosher Salt

When James Beard died at 81 on January 21, 1985, he left a legacy of culinary excellence and integrity to generations of home cooks and professional chefs. His name remains synonymous with American food. – from James Beard Foundation

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“End of Summer Rolls” Caprese-Style

“End of Summer Rolls” Caprese-Style

Heirloom Tomato, Burrata, Basil, Rice Noodle
Olive Oil & Balsamic Vinegar

Perhaps you’ve heard me bemoan the ubiquitous Caprese Salad and all its incarnations?

Caprese grilled cheese, caprese kabobs, caprese bruschetta, caprese pasta salad, caprese pizza, caprese schmaese. But when I was challenged to come up with a tomato dish by our friendly Creative Cooking Crew, forgive me but I turned to those very Caprese ingredients. After all, there truly is something magical about the classic pairing of tomato and mozzarella and basil. Especially in summer. And what better way to bid farewell to the fabulous Summer of 2014, than with Caprese Summer Rolls – light, fresh, refreshing. These hand-held bites capture summer’s waning days in a tidy rice paper wrapper.

Caprese Summer Rolls Recipe

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Korean Soju Kimbap Bloody Mary

Korean Soju Kimbap Bloody Mary

A Unique Bloody Mary Blend of Soju and Vegetable Juice
Soy Sauce, Fish Sauce, Rice Vinegar, Gochugaru
Garnished with
Kimbap, Pickled Yellow Radish, Tomato
Celery Stalk with Roasted Seaweed

It’s late in the evening on a hot steamy summer night. Come, join us on the patio. We’re having a cocktail that is sure to perk you up, and it’s served complete with its own anju (snacks enjoyed while drinking alcohol).

Soju is a Korean alcoholic beverage distilled from rice that has slightly floral and barely sweet flavors. Pleasantly light with a round mouth-feel and an alcoholic content of 20%, it is usually enjoyed neat, sipped from a shot glass. With about half the alcohol content as vodka, soju is also a perfect spirit to pair with our unique Korean Bloody Mary mix, it is tasty as well as refreshing…

Our Korean Bloody Mary mix is a blend of soy sauce for salty-umami flavors, fish sauce for sour-umami flavors and depth, rice vinegar for a bright acidic note, and gochugaru, a Korean red chili powder that is definitely spicy but also has a balanced fruitiness, slight smokiness and depth of flavor from the sun-dried red peppers.

The rim of the glass is coated with a smoky mix of gochugaru, smoked paprika, Kosher salt, and celery salt. Enjoy smoky, spicy, salty flavors even before taking the first sip.

Now for the anju: We have danmuji, a Korean yellow pickled radish that is sweet, sour and crispy. And while our Bloody Mary is garnished with that ubiquitous celery stalk, it is served with a twist! The “tree” is decorated with strips of gim, a seaweed that is roasted with sesame oil and seasoned with sea salt. Munch on crispy strips of gim while sipping the spicy cocktail. And finally, kimbap is a seaweed rice roll filled with yellow radish, spinach, carrot, egg, and fish cake. With so many flavors packed in a tidy little package, kimbap makes a snappy colorful addition to our Korean Bloody Mary.

Korean Soju Kimbap Bloody Mary Recipe

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