Appetizer
3523 recipes found
Ismail Merchant's Very Hot Chicken Soup
Warmth is a given with chicken soup, but this one turns the heat up with ginger and chiles. It comes from Ismail Merchant, the Indian-born film producer and director who had a longtime partnership with James Ivory. It is an easy recipe and will take about an hour of your time, and is a deliciously healthy twist on an old standby.
Creamy Celery Root Soup With Ham
Mousse tricolor
Sicilian-Style Citrus Salad
Winter is the season when many kinds of citrus fruits suddenly appear. For this savory fruit salad, a mixture of navel, blood and Cara Cara oranges and a small grapefruit make a colorful display. It’s fine to use just one kind of orange, blood oranges being the classic example. Thinly sliced fennel, celery and red onion add a tasty bit of crunch. The salad is dressed assertively with oil and vinegar, and scattered with olives and flaky sea salt.
Chorizo-Stuffed Dates With Piquillo Pepper Sauce
Adapted from Perry Hendrix, the chef de cuisine at the acclaimed restaurant Avec in Chicago, these intensely flavored mouthfuls are meaty, spicy and sweet all at once. You could serve them as an appetizer, sitting in a pool of silky sauce, but they could also work as finger food, with the sauce set aside for dipping. Make sure to buy uncured, fresh chorizo sausage rather than the salami-like cured kind. Specialty stores generally carry jars of piquillo peppers, but if you can’t find them, substitute any roasted red peppers for the sauce.
Spiced Figs in Port
Master Recipe for Tiny Pancakes
Some months ago, I remembered something I learned in Madrid called a tortillita, which inspired me to produce a kind of eggy pancake — or, if you like, a floury omelet — laced with shrimp, parsley and onion. Thus began my season of tiny pancakes. The options are endless.
Roasted Tomatoes and Whipped Feta on Toast
I love putting roasted tomatoes on toast with whipped feta, and it’s the easiest thing in the world. If you want to make it fancy for guests, try this recipe. I like to amaze them and cut the bread lengthwise into 1/2-inch slabs rather than across. Creative cutting will take you a long way in this world. A word about the cheese: Make sure you press the feta or it’ll have too much liquid in it to set up properly. If you’re really strapped for time, you can substitute fresh ricotta for the feta, but it’s not going to make your tomatoes pop quite as much.
Chickpeas and Handmade Pasta
Cucumber Terrine
Black Pepper Taralli
Packaged taralli, available at Italian and gourmet markets, are usually as dry and bland as wood chips. That’s why making your own is so satisfying. These melting little rounds are rich with olive oil and fiery with black pepper — more black pepper than seems possible, or reasonable. If your palate really can't handle heat, use half the amount in the recipe. But if you like chiles, it's fun to be reminded that black peppercorns can also give that delightful burn. The taralli will seem chewy when they come out of the oven, but as they cool and dry out, they will become crumbly, like shortbread. Serve with drinks, preferably something light with a little sweetness, like a rosé, a Champagne cocktail or an Italian Spritz.
Focaccia With Herbed-Honey Plums and Prosciutto
Featuring a combination of tart plums, sweet honey and salty prosciutto, this focaccia is delicious as a snack or appetizer and also as a light lunch when paired with a salad. Go with fresh, ripe but firm plums as they will soften once baked. The herb of choice is rosemary, but any fragrant, woodsy herbs, such as thyme, marjoram or oregano work well, too. Letting the dough ferment slowly in the refrigerator builds more flavor. The dough can be refrigerated up to 3 days in advance of baking.
Salmon Mousse
Gazpacho Mousse
Berber Skillet Bread
The Berbers use an unusual leavening method that gives a warm, earthy aroma to the loaves: a mix of semolina flour, water and garlic cloves that quickly ferments into a pungent starter. The recipe requires three kinds of flour and takes two days, but is richly rewarding in flavor.
Curried Mousse
Winter Squash, Apple And Walnut Soup
Roasted Radish Crostini
Of all the things you can do with a radish — slice it into salads, chop it into salsa, shred it into slaw or top it with a thick layer of sweet butter and a sprinkling of flaky sea salt — the last thing most people think to do with it is cook it. But you should. Heat transforms the spicy, crisp and crunchy radish into something sweet, succulent and mellow. Here, pan-roasted radishes are served atop toast with a quick sauce made of butter, anchovies, garlic, red pepper and olive oil.
Smoked Trout Mousse
Napoleon Of Salmon Mousse
Salmon Mousse With Leeks
Mousse Of Crab Meat
Scallop-and-Plum Ceviche
Ceviche is a perfect summer appetizer: light, refreshing and cooking-free. Citrus — sometimes lemon or bitter orange, but in this case lime — does the “cooking” for you. It doesn’t get much simpler than this: a few minutes of chopping, a few seconds of stirring and a quarter of an hour of doing absolutely nothing.