Appetizer
3523 recipes found
Charred Scallion Dip With Lemon and Herbs
This creamy scallion dip could be the cooler cousin of ranch dressing or sour cream and onion dip. Grilled scallions add smokiness, while fresh chives and raw scallions lend brightness to the tangy, herb-flecked dip. If you don’t have a grill or grill pan, you can broil the scallions in your oven. Once assembled, the dip benefits from chilling to round out the flavors. At least an hour works, but it's better after a day. It needs nothing more than potato chips alongside, but it’s also great with crudités, crackers, grilled vegetables, fried chicken or slathered on sandwiches.
Matzo Ball Soup a la Mexicana
The chef Fany Gerson’s spicy, dynamic take on a classic matzo ball soup is a staple of her Rosh Hashana table. The broth gets a bright kick from green chiles, cilantro and garlic; the matzo balls are blended with onions and fresh herbs (use an extra-large pot to prevent the balls from overcrowding); and the finished soup is garnished with even more onions, chiles and cilantro, plus avocado and lime for freshness and color. The broth calls for two chickens, even though you use the meat from only one of the chickens shredded in the soup. Ms. Gerson says using two chickens boosts the flavor of the broth, and you can use the meat from the second one the following day for enchiladas or tacos.
Tzatziki
Tzatziki is a popular Greek sauce traditionally served with souvlaki and pita bread, but it’s super versatile in its potential: It’s a great snacking dip with crudités and chips, as well as a bright and tangy sauce to drizzle on grain bowls or serve alongside roasted chicken or salmon. Most commonly finished with dill, tzatziki is sometimes made — and equally delicious — with other fresh herbs, like mint or oregano. It can be made a few hours ahead and will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Pan Con Tomate
Some version of tomatoes on toast — a juicy American B.L.T. or Italian tomato-topped bruschetta — is always a good idea, but that's especially true during high summer, when tomatoes are at their peak. One superior combination comes from Barcelona, where a slice of toast is rubbed with garlic and juicy ripe tomatoes, then anointed with olive oil. Most Catalan cooks simply cut the tomato crosswise and vigorously massage the toasted bread with the cut side. Others grate the tomato flesh and spoon it over the bread. This version adds tomato slices and a scattering of cherry tomatoes for a substantial first course.
Indian-ish Baked Potatoes
Of all the places my mom, who lives in Dallas, has traveled for work, her favorite will always be London — the cobblestone streets, the limitless sights, the walkability and, most important, the pubs. She spent a lot of time in pubs on early '90s London business trips, and the only vegetarian dish was very often a baked potato. This is where she discovered the ingenuity of filling a soft, steamy potato with all kinds of tasty toppings that absorb nicely into the starchy flesh. In this recipe, she subs out the big potato for smaller, thin-skinned ones (for a prettier presentation), and the bacon bits, chives and packaged cheese for spicier, brighter toppings: chiles, chaat masala, onions and ginger. This dish takes almost no time to put together once the potatoes are baked, but looks very impressive as an appetizer or a small side. Tip: Cut the ginger, onion and chiles while the potatoes bake, so everything is ready for assembly.
Fried Wontons
Crunchy on the outside with a juicy shrimp filling, these deep-fried wontons are the ultimate party food. (You can use storebought or make your own wontons with this recipe.) To make sure they cook to the ideal golden brown crispness, avoid crowding the pan of hot oil. Each batch takes only a few minutes to fry, and the wontons still taste great when served warm. Better yet, welcome guests into the kitchen and serve the wontons as they’re ready. The spicy sweet-and-sour dipping sauce can be prepared ahead, making this party dish even easier.
Grilled Oysters With Harissa-Parmesan Butter
At Cristiano Ristorante in Houma, La., the chef Lindsay Mason ladles a buttery mixture of roasted red peppers, garlic and Parmesan into grilled oysters. This version replaces the roasted peppers with North African harissa, offering the same sweet-savory combination, but with a bit more kick. For more grilled oyster flavor combinations, try this recipe for Grilled Oysters With Lemony Garlic-Herb Butter or this recipe for Grilled Oysters With Buttery Soy-Sake Glaze. The flavored butter can be stored in the refrigerator for several weeks or in the freezer for several months.
Grapefruit-Herb Salad With Coconut and Crispy Shallots
This grapefruit and herb salad puts citrus front and center. It’s based on yum som-o, a pomelo salad from Thailand, where the fruit is abundant. Grapefruits are used here, but if you happen on pomelos, grab a few: They are much easier to peel and loosen from the protective piths. Fragrant toasted coconut, salty peanuts and crunchy shallots all create layers of texture. The dried shrimp adds a saltiness that greets your tongue in little bursts, and the fresh chile a lingering spice. This is a refreshing, vibrant side to accompany any rich meal.
Fried Shallot Caesar Salad
The dressing here is great on this salad, but it can find a second (and third, and fourth) life in so many other simple meals. Use it as a dip for grilled asparagus and broccolini; slather it on burgers and BLTs; or combine it 50-50 with Greek yogurt and add chopped dill and black pepper to make a fried shallot Ranch dressing for dipping crudités (or chicken wings). Add it to a roast beef sandwich (or just serve it with the roast beef). It’s a great party dip for chips (or anything you’d serve French onion dip with). This recipe calls for making the mayo from scratch, but you can use store-bought mayo as the base to make it even easier.
Grilled Oysters With Lemony Garlic-Herb Butter
Garlic, lemon, herbs and butter form a classic European pairing that is perfectly at home spooned into a hot grilled oyster, but if that’s not your style, try out these recipes for Buttery Soy-Sake Glaze or Harissa-Parmesan Butter — or, better yet, make all three. Any leftover flavored butter and sauces are excellent melted over grilled vegetables, such as asparagus or zucchini, or over grilled chicken, fish or even steak, and they can be stored in the refrigerator for several weeks or in the freezer for several months. When shopping for oysters, look for specimens with deeply cupped bottom shells in order to help retain their natural liquor and provide ample space for the flavored butter.
Grilled Oysters With Buttery Soy-Sake Glaze
J. Kenji López-Alt first saw the pairing of oysters with sweet soy and sake sauce as a cook at Uni in Boston. It’s based on kabayaki, Japanese-style grilled freshwater eel. Eel is much richer than oysters, so adding a touch of butter to the sauce before spooning it over the grilled oysters helps balance the flavors. The sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for several weeks. If you’re interested in alternative flavor profiles for your grilled oysters, check out these Grilled Oysters With Lemony Garlic-Herb Butter or Grilled Oysters With Harissa-Parmesan Butter.
Honey Butter Grilled Corn
This technique for grilling corn uses a side pan of honey butter to thoroughly drench the corn in flavor while keeping it hot and juicy until you’re ready to eat. If you are feeling creative, change the ingredients of the liquid bath: Add a couple of tablespoons of Korean gochujang and a few minced garlic cloves to the base mixture, then finish the corn with toasted sesame seeds for a sweet-hot version. Add a half-cup of sake, two tablespoons of light miso paste and two tablespoons of soy sauce for a sake-miso glaze. Blend a couple of canned chipotle chiles with a few tablespoons of lime juice, add it to the bath and finish the corn with freshly minced cilantro or mint. To complete this recipe, you’ll need a disposable aluminum 9-by-13-inch baking pan, or a similarly sized stovetop-safe vessel that you don’t mind getting a bit dirty.
Squash and Spinach Salad With Sesame Vinaigrette
This vibrant squash salad can stand on its own as a main salad or as a side to accompany all sorts of roasted meats or fish. Kabocha squash can be cooked with its skin on, and a simple roast results in supersweet, creamy flesh. The triple-sesame vinaigrette combines sesame seeds for crunch, tahini for smooth texture and toasted sesame oil for rich, nutty flavor. Equally tasty warm or at room temperature, this salad is super adaptable. (Delicata or acorn squash also have edible skins and are great alternatives.) It makes a terrific lunch, with the addition of beans or soft-boiled eggs for extra protein.
Stuffing Panzanella With Cranberry Vinaigrette
The best way to reheat leftover stuffing? Press it into a pan, cut it into cubes and fry it in oil until crisp. The exterior browns and caramelizes, while the inside remains tender and creamy, just like the best bread pudding. This trick works best with stuffing made from smaller pieces of bread, but even if you don’t end up with perfect cubes, they will still be delicious. Serve them warm, on top of a fresh, raw salad tossed in a tangy cranberry-mustard vinaigrette, with fried pepitas running throughout for even more crunch. If you use a homemade cranberry sauce for the dressing, you may want to sweeten it with a touch of honey.
Oven Fries With Tahini Yogurt and Smoky-Sweet Nuts
This is an alternative take on loaded fries, but the cheesy sauce is replaced with tahini yogurt and the bacon bits with smoky-sweet nuts. It’s no less decadent, however, and a great one to dig into and share. Double up on the smoky-sweet nuts, if you like. They’re an easy way to introduce both texture and flavor to dishes, and are particularly good spooned onto hummus.
Tuna Poke
This is a dish that comes from Long Island, New York, not the Big Island of Hawaii, a Northeastern take on a Pacific classic. I’ve made it with Atlantic bonito caught offshore and yellowfin tuna bought at the market, the meat trimmed, cubed and mixed with sesame oil and soy sauce, a little chile-garlic sauce and lot of chopped scallions. I top the salad with roasted macadamia nuts and a few vigorous shakes of furikake, a Japanese seasoning that is made of sesame seeds, dried fish and seaweed, salt and sugar. It makes for about the most delicious eating in the world.
Cheese and Spinach Phyllo Rolls
Tangy and bright, these phyllo rolls make for a great appetizer when you’re preparing food to entertain or to share. The star here is the sumac onion filling, which adds a wonderfully sharp surprise inside crispy phyllo. Though these rolls gain complexity from feta, halloumi, toasted pine nuts and fresh spinach, mint and parsley, they’re also quite forgiving in that you can always use different cheeses, herbs or nuts. Feel free to play around with different phyllo shapes; thicker cigars or even triangles both look great.
Celery Victor Salad
At Inga’s Bar in Brooklyn, this special salad is prepared in a professional kitchen with the resources to create its many components on a rolling basis. But the chef Tirzah Stashko’s exacting recipe can produce restaurant-worthy results at home if you set aside time to tackle its parts in advance. Inspired by the classic dish created by Victor Hirtzler, the chef at San Francisco’s Hotel St. Francis from 1904 to 1926, Ms. Stashko’s dish is more audacious: While Mr. Hirtzler braised celery until sweet, subtle and succulent, Ms. Stashko bolsters the softened stalks with bitter greens and piquant mustard seeds, then slicks them with mashed anchovies, capers and garlic. There is nothing subtle about it, but the complexity of each bite will validate your efforts.
Roasted Eggplant Salad
In Morocco — and similarly throughout the Middle East — the most delicious salads are made with seasoned, cooked vegetables, not leafy greens. This dish, smoky eggplant salad with cilantro, infused with cumin, hot pepper and a generous amount of olive oil, is a winning combination. For the perfect flavor, you want to seriously blacken the eggplant. Choose very firm eggplants, which will have fewer seeds. The salad will keep, refrigerated, for several days.
Lemony Fish and Orzo Soup
This warming, weeknight one-pot meal is inspired by avgolemono, the Greek lemony chicken soup that’s rendered silky from egg whisked into its broth. Here, the technique of adding an egg mixture at the end creates a creamy soup that remains light in body. Mild, flaky fish, such as sea bass or cod, pairs beautifully with the buttery leek-and-garlic broth, which is fortified with clam juice for extra briny flavor. Orzo adds texture, while a final addition of freshly grated ginger brightens the soup. For a thicker, stew-like meal, make the soup an hour ahead and let it rest at room temperature (it will thicken as it sits); gently reheat before serving.
Cheesy Bread Balls in Tomato Sauce
It’s hard not to love this combination of tomato sauce, melted cheese, bread balls and garlic oil, which is sort of like a pizza, deconstructed. If you prefer not to stuff the bread balls, you can skip that part and simply roll them until round, baking them in the same way. The extra cheese can then be added to the sauce around the bread balls just before broiling. This dough method isn’t complicated, but you could work with store-bought pizza dough to save on time.
Shrimp Toast
Shrimp toast, also known as prawn toast, is a widely popular Cantonese dim sum staple that embodies both Chinese and western influences. Originating in China’s Guangdong Province, the dish spread to other Asian countries and eventually across the globe. A shrimp toast resurgence has led to playful versions appearing on restaurant menus, taking it beyond a simple snack. Traditionally, shrimp toast starts with a shrimp paste that’s infused with aromatic garlic, scallions and cilantro, which is then slathered on white bread that is fried until crisp on the outside and light inside. A food processor makes quick work of chopping the shrimp mixture, but the task can also be done by hand. In this recipe, the shrimp toast is coated in sesame seeds before frying, giving it an extra layer of nutty flavor and crunchy texture. The shrimp paste can be made one day ahead and chilled until ready to use.
Yogurty Butter Beans With Pistachio Dukkah
This is the kind of mezze you’d want to serve at the first sign of spring, when the days are a little brighter, the air a little lighter and the cooler temperatures are finally behind us (we made it!). Of course, it’s delicious all year round. This dish is all about the layering of crunchy dukkah over tender butter beans with peas and herbs coated in a creamy, garlicky yogurt dressing for the perfect bite. Serve with crisp lettuce, or bread if you like, as a light lunch or as part of a mezze spread.
Salmon Croquettes
These croquettes have what may just be the perfect texture combination: crispy outsides and tender insides. Made from simple ingredients, they’re also a great use of leftovers, putting to work those halves of onion and bell pepper from last night’s dinner, and any remaining salmon, though you can also use canned (boneless works best). The filling may be a little delicate when you put it together, but a quick pop in the fridge or freezer makes it easier to work with. Serve the croquettes alone as an appetizer with tartar sauce or hot sauce, or make them a bigger meal alongside grits.