Appetizer
3523 recipes found
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
The not-so-secret secret to roasting fresh pumpkin seeds — and crisping them properly — is making sure they’re really dry. Patting the seeds down with paper towels does a fine job, but drying them out in the oven is even more efficient and effective. Once they’ve toasted slightly, simply dress them with oil and salt, then continue to roast them until lightly golden. Feel free to add spices — say za’atar, or cinnamon and cayenne — in Step 3 with the oil and salt. But take note: Some add-ins, like nutritional yeast or raw sugar, may melt under high heat, so sprinkle them onto the seeds just after roasting.
Melon and Avocado Salad With Fennel and Chile
This sweet-savory, crunchy-creamy dish nods to California summers, when a drive to the market can often end with avocados and melons buckled in the back seat. The recipe is simple, and instantly impressive: It involves little more than scooping out the fresh fruit and topping it with a spicy-sweet pinch of sugar and a drizzle of dressing. Rubbing toasted fennel seeds, red-pepper flakes and lemon zest into sugar and salt helps their floral kick travel far. The salad’s balance depends on your melon and avocado, so rely on taste more than measurements here. Adjust the ingredients as needed, until the salad is rich, punchy and bright, bite after bite.
Bruschetta With Cabbage Braised in Wine
Long-simmered cabbage provides a sweet flavor for this bruschetta. The wine-braised cabbage is adapted from a recipe in “Cooking From an Italian Garden,” by Paola Scaravelli and Jon Cohen. If you don’t cook with wine, substitute vegetable stock, chicken stock or water for the wine. You could also top the bruschetta with a simpler cabbage sauté, but I love the sweet flavor of the long-simmered cabbage.
Beet Pasta With Vodka Vinaigrette And Osetra Caviar
Tomato Fruit Salad
Because tomatoes are technically fruit, they work very well in this colorful and savory take on fruit salad. Try to find interesting grape varieties (like Concord, Himrod and Niagara), which have spicy skins and a more complex flavor than regular red and green seedless. Then go lightly on the vinegar and pepper — you want just enough to bring out the flavors of the fruits, but not enough to take over the bowl.
Warm Kale Salad With Walnuts and Pomegranate
Pomegranate molasses makes a sweet-tart contribution to this salad of cooked, not raw, kale. It’s really more of a vegetable side dish, but could very well be a salad course on its own. In every bite there’s a morsel of warm kale, walnut and pomegranate. Truth be told, it is just as tasty served at room temperature. It’s also great to make ahead of time: You can cook the kale, toast the nuts and make the vinaigrette early. Then toss everything and garnish five minutes before serving.
Mashed Potato and Cabbage Pancakes
Vegetable pancakes with a sweet and comforting flavor. These have a sweet, comforting flavor. They are quick to mix up, using either leftover mashed potatoes from your Thanksgiving dinner, or potatoes that you have cut up and steamed for 20 minutes.
Lemony Brussels Sprout Slaw
Like cabbage, raw brussels sprouts do well when shredded and mixed with a tart apple, lemon juice and zest, and a dressing of Dijon mustard and mayonnaise. It’s not a traditional slaw, but the concept is the same. Serve this immediately, or give it some time in the fridge to let the flavors meld. (You may want to drain it before serving if it has released a lot of liquid.)
Russian Salad
Basically a vegetable-studded potato salad with mayonnaise, Russian salad is hugely popular all over the world for family gatherings and festive events. It’s a beloved, traditional party dish riffed on almost everywhere but my own home: I’d only ever seen pasty, congealed versions I would never wish to eat until I tried this one from Vladimir Ocokoljic, served at his Serbian restaurant Kafana in New York City. While not quite as demanding as his aunt back in Belgrade, who used to slice even the peas in half, Mr. Ocokoljic insists on the tiny dice (each ingredient should match the size of a pea) and emphatically dislikes any sweet pickles (only gherkins or cornichons are a fit), making the finished dish delicate, luscious and savory. Whisking pickle brine into the mayonnaise creates a liquidy slurry, loose enough to dress the salad without its becoming smushed and gluey.
Marinated Beet Salad With Whipped Goat Cheese
It's easy to make a pretty good beet salad, but this one makes the leap into greatness. After decades of kitchen experiments, the chef and beet maven Andrew Carmellini shared how to elevate both elements: marinate the beets, then season and whip the goat cheese. Feel free to cook the beets on a grill instead of in the oven if you've got a fire going. Young beets, juicy and tender enough to bite into, can be used instead of the thick-skinned, mature kind. But do not roast: Steam them just until tender.
Endive Tarte Tatin With Burrata
A savory take on the classic apple tarte Tatin, this version features unexpected bitter endive, which mellows and sweetens as it cooks. The tart slices are served topped with milky burrata to complement the caramelized endive and buttery pastry, but they’re equally as lovely without it. The tart can be enjoyed warm or at room temperature, making it a perfect make-ahead entree or side for entertaining.
Peperonata
Bruschette With Ricotta and Peperonata
Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Soup with Ginger
This silky fall/winter puree tastes rich, though there is no cream or butter in it.
Lard and Cracklings
Brussels Sprouts Sliders
A creative and fun way to enjoy a great fall and winter vegetable: crunchy “buns” of roasted brussels sprouts with a tasty middle -- a confit of caramelized onions, tangy mustard and savory tempeh -- that makes for “dreamy bites of pure umami goodness," said Marla Rose of Berwyn, Ill. who sent us this special recipe.
Duck or Rabbit Livers With Onion Marmalade
Smoked Salmon Sandwiches With Cucumber, Radish and Herbs
For these elegant open-faced smoked salmon sandwiches, use a good quality Pullman loaf or a dense brown bread. Choose the best sweet butter you can find (think French) and don’t stint; the combination of buttered bread, smoked salmon and herbs is ethereal. Thinly sliced cucumber and radish add color, along with the briny pop of salmon caviar.
Churros
In the world of fresh pastry, few things are quicker than churros – those crullerlike strips of crisp fried dough that are street-corner snacks in Spain, Mexico and some New York City subway stations. In fact, there are few breakfast dishes or last-minute late-night snacks that can match a batch of churros. If there is a recipe ideal for learning deep frying, this is it. The dough is extremely forgiving, and will brown nicely at any temperature in the neighborhood of 350; with a frying thermometer, you can hit the temperature right on the money. The only trick, as with all deep frying, is to not crowd the dough strips. Work in batches. Once the strips are gloriously brown, turn them in a sugar-cinnamon mixture and serve hot, or at least warm. Cold churros are certainly edible, but they're a far cry from hot ones.
Taramosalata
Figs in Blankets With Port-Mustard Sauce
This clever riff on the classic pigs in blankets comes from a Champagne bar, with branches in San Francisco and New York, where they’re made with fresh figs. Using dried figs gives them year-round adaptability. The figs are plumped in port and stuffed with Stilton, though any blue cheese will be fine. The port used for soaking is reduced to a syrup, and flavors a mustard sauce. The figs in blankets are a great holiday tidbit with white, red, rosé or sparkling wine, with cocktails or punch. Serve them alongside a salad or as part of a cheese course. They’re easily prepared in advance and frozen. The puff pastry is quick to prepare in a food processor using frozen butter. The figs in blankets can also be made with purchased puff pastry; one pound is what you’ll need.
Red Shrimp Chowder With Corn
Shrimp-and-Crab Campechana
