Editor’s Pick
3 Easy Gourmet hors d'oeuvres with 3 Ingredients or less
You are invited to a party and want to bring something tasty, but have no time for complication. I offer three unusual, but simple hors d'oeuvres that will be huge hits. Everyone will praise your genius. Only you will know how little time they took and how easy they are to put together quicky.
Bacon Wrapped Cheese Stuffed Figs
Ingredients:
Fresh Whole Figs
Gorgonzola Cheese
Bacon
Directions:
1) Pan fry bacon until done, but still soft. You will be wrapping the figs in bacon and it will need to be pliable. Crispy won't work.
2) Score the bottom of the figs and stuff with a thumb tip worth of gorgonzola cheese.
3) Wrap the cheese stuffed fig in bacon, secure with a toothpick.
Tip: wrapping fig with the bacon so the bacon covers the area of the fig you filled with cheese helps keep the cheese in place during the oven finish.
4) Finish the wrapped figs in the oven at 350 degrees for ten to fifteen minutes. You will know they are ready when the bacon begins to crisp lightly.
This is really tasty. They won't know what hit them. It is the hardest of the three appestizers since it requires actual cooking. It is much easier from here on in.
Raspberry Chipotle Goat Chevre on Crackers
Ingredients:
Goats Chevre
Raspberry Chipotle Sauce
Crackers
Directions:
1) Based on the size of the crowd expected, place chevre in a presentable bowl and break it up for easier spreading with a fork.
2) Pour Raspberry Chipotle on top of the cheese.
3) Arrange crackers in an orderly fashion. Perhaps go wild and garnish with grapes.
The raspberry chipotle is smokey and combines perfectly with the goat cheese. Everyone will be astonished at how good it is. I prefer blander crackers like Carr's or a simple wheat as they let the topping shine.
If you aren't into chevre, cream cheese works well as a substitute. Not a fancier of raspberries? Then perhaps a pepper jelly or spicy peach preserve.
It doesn't get much faster than this recipe, but I've never brought a bowl home from a party that wasn't completely empty.
If you want the brand of Raspberry Chipotle I use which is Fischer and Weiser it is available on line at Amazon. The bulk six pack is the best deal and it makes a great gift for your foody friends. It is also super tasty baked on salmon steaks as a glaze.
Manchego and Quince
Ingredients:
Manchego Cheese
Quince Paste aka Membrillo
Directions:
1) Cut a slab of Machengo about a quarter inch thick. The more square shaped the slab the better.
2) Cut a slab of quince paste about the same dimensions as the Manchego.
3) Put the Quince on top of the Manchego. In the picture below I quadruple deckered to make the cutting process quicker, but until you are confident in your cubing method - I recommend sticking to just one layer of manchego and one of quince.
Note that neither the Manchego or quince needs to be perfectly uniform in thickness as the next step will work it all out.
4) Cut the Manchego and quince into bite sized squares.
The quince is sticky enough that it will adhere to the cheese and keep its shape. I don't recommend substitutions for this recipe as the sweet and fruity flavor of the quince is the perfect compliment to the pungent and thick flavor of the manchego.
You can find manchego at a reasonable price at Costco. Just realize you will be buying a bulk sized wedge like the ones picture above.
I get my quince at the local gourmet market, but I found it for sale at several online sites as well. At the market, it is stocked in the cheese section.
Comments
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I also have a fig almond flour tart that leaves all other desserts in the dust, but it is too complicated for a comment. I'll do it right with photos in a week or two.
Love dates and date recipes as well. Medjool are my preferred for stuffing. I will try your bacon wraps soonest. Thanks for the variation. I'm always looking to try the new and different.
Normally I am all about substitutions, but bacon has a special place in the pantheon of my kitchen. I even use the drippings.
(BTW, I commented on your comment on LCV's post)
Umbrella, sorry if I was confusing in how I wrote in the post, but you can't get quince from Costco. At least not from my Costco. I buy the Manchego there and it is about half as much per pound at Costco than it runs in other local groceries .
Quince paste or Membrillo is more of a specialty item and I have to pay the toll at the gourmet store to get it. It is totally worth it though.
Medjol are the best also! Once got some real Arabian ones from a mom of one of my muslim kids and they were exquisite.
Medjools are another item you can get for a great price at Costco. They sell them in the produce section in two pound containers.
The quince and manchego is divine and beyond. I can eat that quince paste all alone.
I am still summoned three times a year to get on a ladder and pick the high ones and I am always sent home with a bushel. In a little while she will start hitting me with the cakes and preserves. She dries them as well. Waste not, want not may be trite, but we were never hungry.
Having all these figs means fig recipes. I have many more in my head.
That raspberry chipotle is good eating. I'm not hip to the tv guy, but Fischer and Weiser has been making the sauce for years. I had a friend send it to me with the salmon suggestion and I've been hooked ever since. Luckily, they sell it on the internet.
Thanks for a charming post! the bacon and fig is always the first to go at any gathering. It's good of you to remind everyone about its visual charm and unearthly taste.
Gary, it has been my experience that the figs go first, then the quince manchego. I do a melon wrapped prosciutto that usually empties out third. The raspberry goat cheese never runs out because I buy the cheese by the pound at Costco and the sauce in 32 ounce jugs so I can refill when it runs low. I also usually have assorted baklava out, but I buy that in five pound lots and just keep the tray full as well.
Parties don't have to be all about work.
As for bacon, have you read 'Seduced by Bacon'? Its one of my cooking bibles...
Wait.............just kidding. You seem like a man who plans for the party shortages that have plagued society throughout the ages.
I salute your efforts!!!!
P&P, I've added that book to my library requests. Bacon is one of the best things in the world.
I think you could stuff the bumper of a car with cheese, wrap it in bacon and it would be awesome.
(Thumbification for baconation)
That was a rant.
Nice post!
There is just no substituting bacon for anything!!!
Bacon is the bomb! Freaky Troll must make some Bacon Cake for us.
Or at least I know how yummy decadent it is to have crisp bacon with runny eggs all dipped together with hot out of the oven, home make cinnamon coffee cake! Another Sunday morning favorite at our house.
These memories are making me fat!
And I can vouch for the bacon wrapped stuffed dates. They are awesome.
Liz, manchego is excellent, but if I could only have one cheese for the rest of my life it would be blue.
Padraig, my mother made cheese from goat milk. We had two or three. I used to get up before school to take care of the animals, gather eggs, and milk goats. I don't recall her exact process, but I remember cheesecloth and curd water and soft balls of cheese that weren't stinky at all and rather mild. I could ask her about it if you want to become the cheese mogul of Sri Lanka.
DCDV, presentation is everything. I have an abundance of figs and so you can expect more fig recipes in the future. I posted one of my favorites a few weeks back. Figs, orange wedges, olives, and chicken. If you like figs you should check it out.
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