Sunday, February 12, 2017

Ham and Mustard Spirals

Flavorful ham and sharp whole grained mustard bake up crispy in puff pastry to create these lovely ham and mustard spirals. They are a quick and easy appetizer for your red carpet party.

Food Lust People Love: Ham and Mustard Spirals. Flavorful ham and sharp whole grained mustard bake up crispy in puff pastry to create these lovely ham and mustard spirals. They are a quick and easy appetizer for your red carpet party.


As I mentioned last Sunday, I love puff pastry. It’s such a versatile ingredient! If you have puff pastry in your freezer, you can make a quick appetizer out of just about anything in your cupboard or refrigerator.

A number of weeks ago, I bought some very finely sliced French ham from the deli counter of my nearby supermarket to make ham and cheese baguettes. The following Monday morning, I was going to a Christmas get-together with friends and wanted to bring a treat to share. I had four or five slices of ham leftover and a package of puff pastry in the refrigerator.

Ham and mustard are a classic combination so you can see how I got here, but you could use chutney or pesto or whatever other sauce you’ve got on hand. The important things to keep in mind is that 1. you don't use ham that is too thickly sliced and 2. that you don’t add too much of your chosen sauce, both of which might make your spirals soggy.

Ingredients
4-5 slices of French ham, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
1 package ready rolled puff pastry - 8 oz or 230g
1 oz or 28g Parmesan, freshly grated

Method
Preheat the oven to 400°F or 200°C and line a baking pan with parchment or a silicone liner.

Unroll your puff pastry and spread it evenly with the mustard. Lay the ham out in single layer, covering the whole pastry. Start rolling on one side, all the way to the middle.

Food Lust People Love: Ham and Mustard Spirals. Flavorful ham and sharp whole grained mustard bake up crispy in puff pastry to create these lovely ham and mustard spirals. They are a quick and easy appetizer for your red carpet party.


Repeat with the other side. If you are working in a warm kitchen, roll the whole thing in cling film and pop it in the freezer for five minutes before slicing it.

Food Lust People Love: Ham and Mustard Spirals. Flavorful ham and sharp whole grained mustard bake up crispy in puff pastry to create these lovely ham and mustard spirals. They are a quick and easy appetizer for your red carpet party.


Use a sharp knife to cut the roll into 1/2 inch or 1 cm slices. Place the slices on your prepared pan.

Food Lust People Love: Ham and Mustard Spirals. Flavorful ham and sharp whole grained mustard bake up crispy in puff pastry to create these lovely ham and mustard spirals. They are a quick and easy appetizer for your red carpet party.


Bake for about 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and sprinkle on the Parmesan.

Food Lust People Love: Ham and Mustard Spirals. Flavorful ham and sharp whole grained mustard bake up crispy in puff pastry to create these lovely ham and mustard spirals. They are a quick and easy appetizer for your red carpet party.

Bake for an additional 5-7 minutes or until they are golden all over and the cheese has melted.

Food Lust People Love: Ham and Mustard Spirals. Flavorful ham and sharp whole grained mustard bake up crispy in puff pastry to create these lovely ham and mustard spirals. They are a quick and easy appetizer for your red carpet party.


Enjoy!

This week my Sunday Supper group is sharing fancy appetizers for your red carpet award-watching party. Dress up, make a cocktail and get some of these ham and mustard spirals in the oven!

Or make one of these other fancy appetizers. Many thanks to our host Wendy of Wholistic Woman and our event manager, Cricket of Cricket’s Confections.

Finger Foods

Hors d'oeuvres

Seafood

Veggies

Sweets


Pin these Ham and Mustard Spirals! 

Food Lust People Love: Ham and Mustard Spirals. Flavorful ham and sharp whole grained mustard bake up crispy in puff pastry to create these lovely ham and mustard spirals. They are a quick and easy appetizer for your red carpet party.
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Sunday, February 5, 2017

Peppadew Trout en Croûte

Peppadew Trout en Croûte looks fancy but it’s actually very easy, especially if you start with store-bought already rolled puff pastry. Peppadew peppers and garlic add a lovely fresh flavor that complements the richness of the trout and the flaky pastry.

Peppadew Trout en Croûte: Peppadew peppers and garlic add a lovely fresh flavor that complements the richness of the trout and the pastry. #SundaySupper


I went through a phase a few years ago where I fell in love with ready rolled puff pastry and used it to make so many things. It’s such a versatile ingredient that my freezer is rarely without a package. Whatever simple dish you want to fancy up can be kicked up several notches by the addition of some puff pastry, baked till flakey and golden. When the French wrap something in puff pastry, they call it en croûte – literally, in crust - which immediately makes it sound fancy too.

This week my Sunday Supper group is sharing easy dinners for two ahead of Valentine’s Day, with more than 30 meals you can make at home to celebrate. Individual peppadew trout en croûte is my contribution.

If you can't find trout, salmon is a great substitute.

Ingredients
2 trimmed trout steaks about 5 1/3 oz or 150g each (See note below.)
Salt
Pepper
8-9 peppers or 25g Peppadew peppers, drained
1 small clove garlic
13 1/4 oz or 375g sheet pre-rolled puff pastry (See note below.)

Method
Preheat oven to 400°F or 200°C. Line a baking pan with parchment. Pound the peppers and garlic together with a mortar and pestle or blend in a small food processor, till they form a thick paste.

To prepare the trout steaks, skin them and trim the thin side so that you are left with two thick steaks. Remove the pin bones with needle-nose pliers, if this has not already been done. (See note below for a quick, fresh appetizer recipe, using the trimmed bits.)



Season the trout steaks with salt and pepper. Fry the trout skin until crispy in a non-stick skillet. Remove to a piece of paper towel to drain and sprinkle with a little salt. These are the cook's treat and we fight over them at our house, but they also leave behind just enough oil for the next step.

Over a very high heat, brown both sides of the trout for about 1 minute on each side in that same pan. Remove from heat to a cool plate and leave to cool.



Unroll the puff pastry and trim all around the edges with a sharp knife, then cut it half. Place one trout steak on each half and top them with the Peppadew garlic paste.



Fold the first side of the puff pastry over the trout. Fold the second side up to the middle of the trout and make a little fold in the end of the puff pastry.

Gently press down on the puff pastry and remove all the air from inside, sealing the puff pastry on each side. Use the tines of a fork to seal the sides and a sharp knife to trim the excess off of the puff pastry. Decorate with some of the puff pastry scraps, if desired.

Left - ready to bake. Right - still needs trimming and decorating. 




Bake for about 15-17 minutes or until the puff pastry is golden brown, in the preheated oven.




Note: For a quick starter, toss some sliced purple onion with a couple of tablespoons fresh lime juice. Cut the trimmed pieces of trout into thin strips and add them to the sliced onion with a little cilantro, salt, black pepper. Stir well and refrigerate till ready to serve. For a quick and easy dessert, the puff pastry scraps can be baked in the oven once the trout comes out, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. Serve alongside some sweet strawberries. 

Remove the Peppadew trout en croûte from the oven and allow to rest for 5-7 minutes before serving with a salad or fresh steamed broccolini to complete your dinner for two.

Peppadew Trout en Croûte: Peppadew peppers and garlic add a lovely fresh flavor that complements the richness of the trout and the pastry. #SundaySupper


Enjoy!

Do you like to go out to eat for Valentine’s Day or stay in for a special meal? If you choose the latter, Sunday Supper’s got you covered this week! Many thanks to Candace from Authentically Candace, our host, and Cricket of Cricket's Confections for managing this event!

Chicken Recipes

Pasta Recipes

Pork Recipes

Red Meat Recipes

Seafood Recipes

Veggie Recipes


 Pin it! 

Food Lust People Love - Peppadew Trout en Croûte: Peppadew peppers and garlic add a lovely fresh flavor that complements the richness of the trout and the pastry. #SundaySupper

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Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Black-eyed Pea Salad - Saladu Ñebbe #FoodieExtravaganza

This hearty black-eyed pea salad is full of good stuff but what makes it so tasty is the fresh lime juice and the hit of heat from the habanero pepper. I cautiously only put one pepper in this time. Next time I’m adding more!



Last weekend my husband and I did a massive clear out of all three of our freezers. The normal-size kitchen one, the even smaller one on top the beer fridge and the more capacious deep freezer. We hauled everything out and put it back in some sort of order. Frozen homemade sauces together. Poultry and beef on another shelf. Seafood on one side and the bottom drawer? It’s filled with pork products. The Great Freezer Cleaning also revealed a bag of dried black-eyes peas. It seemed like an omen.

This month my Foodie Extravaganza group is sharing heart healthy recipes. Beans and vegetables are probably two of the most heart healthy things you can eat, unless you are cooking those beans with smoked sausage. (My favorite way!) Even so, I like to think that the fiber and nutrition in beans outweighs the fat in the sausage. After all, sausage is also seasoning and you wouldn’t necessarily get a piece in each bite.

But beans are also great in salad, like this one of Senegalese origin, called Saladu Ñebbe or Salatu Ñebbe in the original language. There are several recipes in English online but they all seem to come from the same source, an article in Saveur magazine. Switching to French for my search, salade niébé, did turn up a few more. Whatever you call it, I’ll be making it again. I served it with seared tuna steaks, a delicious accompaniment.

Depending on which website or cookbook you consult black-eyed peas either don’t need to be soaked or they do. I treat them as I do all other beans. If I am not cooking them in a pressure cooker, I soak them overnight, if I have the time, or I quick soak them in boiling water for one hour, before cooking. Whichever method you choose, you are going to need about 2 1/2 cups or 400g cooked black-eyed peas for this recipe. One cup of dried peas should yield about that right amount.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups or 400g cooked black-eyed peas (1 cup or 200g dried black-eyed peas, boiled and drained – you can substitute canned peas. Rinse and drain them well.)
1 habanero or Scotch bonnet chile
3 large green onions
2 small cloves garlic
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 yellow bell pepper
250g cherry or grape tomatoes
1 medium cucumber
1 small bunch parsley
6 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Optional for serving: salad greens

Method
Mince your habanero pepper and the garlic. Trim off the roots and slice the white part of your onion tops. In a large bowl, mix the three with the lime juice and set aside to marinate, with about a half teaspoon of salt.

This has a two-fold effect. First of all, it takes mellows the flavors of the raw garlic, onion and the habanero. Secondly, it makes sure that those flavors will be infused in the dressing.

Cut your cherry tomatoes into quarters. Seed, stem and chop the bell pepper.

Chop the green part of the onion tops and the parsley.

Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise then in half again. Use a sharp knife to remove the seeds, then cut the cucumber into small pieces.



Add the olive oil into the salad bowl and mix well with a fork.



Pile in the black-eyed peas. Stir well to coat.



Add in the chopped vegetables and herbs. Mix well.



Season with salt and pepper to taste. This salad can, of course, be eaten immediately but, unlike most salads, it gets better and better as it hangs out in the refrigerator.



If not serving right away cover with cling film and refrigerate. Remove from the fridge about 20 minutes before you are ready to serve to it’s not super chilled. Stir well.

Enjoy!


Many thanks to our Foodie Extravaganza host this month, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Do check out the link list of all of our other heart-healthy recipes!



Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays or shares recipes with the same ingredient or theme every month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook group Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

If you're a reader looking for delicious recipes, check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board! Looking for our previous parties? Check them out here.

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