Easy & Fancy Salmon & Buckwheat Blini Hors d'Oeuvres

This is so delicious and so easy that I hope you try it. Little rosettes of Norwegian salmon top a dollop of sour cream egg salad on a tiny buckwheat pancake and a garnish of chives is all that comprise this hors d'oeuvre. You can make the pancakes (blinis) ahead of time and freeze for up to about one month.

Other toppings work well, too. No time for making the egg salad? Stir a bit of finely chopped fresh dill fronds and grated lemon rind into creme fraiche and use that instead, then garnish with pieces of the feathery dill fronds. Rinsed and drained tiny capers also make a great addition.

If you don't have the blinis, use crackers, but we love the creamy mouth feel of the salmon, egg salad, and soft blinis. Oh, and this is an affordable hors d'oeuvre because you stretch the salmon by slicing each piece in half AND you'll have lots of blinis left over to freeze for future parties, or heat them in the oven at 350 the next morning and serve them as "silver dollar" pancakes for breakfast.

Salmon & Buckwheat Blinis

Serves: 4 (2 pieces each) with more blinis left over
Difficulty: Super easy
Prep Time: About 30 minutes
Composition Time: About 10 minutes

For blinis:
2 tablespoons of buckwheat flour
3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup whole milk
1 large egg yolk
1 large egg white
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled, divided in half

Combine dry ingredients and whisk together in a medium size bowl. In a measuring cup, stir together egg yolk and milk. In separate bowl, whisk egg white till stiff.
Stir together the dry and wet ingredients until moist, then stir in 3 tablespoons of the butter. Fold in the beaten egg white.

Heat a nonstick frying pan or griddle over medium high flame, brush with remaining butter and drop blini batter by tablespoons onto hot pan. Flip when golden on bottom side, as you would with pancakes, then remove to a cooling rack and repeat till you have used all the batter.

For Sour Cream Egg Salad:
1 large hard cooked egg, finely minced
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon chopped chives
Salt to taste (TT)

Combine egg, sour cream, and one tablespoon chopped chives. Season with salt TT.

For salmon:
4 ounce package Norwegian salmon (nova lox)

Compose:
Top each blini with a spoonful of egg salad. Take each thinly sliced piece of salmon and cut in half horizontally so each piece will give you two long strips. Starting at a short end, roll the salmon into a rose-shaped design and nestle upright into the egg salad. Garnish with chopped chives.

To hold:
Blinis, egg salad, and salmon slices can be prepared individually ahead of time. Composed blinis can be held, covered with plastic wrap, in the fridge for up to 4 hours.

Wine Pairing:
I love Acacia Pinot Noir from the Los Carneros AVA in California, and it is on sale right now at Lowes Foods for less than $14.00, which makes it very affordable for entertaining. For the Chardonnay lovers, Chateau Ste. Michelle is delicious with this hors d'oeuvre and can be found anywhere for around $13.00. Both of these wines are available at most fine grocery stores. Don't forget to ask your grocer or wine shop about discounts for quantities. Most offer 5% for half cases and 10% for full cases.

Lobster on a Work Night?

So, you want to do a little special weeknight meal...entertaining some good friends, the boss, your special someone...and you're short on time but want to make a great impression? Here's your menu and it will only take about 45 minutes to prepare, and you can pick up all the ingredients at the grocery store on your way home from work!

I bet you've never thought of lobster as fast food, but it definitely is an I'm going to show you how to do it anytime and with ease and style!

Menu for Entertaining on a Week Night!

Sweet Iced Tea
Chardonnay Wine (Unoaked is best)
Cheese & baguette slices (purchased baguette slices, your favorite artisanal cheese)
Grilled lobster with compound butter and fresh lemon
Tossed green salad & vinaigrette (organic mixed spring greens, ready to serve from the container, favorite bottled vinaigrette)
Rolls & butter (get the brown & serve kind of rolls)
Vanilla ice cream with grilled pineapple (purchase fresh pineapple rings and good quality vanilla bean ice cream)

Here's your grocery list:

1 ready-to-eat baguette
Your favorite cheese (don't you dare get the little cut-up squares!)
Organic Salad Mix
Vinaigrette Dressing
Brown & Serve Dinner Rolls
1 stick butter for rolls
1 lobster (1 1/2 - 2 lbs.) per person
1/2 stick butter per lobster
1 tsp. minced garlic per stick of butter
1 small bunch of fresh basil per stick of butter
1/2 lemon per lobster
Good quality vanilla bean ice cream
Fresh pineapple rings (allow 1 per person)
Ground cinnamon

Here is the only recipe you need:

Grilled Lobster for Four

1 lobster (about 1 1/2 - 2 lbs.) per person
1/2 stick salted butter per lobster (yes, I know this is 4 oz. per person but this IS a special meal!)
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
1 small bunch fresh basil

Here is the game plan:

1. When you get home, put your box of lobsters in the fridge or in a cooler, put the salad in the fridge and leave the butter on the counter. Put a very large stockpot of water (heavily salted) on the stove to boil and put your pretty glass bowl for the salad in the fridge.
2. Take your shower or freshen up and put something FABULOUS on for the evening.
   Pour yourself a glass of wine (an unoaked Chardonnay will be great with this meal) and put your apron on.
3. The water should be boiling by now, so drop into the boiling water (head first) as many lobsters as will fit into your pot. (You might have to do this in a couple of batches, and if you do,make sure to bring the water back to a boil each time.) Make sure you have your exhaust fan going full blast....you don't want to give yourself a facial AFTER you have your makeup refreshed!
4. Boil each lobster for 7 minutes and then put them on a platter or baking sheet to cool on the counter.
5. While the lobsters are boiling, finely chop the fresh basil and stir it and the garlic into the softened butter. Set that aside on the counter.
6. Set the table; cut the butter for the rolls into pats and place on a plate in the fridge.
7. Return to the cooled lobster. Place each back-side-down on a cutting board and cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out body but leave tail and claws intact. Spread 2 T. compound butter over the meat in the tail and put 2 T. in the body cavity and leave on sheet pan on counter. (You may cover with a clean cloth or plastic wrap if you want.)
8. Open wine bottles and place corks part way back into bottles; place in ice & water-filled buckets to chill and artfully arrange cheese and sliced baguette on your decorative platter or beautiful wooden cutting board in a strategic location.
9. Turn on oven to desired temperature for browning rolls and light grill.

When your guests arrive:

1. Greet guests with wine or sweet tea, cheese & baguettes, a relaxed smile, and chat a bit.
2. Put the rolls in the oven and return to your guests for more chat.
3. When the rolls are finished, put them in fabric-lined baskets and set aside.
4. Call everyone into the kitchen and, with a flourish, unveil your beautiful red lobsters and head for the grill. Everyone will follow to watch because this is so special!
5. Turn the grill to medium-high and place lobsters directly over the flame with the cut side up. Close the lid and grill for 3 minutes while you entertain your guests with brilliant conversation. Turn off grill and move lobsters to top rack and navigate your guests to the wine to refill their glasses while you return to the kitchen.
6. Toss salad greens with vinaigrette and pile artfully onto your chilled platter. Place on the dining table with the basket of rolls and chilled pats of butter.
7. Assign a helper to refill wine/tea glasses while you arrange your lobster halves, wedges of lemon and basil bouquets on a pretty platter. Place on the table and be ready to take bows!
8. When most of your guests are half way through the lobster, excuse yourself to the kitchen. Put coffee on if you are serving that. Dredge the pineapple slices in the light brown sugar and grill on each side until heated through and caramalized, about 2 minutes per side. Place scoop of ice cream in each bowl, lean warm pineapple ring jauntily on each scoop and sprinkle with ground cinnamon. Serve and bask in the praise!

I just know my PC buddy Debbie will notice that I neglected to remind you to refill your wine glass during the course of the preparation/evening! (I bet you won't forget to do that!)

Cookies for Care Packages

Sending home-baked goodies to troops in the Middle East is tricky right now because of the intense heat there. Our son-in-law, who is in the Air Force in Iraq, says not to send chocolate because it will melt. Of course, that was a challenge that I couldn't ignore.

Once when I was in the American Southwest desert, we were hiking and when we returned to the Jeep, we found that we had left a zippy bag full of white chocolate-macadamia nut cookies lying in the sun. To our delight, the white chocolate chips were soft but intact and the cookies had that just-out-of-the-oven taste and texture! Wow....the heat could actually be to my advantage because he would be getting cookies that would be as good as if he were in my kitchen!

The next consideration besides affects of heat is the texture itself. They have to stand up to being thrown around in transit; what I didn't want was for him to open a box to find nothing but crumbs. The cookies would have to be dense but still tender and a bit crisp but not too delicate. And I did want to use real dark chocolate because, well, there is just nothing like chocolate to give you that sense of well-being! Here is the recipe I came up with. I sent them yesterday packaged in disposable plastic bins in a box full of magazines, and I doubled the recipe so that he can share both the magazines and the cookies with his troops. I'll let you know what he says when they arrive.

Death by Chocolate Cookies

1 pkg. (8 squares) semi-sweet baking chocolate
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 c. firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
1 tsp. real vanilla extract
1/2 – 3/4 c. all-purpose flour (start with 1/2 c. and add more as needed)
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 c. chopped nuts (pecans, macadamias, walnuts, almonds, etc.)
1/2 c. dried cherries or cranberries

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Melt the semi-sweet chocolate in a large microwavable bowl in microwave for 2 minutes on high. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth.
• Stir in the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla with a wooden spoon until the mixture is well blended.
• Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt, and then stir in the white chocolate, fruit and nuts. (The batter will stiffen as it sits.)
• Drop by spoonfuls (I use a one-ounce scoop) onto ungreased cookie sheets or preheated baking stones (that's what I use).
• Bake for 14 minutes or so until just firm on the edges but slightly soft on the top. These cookies are very dark so make sure you don't burn them.
• Remove from oven and cool cookies on wire racks.
• Makes about 2 dozen cookies, depending on the size spoon you use.

I'm a Radio Personality Now! Ha!

Hey everybody! I got up way before the sun this morning to make my famous chicken enchiladas, and as soon as they were golden and bubbling I packed them in the cooler and my husband and I fought the Charlotte traffic on I-485 and I-77 for more than an hour. We made it just in time for my big radio debut on WBT Talk Radio 1110!

Charles welcomed me and right away asked me to dish out samples of my enchiladas and salsa for the crew. They all dug in and just kept right on going with their show till it was time for me to do my 20 seconds.
That's me in the blue jacket with the cast from the morning show. They were so friendly and professional that I felt right at ease! Charles Jenkin is on the left, and I'll be back on his Saturday afternoon "This Show is Cookin'" program on Saturday, March 29th. Stacey Simms is next to Charles, and Al Gardner is second from the right. Last but not least is Jim Szoke, first on the right. They are as friendly in person as they sound on the radio and I am so grateful to them for giving me the opportunity to chat about Wines for Humanity and The Hungry Fox Personal Chef Service. I can't wait to go back!

Chef Event at HH Gregg

If you are in the market for high-end kitchen appliances or if you are planning for your dream kitchen of the future, you MUST visit the HH Gregg Fine/Lines showroom near you!

This past Tuesday I was invited to participate in the HH Gregg "Chef Event" with seven other professional chefs and we just had a great experience. I arrived two hours before the opening and began cooking. I suspect the aroma of my "El Zorro" crab cakes wafting through the showroom had something to do with all the salespeople coming into my kitchen display to introduce themselves, but throughout the course of the evening I discovered that the sales team is comprised of incredibly friendly and knowledgeable people.

Not only did I enjoy the company of the sales staff at HH Gregg, but I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the many builders and other shoppers who came by to check out the Kitchenaid Appliances showroom, taste my food and chat with me about the work I do.

I promised to share my recipes for the El Zorro Crab Cakes and also for the Sherried Chicken and Wild Mushrooms that I demonstrated from the Wolf Appliances kitchen. Both are great recipes for special family meals and also for elegant entertaining. Click HERE to go to my website and the recipes, and please call me or email if you have any questions. Of course, if you live in the Charlotte, NC metro area I'll be happy to come to your home and prepare these dishes for you and your guests, and I'll do a free wine tasting to benefit Crisis Assistance Ministries ....and THAT will make your event even more special! Call me at 803-804-3541 and we'll schedule your event!