Easy appetizers for a wine tasting?!
Answers: I'm planning on offering cheese and crackers but I'd like to have something homemade to offer as well. Looking for something EASY that can be served cold or room temp. Anyone have any good ideas?
I think it's better to keep it simple as not to take away the taste of the wine. Cheese, some nice Italian bread, sliced apples, grapes. Nothing to overwhelm the taste of the wine.
You can do a spinach cheese dip on melba toast. Or even a shrimp or seafood on small pieces of bread it good.
Spinach Dip
This makes a big hit and is easy to prepare.
Buy a round bread (or any loaf of your choice)
Cut off top and hollow out. Fill with spinach dip. Cut the top into small cubes and set on platter. Use fancy picks or individual forks.
Parmesan and Cinnamon walnut sugar twists (two separate twists)
Buy puff pastry and thaw for about 3 hours in the fridge.
Roll out until quite thin.
Brush a light layer of water over the pastry-careful not to get the edges and the counter, it will stick.
Sprinkle parmesan, garlic powder, and a little salt, pepper and oregano over horizontal half of pastry. (Use the Italian seasoning on one pastry, and the cinnamon sugar walnut mixture on the other). For the cinnamon sugar walnut, buy a cinnamon sugar mix and buy raw walnuts. Roast nuts in a pan on stove or oven until fragrant. Chop nuts finely and they can be sprinkled on top of the cinnamon sugar once it's on the pastry.
Fold plain side over seasoned side.
Sprinkle more seasoning over the top layer, and gently roll with rolling pin.
Cut off folded edge with a pizza cutter.
Make strips, with pizza cutter and twist and place on baking sheet.
Place twisted strips in fridge for 30 minutes, and pre-heat oven according to package directions.
Cook until golden brown and firm to the touch.
These are so delicious and so easy, but they look beautiful.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
Sam's.
They have everything: Cheese samplers, grape and melon platters, dips and crudites platters. They also have nice looking plastic plates, napkins and cutlery to make cleaning up easy.
This time of year I like to do baked Brie with a bit of brown sugar, butter and Cinnamon on the top and then serve with two or three kinds of apples on the side for dipping into it.
There are some interesting thin bread sticks that are good for taste and the visual as you can stand them up in different wine glasses.
Wine tastings are all about the wine. But people do like to have some things to snack or clean the pallet. Have some interesting bowls of oyster crackers . I saw some baby asparagus tips at the market to day. Blanch them for a second to just take the rawness away. Marinate them in a light olive oil , fresh herb marinade then serve them standing in interesting wine glasses as well.
Have fun.
A nice thing to do would be a baked brie. All you have to do is buy brie cheese and microwave it. Then you put a little bowl of grape jelly on the plate with a spoon and crackers around it. You could also take a bread and cut out the center, a round bread and fill it with spinach dip. You take the pieces of the bread you scooped out and cut them to dip in it. It would be nice to have a dried fruit platter. Or, you can also have a vegetable platter as well.
Various cheeses, red and white grapes, melon, crackers, Italian bread, prociutto, salami, ham slices, a couple of easy spreads. I like brie with fresh tomatoes and bread or crackers. Different wines go well with different cheeses -- get a variety like brie, bleu cheese, goat cheese, Irish cheddar, a good swiss. The deli section in the grocery store often has a good selection and smoked cheeses are delicious as well. Serve them on a cheese board with a knife -- you don't even have to slice!
cheese cubes
Vegetables a la Grecque. The following is a recipe from James Beard:
Court bouillon:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
1/3 cup dry white wine or vermouth
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 bay leaf
1 or 2 cloves garlic, peeled
Dash of hot pepper sauce
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme, tarragon, oregano, basil; or 1 teaspoon each
dried
Select from the following vegetables: young, tender green beans, wax beans, whole green onions or tiny white onions, small and firm mushroom caps, whole or halved leeks, halved or quartered fennel bulbs, fingers or cubes of eggplant, small and firm zucchini halved or thickly sliced, halved celery hearts, buds of broccoli or cauliflower, tiny young carrots, tiny pattypan squash, artichoke bottoms, or trimmed and quartered artichokes with choke removed (see note).
Put the oil, vinegar, wine, salt, pepper, bay leaf, garlic, hot pepper sauce, thyme, tarragon, oregano and basil in a large, shallow pan or deep skillet, then add a cleaned, trimmed vegetable and just enough water barely to cover. The court bouillon is sufficient for 1 pound of green beans or carrots, or 1 large eggplant, cubed, or 8 artichoke bottoms or a dozen mushroom caps.
Bring the liquid to a boil very slowly over medium heat, then reduce the heat and poach until the vegetable is just crisply tender when pierced with a fork or the point of a small sharp knife. Do not overcook.
Remove from the heat, taste the liquid for seasoning and add salt, if needed; then let the vegetable cool in the liquid. When cool, transfer to a refrigerator container or serving dish. Strain the poaching liquid and use again for other vegetables. If necessary, add more water.
Note: Do not simmer vegetables together, as they will have different cooking times. Cook your selections separately.
