Starters - Retro Food For Modern Times

06
Jan
2016

REPOST – Two Ways With Leftover Chicken

categories: A Moveable Feast, Avocado, Chicken, Chipotle, Leftovers, Lunch, Starters, Vol Au Vent

Happy New Year!

I hope the festivities were wonderful and the champagne was flowing freely!!! The only downside to all the partying is that invariably you end up with a fridge full of leftovers. This year we were inundated with leftover chicken so, if you ever find yourself in the same situation, here are two ways to use it up.

My first leftover chicken recipe uses one of my favourite retro ingredients, the vol au vent shell. (Sorry Glenda, still store-bought!)

And it’s simples – mix up a white sauce add some tarragon, stir in your chicken, fill your vol au vent cups, sprinkle on some cheese and in a couple of minutes you have a super cute little appetizer with which to kick off your next party!

My Chicken and Tarragon Vol Au Vents are based on a recipe I found in a Feast Magazine but can also be found here.

My next take on leftover chicken is a more modern Chicken, Avocado and Chipotle Tortilla which you can serve two ways.

I got this recipe from A Moveable Feast by Katy Holder where it was originally conceived of as a wrap. I made one of these and took it to work (yes, sadly I worked between Christmas and New Year). It was tasty but I am not a fan of the taste of cooked avocado and even putting the wrap into the sandwich press was enough to turn the taste from delicious to awful. If you like cooked avocado, or you want this all to yourself, this could be just the thing for you!

If however, like me you do not like the taste of cooked avocado, or you want to share the deliciousness, turn it into a “pizza”

Heat the tortilla until crispy, sprinkle the chicken, avocado and the chipotle salsa over the top, cut into slices and serve immediately to your guests as an appetizer. (Or eat it all by yourself! I won’t judge you.

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Chicken, Avocado & Chipotle Tortillas

Print Recipe

Two delicious ways with chicken tortillas

Author: Taryn Fryer
Yield: 1 1x

Ingredients

Scale

1 tortilla
1/4 cup chopped leftover chicken
1/4 avocado, roughly chopped
1 small tomato, chopped
1/4 red onion, finely chopped
1/4–1/2 chipotle chilli in adobo sauce (or to taste)
1 sprig of coriander (cilantro), finely chopped
1 tsp lime juice
Salt and Pepper
Toothpick

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Instructions

At least one hour before serving, make your salsa.
Discard the seeds from the tomato, mix with the onion, chilli, coriander and lime juice. Season to taste.
Set aside to allow the flavours to blend.
Just before serving, drain the salsa, neither of these recipes needs soggy tortilla!

For The Pizza

Heat the tortilla under the grill until it gets crispy.
Once the tortilla is crispy, take it out of the oven and top with the chicken, avocado and salsa.
Cut into slices and serve immediately.
Perfect with an ice cold beer!

For the Wrap

Warm the tortilla according to packet instructions, to soften.
Spread a line of chicken, a line of avocado and a line of salsa in the middle of the tortilla, leaving a 2 cm gap on all sides.
Fold in the bottom, rotate 90* and fold over one side then the other.
Tuck the remaining side of tortilla, securing with a toothpick.
Place into your sandwich press or under your grill and heat until the outside of the tortilla is golden and crispy.
Don’t forget to remove the toothpick before eating!

I wish you all the very best for 2016 and may it be the year all your dreams come true! Thank you for reading and commenting and being a part of my teeny corner of the internet. It’s a New Year – Let’s make it wonderful!

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30
Oct
2015

Old Bay Oyster Sliders

categories: Octoberfest, Old Bay, Oysters, Saffron, Sliders, Starters

Maybe it’s because it’s Halloween week but here I am with another thing, actually two things that scare me. Batter and deep-frying. Because I made Sliders. And not just any sliders, Oyster Sliders. And not just any Oyster Sliders but Old Bay Oyster Sliders!

Ooooooohhhhhyeeeeeaaaahhhh!!!

Can I just say that these were as good as they look?

Start off with some mini brioche…..hmmm..now where would you find some of them? And toast them up.

Whip up some aioli ( I had this saffron and roasted garlic aioli from something else I had made), but any aioli or even mayo would be fine. But the saffron makes it look so pretty!

Choose your vegetables. I used lettuce, carrot, red cabbage and red onion.

Don’t forget the pickle! I used a pickled jalapeno but a dill pickle would also be fine.

Next up a tempura style batter loaded with Old Bay! Heat some oil, drench your oysters in the batter and drop into the hot oil. These only need a minute or so to cook. Drain on crumpled paper:

And assemble.

Now, you have to promise not to laugh or judge me too harshly…(oh wow does that make a third thing that frightens me, in this post alone?) but I made my first ever gif.

Ok, deep breath, here ’tis…

Eeek….if anyone’s left after that, here’s the recipe!

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:23]

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

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15
Jul
2015

The Margaret Fulton Cookbook 2- The First Course

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, Starters

If nothing else, the two editions of the Margaret Fulton Cookbook are a lesson in how food photography has changed over the years. The theme of yesteryear seems to be very much “more is more” with multiple items on a page, whereas now we are far more minimalist with a much cleaner page.

Margaret’s words of wisdom on hors d’œuvre and canapes from 1977 seem to support the modern view:

“Hors d’œuvre and canapés are served with drinks before dinner (to give you an appetite). They should be light, piquant and small, never larger than bite-size. Attempting too many varieties has been the downfall of many a hostess and death to the meal that follows”

Having said that, this is one of the few pages in where the 1977 version is my favorite. Maybe it’s my love of fingerfood but give me the loaded page from 1977 (below) rather than the restrained simplicity of the modern photo (above) any day!

I truly believe that when it comes to fingerfood more is more….I could scoff the lot on this page…except for maybe the green triangles in the bottom right corner. I don’t know what they are nor do I want to. But the rest…gimme, gimme, gimme…

First Course - 1977 — First Course – 1977

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Manapés: why ‘manly’ finger food is on the rise
A Great Appetizer Can Make Your Dinner Taste Worse, Study Says
Cheesy Appetizers
Cooking, hedonics and the art of mastering more than one course
Fresh caprese salad is the perfect summer party appetizer

04
Jul
2015

Cheese and Date Night

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, A-Zof Cooking, Bread, Cheese, Dates, Olives, Snacks, Starters

If we are at home on a Friday, we don’t usually eat a big meal, just usually have a couple of snacky things here and there.

Tonight’s snack plate had a distinctly retro feel so I thought I would share it with you!

Cheese and Date Bread

First up, we have some Cheese and Date Bread, courtesy of The A-Z of Cooking. We have jumped somewhat forward here in that this recipe appears under G – Good Health, when technically we are only up to D – Drinks and Dips. And whilst Drinks and Dips are usually good Friday fare, tonight it was something different.

I was intrigued by the idea of Cheese and Date Bread. I really wasn’t sure how the sweetness of the dates would go with the rest of the ingredients. These fears were completely unfounded. And my bread looked just like real proper bread!

If somewhat lopsided…

The bread is pretty good plain but if you want to take it to a whole new level? Toast it up.

Cheese and Date Balls

Like I said, initially I was hesitant to make the Cheese and Date Bread. What changed my mind was finding this recipe for Cheese and Date Balls:

Epicurious – Cheese and Date Balls

Of course I made mini balls – because that’s how I roll. Also, I swapped out the lemon in the recipe above for a teeny splash of vermouth.

Mmmmm…blue cheese, walnuts and dates spread on toasted Date and Cheese Bread. Life is good!

But wait…there’s more.

But first a little bit of disclosure. I am actually trying something new tonight which is to cook (ok, assemble, I had actually cooked everything beforehand), photo, write, review and post all in the one night. Normally this process can take WEEKS. I am also doing it whilst drinking a rather large martini which we will get to in due course. So, if the end of this devolves into absolute gibberish, you know why and apologies in advance.

Those olives you see on the plate? Aren’t just any olives. They are:

Martini Drenched Olives

Normally, you put your olive into a martini. In this recipe, you put some martini into your olives! This is so simple and really adds a new and different flavour to some otherwise ordinary olives.

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Martini Drenched Olives

Print Recipe

Usually, you put a olive in your martini. This recipe adds a little martini into your olives!

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

2 cups green olives (I used stuffed olives because I had them)
3 tbsp vodka
1 1/2 tbsp dry vermouth
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp shredded lemon zest
8–10 cracked peppercorns

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Instructions

Rinse the olives under cold water and drain.
Combine all the other ingredients.
Place the olives in a bowl.
Pour the other ingredients over.
Refrigerate for at least an hour. (I kept mine in the fridge for nearly a week).

But you know what? If your going to have some martini drenched olives, why not make also make a Drenched Dirty Martini. It is Friday after all!

The Drenched Dirty Martini is a dirty martini made with Drenched Martini Olives.

[yumprint-recipe id=’32’]

Have a great weekend!

Signature 1 PS – Love to hear your thoughts on the quick and dirty post. I live in awe of the bloggers who manage to do something daily and would love to be able to increase my output. Your feedback on me just banging something out like tonight v agonising over every comma is most appreciated! Thanks as always. xx

Reimagined Martini Recipes for Celebrating Today’s Drinking Holiday
Bond Vivant: Shaking Martinis with Nick Charles
The Martini: the epitome of cocktail-hour refinement | Empire of Drinks
Warm Marinated Olives

25
May
2015

Cucumber Candlestick Canapés

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, Crab, Cucumber, Salads For All Season, Starters

If you read my last post you would have already seen these amazing cucumber candlesticks…now you get to learn how to make them yourself!

I found the original recipe in, yep, you guessed it, the delight that is Salads For All Seasons by Rosemary Mayne Wilson, because that book never gets old. Well, technically yes it does but you know what I mean.

I fancy pantsed mine up a bit by adding a little bit of hot sauce into my crab and mayo mix but you could use wasabi or tomato paste or chilli sauce, chopped herbs, chopped up sun-dried tomatoes, or pretty much any flavouring you liked. You could also swap out the crab for canned tuna or salmon if that’s how you roll.

I also added a strip of sun-dried tomato as a flame.

The only bit of making these that was even a little bit difficult was scooping out the flesh of the cucumbers and not having them break. I don’t have a grapefruit knife as suggested by Rosemary Mayne Wilson so I ended up using a 1/4 teaspoon measure and scooping out a little bit at a time.

These were really tasty and pretty easy to make. And a pretty cool retro canapé to kick off the celebrations.

To eat these you can slice them either across into rounds down the middle into half or quarter moons.

But before the recipe, I thought I might do a quick “retro” spective. I spent some time the other day going through some old posts and one thing became clear. If there was going to be a sub-sub title for this blog, it would surely have to be “I like round food. And I really, really like small round food”