Your best appetizers & Flourless Chocolate cake, please!

Cafe Society
1

So I’m having this big housewarming party to celebrate my new house…

So I’m slaving mightily to impress with my fabulous food…

So I’m servicing two kinds of lasagne, Red & Pesto, each has been tested and judged to be “fuckin’ amazing” by a select group of friends…

So I’m serving them with Jerked BBQ Trip Tip Salad and Rosemary Parmesan Toast

So what the hell can I serve to start that isn’t too similar to dinner, too heavy, too time consuming, too fussy, can be prepared in advance and will be fabulous? Preferably something light with lots of veges, since dinner will be so intense and it’s summer.

Next, dessert… I think I have settled on Flourless Chocolate Cake with Creme Anglaise and Raspberries. The problem is the FCC recipe… I faithfully followed the Cook’s Illustrated recipe, but I fear this doesnt’ suit. CI’s recipe is 8 eggs, 1 pound of chocolate and 1/2 pound of butter. Cook it in a water bath and take it out after 22 minutes, when the center is 140 degrees.

I fear this is just too wet and gooey. I have refrigerated the main cake, as instructed, and I will check it out tomorrow, but the smaller sample cakes I made were too gooey or (cooked longer) too much like mousse. Maybe the refrigeration will make the difference.

And is Flourless Chocolate Cake supposed to actually rise? Because mine did not. It remained exactly where it started.

So does anyone have a flawless recipe they can share?

Tomorrow I give the Creme Anglaise a go… (vanilla custard sauce… yum)

2

Guacamole
Mexican Avocado Dip

If you carefully seal the surface with a layer of plastic wrap, it will keep overnight. Look for the new Tostitos mini-basket corn chips. Keep a pastry sack full of the guacamole and merely pipe out a batch of the mini-baskets for immediate servive. (They will get soggy in 15 minutes, if they even last that long.)

You could also use a pastry sack to pipe a blue cheese and cream cheese mixture thinned with sour cream into hollowed out cherry tomatoes.

**Marinated Shitake Mushrooms with Chevre **
Broiled Mushrooms with French Goat Cheese

These are extremely addictive and the mushrooms can be marinated the night before. Just reduce the amount of garlic for longer marinating periods.
Or you could try Soujouk. Be sure to use the short seafood skewers, or do it as meatballs. Serve with tzatziki sauce.

3

How about some king prawns wrapped in pancetta and grilled, with a chili dip. I had this the other night and they were terrific.

The choc cake…sounds like Chocolate Nemesis from The River Cafe Cook Book. They had many complaints about its gooiness, so they made a smaller version for their latest book, I think halving the ingredients. It is very easy to go wrong with these.

4

In keeping with Rapunzel’s suggestion, maybe large sea scallops wrapped in prosciutto?

Stoid, here is a drop dead simple and incredibly delicious finger food that is easy to eat and makes no mess. Merely wrap thin cut prosciutto around bread sticks. Spiral it around the breadsticks like a barber pole and make sure that you have complete coverage. That’s it. These must be made at least 30 minutes in advance and one hour is fine. The moisture from the prosciutto must be given time to break the crust on the bread stick. Pile them like cord wood on a platter and watch your guests go nutso on them. For a change up, you may use sesame coated or garlic and onion breadsticks, but the plain ones work just fine.

5

Anything that’s flourless ain’t gon’ to rise. It will just stay where it is, size wise.

If you want to use Creme Anglaise, you could make an apple crumble - both together are heavenly. No chocolate there, though.

You could make some brownies and top with the creme and raspberries. That would be mighty good. Is flour an issue?

6

Allrecipes has this flourless chocolate cake recipe:

http://cake.allrecipes.com/az/flourlesschocolatecake.asp

I’ve never made one, but the reviews this recipe got are all good. It does say you should refrigerate overnight after baking.

7

Flourless chocolate cakes are to die for! I believe this is the recipe my sister uses, and it is delicious:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup water
1-1/3 cups sugar
8 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped fine
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and brought to room temperature
5 extra-large eggs (or 6 large eggs), at room temperature
Whipped cream for topping

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Butter a 9-inch round cake pan and line it with a round of parchment paper cut to fit.

In a heavy saucepan, combine the water with 1 cup of the sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Boil it for 4 minutes, or until a candy thermometer reads 220°F (105°C). Take the pan off the heat and immediately add the chocolate pieces, stirring until they are melted and smooth. If the mixture stiffens, don’t worry; it will loosen up again when you add the butter. And the butter immediately, bit by bit, stirring until all of it is used.

Place the eggs and the remaining 1/3 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on high speed for 15 minutes. If you want to prevent splattering, drape a dish towel over the mixer and bowl. When the 15 minutes are up, turn the mixer down to low. Add the chocolate mixture, stirring only until it is fully incorporated. Do not overbeat, or air bubbles will form.

Spoon and scrape the mixture into the prepared cake pan. Set the pan in a slightly larger baking pan and pour boiling water around it. Do not allow the sides of the pans to touch. Place the cake in the oven and bake it for 25 minutes. Insert the sharp point of a knife into the center of the cake; if it comes out clean, the cake is done. If it does not come out clean, continue baking for up to 10 minutes. Don’t bake the cake for longer than 35 minutes.

Remove the pan from the water bath and immediately unmold it onto a cookie sheet. Remove the parchment paper. Invert a serving plate over the cake and turn it right-side-up onto the serving plate. Serve warm, cold or at room temperature. Whipped cream is mandatory.

Yield: Serves 6 to 8

You could sertainly substitute the Creme Anglaise and Raspberries for whipped cream. Good luck.

8

:eek: Are you talking about the Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse Cake? Have you tasted it? It’s one of–no, it is the very best thing I have ever eaten. Bliss on a plate. I think you do have to refrigerate it before you eat it. When I made it, it wasn’t too gooey. It’s a pain to separate 8 eggs, but it’s so worth it!

Where is that drooling smiley?

ME

9

some appetizers I’ve done to great success:

[ul][li]Salmon sashimi on asian pear slices with a mint-cream puree[/li][li]bacon wrapped around chunks of monkfish and baked[/li][li]chopped candied pears and pistachios wrapped in curry pasta and deepfried[/li][li]Slices of fennel, dredged in flour and deepfried (fry a habanero in the oil first to give it some kick)[/li][li]thin-sliced salmon, sprinkled with grated wasabi root, rolled, sliced, and tempuraed[/li][li]tempuraed herbs: parsley, sage, basil, chives; anything really[/li]. . . more where those came from. [/ul]

10

Get some sun dried tomatoes and some morel mushrooms (probably dried, although you can get them fresh in the spring in some places). Reconstitute in how water, drain and allow to cool.

When they are cooled, mince them (keeping them separate).

Mix them in to goat cheese (although cream cheese will do). This is the filling.

Then take one of those cans of crescent rolls crack it open and cut each of the triangles in half. Plop a dollop of filling in each one, roll and bake normally. You now have yummy stuffed rolls.

11

I’ve never made it… but this looked really good on the show.

12

The flourless cake doesn’t rise but is very dense in texture. I prefer the Elizabeth David one with almond meal. It’s got a better texture and is easier than the chocolate, egg, butter one. Well it’s got more steps in the cooking but it’s less dependent on timing to turn out well.

http://www.mds.rmit.edu.au/~conway/eat/recipes/chocolate0001.html

13

A not fancy appetizer that everyone here likes is made with dill pickles, cream cheese and that thin sliced dried beef.

Depending on the size of your pickle (giggle), lay out one or two slices of dried beef, overlapping. Spread them thinly with cream cheese. Put your pickle at the edge and start rolling so that the beef/cream cheese wraps around the pickle.

Then slice it, about an inch or so thick. Stick a toothpick in them and you’re all set.

You could probably even use sweet pickles, and flavored cream cheese, and something fancy like proscuitto instead of dried beef.

14

One of my fave appetizers:

Smoked Salmon Canapes

Smoked salmon
Cream cheese
Fresh dill
Fancy crackers

Assemble thusly: Smear cream cheese on cracker. Put a piece of smoked salmon on top. Put a sprig of dill on the salmon. Repeat until you have what looks like enough. Delicious and pretty to look at! Don’t make these too far in advance, or the moisture will migrate from the cream cheese into the crackers, giving you soggy crackers and hard cream cheese.

15

In keeping with the wrapping thoughts, you can also steam some asparagus, wrap each stalk in a piece of proscutto (or however the hell you spell it) and drizzle them with olive oil. Delissssh

16

I have a great flourless chocolate cake recipe. Unfortunately, I’m still at work at 7:00 and will be here until 10:00 and the recipe is at home. Its from The Cake Bible.

Made it several times. You really need to whip the eggs good. IIRC (its been a while since I made it) you don’t seperate the eggs. It doesn’t rise, but done correctly will be drier than fudge.