finger food – Mel's Mosaic

There are acronyms for far too many things in this world and I will take any chance to make a play on them. So, for this blog, HOP stands for Hearts of Palm. Ever wonder what they really are? That’s what Wikipedia is for!! Check it out.

I love the things (or swamp cabbage as Wikipedia just taught me). I buy them at Costco where you can get two huge jars for about $8. Anyway, I was having a gathering at my place this afternoon and threw together this great Heart of Palm Salad (HOPS) that somebody gave me the recipe for years ago. It is beyond basic and great for light fare.

Ingredients:

1 lb hearts of palm
1 tbsp lime or lemon juice (lime is better)
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
S&P
3 tbsp olive oil
2 or 3 heads of endive

All you have to do is drain and rinse the HOP then cut them into small pieces. Throw them in a bowl. Then, in another bowl mix together the lemon or lime juice, mustard, S&P. Whisk in the oil until the mixture’s thick and blended. Pour the dressing over the HOP and toss to mix. Divide the endive leaves and fill each one with a bite-size scoop of the salad. Done! Great for parties because they require no silverware for eating (finger-food), are safe at room-temp for awhile, are dairy-free, gluten-free, and vegetarian, and heck, fairly healthy. So, all around, can please many palates.

Pre-dinner, appetizers, crackers. Go to store, reach for X box. Get home, open cardboard then bag (or just rip open the bag of pita chips — don’t lie). Why must we always do this?

I am crafting ideas for an event in a couple weeks and wanted to do a test pilot recipe for homemade super crisp crackers. Did some googling and an Alton Brown recipe came up on Food TV‘s site. How can you go wrong with Alton? I used the basics and threw in some lemon zest and vodka to complement some of the fish I aim to serve the crackers with.

Ingredients

5 ounces whole-wheat flour
4 3/4 ounces all-purpose flour, plus additional for rolling

<used all whole wheat because I was out of regular!>
1/3 cup poppy seeds
1/3 cup sesame seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
1 1/2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
3 tablespoons olive oil
6 1/2 ounces water
<used 1.5 ounces vodka and 5 ounces water>
added 1.5 teaspoons lemon zest

I went with the awesome Penzey’s dry lemon peel for my zest that I wanted to add. Add water, 15 minutes later, voila!

Then, you just mix the dry ingredients, blend in the wet ones, knead a few times and break into 8 small balls of dough.

You let them sit for 15 minutes then roll them out to desired thickness, based on what kind of cracker you’d like.

Put the entire piece of dough in the oven. You’re supposed to flip them half way but I love baking stuff on oven-proof racks to avoid the flipping need. After 6-15 minutes, depending on what you choose (based on Alton’s specs), take the crisps out of the oven, let cool, then break into desired size of crackers.

The recipe (online) got rave reviews. I think my effort to put my own flavor into it altered it a bit in an off way (the vodka made them a bit ‘soggy’) but they are still darn edible. I just always love tweaking things. But, give them a try! Very easy to make and a fun alternative to store-bought crackers.