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Belgian Endive with Smoked Trout Pâté

February 11, 2022 by Mary 2 Comments

Pretty, light, with a slightly spicy kick of cayenne, and elegant – so nice with a glass of Prosecco or a cocktail – these appetizers of Smoked Trout Pâté on Endive with a Toasted Walnut are delicious! They would also be a good, healthier addition to your Super Bowl fare of chips and dips. (And don’t forget about my healthier, super tasty Spicy Chicken Chili recipe for the big game.)

I served these as a starter for my dinner party last weekend and they were a hit! The Smoked Trout Pâté is super easy and quick to make, can be made a day or two ahead of time and then the assembly is also very easy to do, right before the guests arrive. And everyone went “ooo la la” once they saw the platter as it looked so impressive!

Using an oval plate, (I neglected to take a picture of that), I had the Smoked Trout Pâté on Endive with a Toasted Walnut outlining the outside edge. I filled the middle in with Medjool dates, pits removed and stuffed with Roquefort cheese and a toasted walnut half. Also delish!

So different, simple and elegant…

The whole thing was simple, different and all mighty tasty, besides looking beautiful and elegant. All of the things you hope to achieve when entertaining your friends and family.

Make these soon, sit back and enjoy the compliments!

BELGIAN ENDIVE WITH SMOKED TROUT PÂTÉ – serves 10 as an appetizer

One 8 oz. boneless smoked trout, skin, head and tail removed, broken into large chunks
¼ cup sour cream
2 oz. (¼ cup) cream cheese at room temperature
2 Tbs. coarsely chopped red onion
1 chunk (2 inches) fresh horseradish, peeled and coarsely grated (about 1 packed tablespoon) You can use bottled horseradish in a pinch, but if you do, drain it well and use only 2.5 tsp.
1.5 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
½ cup walnut halves
2 – 3 large heads of Belgian endive, using only the larger leaves
Grated fresh lemon zest for garnish

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Scatter the walnuts on a pie plate or baking sheet and toast in the oven for 7 – 10 minutes or until lightly browned and fragrant. Let cool.

Place the chunks of trout in the bowl of a food processor. Add the sour cream, cream cheese, onion, horseradish, lemon juice and cayenne pepper. Pulse several times to form a chunky purée. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. The pâté can be prepared to this point a day or two in advance. Wrap it well and refrigerate.

Thinly slice the bottom of the endive off and carefully separate the leaves. Wash and let air dry on top of paper towels or a clean linen towel. Once dry, roll up the paper or linen towel with the endives inside, place in a ziplock bag and refrigerate for crisper leaves.

Drop a rounded teaspoon of the pâté into the cup of each leaf, top with finely grated lemon zest and press a walnut piece on top. Arrange lovingly on a platter and serve immediately.

NOTE: You can also serve the pâté on fresh crisp apple slices or surround the bowl of pâté with slices of whole grain toast. If the pâté has been refrigerated, all of the flavors bloom when it is a little more at room temperature.

Serve with LOVE and enjoy!

Brownies!

July 4, 2012 by Mary Frances 4 Comments

I thought you might need this recipe for your picnic today, perhaps?

I’ve been told I make the best brownies. You can decide for yourself. These are easy and delicious, but it is always about the quality of the ingredients you use. And that goes for cooking anything! I try to use the BEST chocolate I can get my hands on, Mexican vanilla, which I adore, (I bought several bottles of it when we were on a family vacation there. People go there all the time, so ask your friends to bring you back a bottle if they’re going. It’s easy to find, they even sell it at the airport!), high quality unsalted butter and the freshest walnuts. (Keep your nuts well wrapped in ziplock bags in the freezer and they will never go rancid.)

It is important to melt your chocolate and butter together, but not completely. Remove from the microwave with still some chunks of chocolate and stir rapidly. They will finish melting on their own and you will not have hurt the chemical composition of the butter and chocolate by overheating. In my relatively new microwave, I do two rounds of 30 seconds on high heat and stir in between. But not all microwaves are the same. You may want to do two rounds at a lower power setting.

Two are two other important things to remember. Beat well after adding each egg. After adding the second egg, beat to achieve a shiny look and consistency and then beat in your salt thoroughly. The last thing you add is the flour, nuts and vanilla, and you don’t want to beat too much when mixing that in. The other important thing to remember is to not over bake them. 22 – 25 minutes is perfect in my oven. Baking them too long will not give you the soft, luscious, fudgey interior.

Enjoy!!

BEST BROWNIES
– makes 16

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate (I use Scharffen Berger), cut into chunks
8 tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus a little more for greasing pan, cut into tablespoons
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt (French grey salt is the best)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup of coarsely chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine chocolate and butter in a medium bowl and microwave on high for 30 seconds. Remove and stir and decide whether to microwave for another 30 seconds or keep stirring until all of the chocolate is melted and the mixture is silky smooth. Meanwhile, butter an 8 1/2-inch-square baking pan.

Stir the sugar into the chocolate mixture. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add your pinch of salt and beat until shiny and smooth. Add flour, vanilla and walnuts and stir to incorporate – no traces of flour should remain, but do not over stir.

Pour batter mixture into pan, and smooth out evenly. Bake 20 to 30 minutes, or until set and barely firm in the middle. Cool on a rack before cutting into 16 squares.

Beautiful shiny batter.

Right before going into the oven.

Date bars!

December 18, 2011 by Mary Frances 6 Comments

If you like dates, you will love this little bar cookie. It’s easy to make and nice to have in your repertoire. Cut your bars skinny. My mother used to say, “Make your cookies on the small side, because your guests and family will want to sample all of them and you just shouldn’t eat so much!”

DATE BARS
Makes 24 bars

2 large eggs
1 cup of powdered sugar
1 tbs. melted unsalted butter
1/4 cup cake flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup chopped dates
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp vanilla
More sifted powdered sugar to roll the bars in

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8” or 9” square pan. I use a 9” glass Pyrex pan.

Beat 2 eggs a long time until very light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and melted butter.

Sift together the cake flour, salt and baking powder and add gradually to egg mixture on a low speed. Then add the vanilla, dates and nuts. Stir well. Pour evenly into your prepared pan and bake for approximately 25 minutes, until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool completely. Cut into 24 bars and roll each one in powdered sugar. Store in wax paper lined tin. Make sure the tin closes tight!

Weeknight entertaining

September 20, 2011 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

Weeknight entertaining is easy to do if you plan a little bit ahead. We enjoy seeing our friends in the city during the week as we are usually in the country on the weekends. So on the weekend, I knew my good friend MB was coming for dinner on Monday night. On Saturday, I started marinating my chicken, I roasted and peeled my golden beets for the salad and toasted the walnuts. Easy. Here’s my menu:

APPETIZERS
A platter of sliced soprasetta, thin breadsticks, fresh fennel sticks, a little bowl of basil olive oil with salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice, pistachio nuts, Siracha peas and a large square of Spanakopita from the Greek store, warmed and cut into four.

DINNER
Baby spinach salad with roasted golden beets, toasted walnuts, goat cheese and a sherry vinaigrette (wash and chill spinach, cut beets, arrange all, make vinaigrette & drizzle)
Buttermilk roasted chicken (all your work was done on Saturday)
Corn on the cob (easy to roast in their husks, 350 degree oven for 25 – 30 minutes)
Tomato, mozzerella and basil with olive oil, salt and pepper (easy – just wash, slice and arrange)

DESSERT
Baklava with fresh strawberries (wash and dry berries, cut store-bought Baklava)

I wanted this dinner to be casual, easy and serve some of the freshness that is left from the farms upstate. I’d say I succeeded! All 4 of us were content and happy. You may think why salad/salad with the beets and tomatoes but the beet salad was served as a first course and the tomatoes and mozzerella were served with the meal and it didn’t feet that way. Both were delicious. Besides, I didn’t want a plate with just corn and chicken on it for the main meal. This chicken is my son Zach’s favorite. Try it and you’ll know why. Those of you that have young teenagers at home can even put this in the oven for you when you’re on your way home from work. I used to instruct Zach to do this over the phone when we still lived in Jersey.