Hors d'oeuvre hoarder

We bring you quick, useful and fun cooking inspiration 3 days a week from places we like from around the web, in 3 minutes or less.

Let’s get to it, clock’s tickin’!

It’s Party Season!

We thought a little hors d’oeuvre inspiration was in order.

• If you’re looking for something different out of deviled eggs, try this pimento cheese-stuffed devil eggs mashup.

• It ain’t a real party without a good baked brie. This French onion baked brie is yet another delicious mashup.

• If you want to drive yourself crazy making pigs in the blanket from scratch, more power to you. But I’ll stick with the easy version.

• Even if you don’t celebrate Hanukkah (starting tomorrow!), latkes are delicious. You can gussy them up however you like (apple sauce, sour cream, smoked salmon, or even caviar if you want to get real fancy). This is a good guide for latke newbies.¹

• My favorite chicken liver pate. Be warned, this recipe requires a sous vide setup, some canning jars, and some obscure liquors. You can sub in some less obscure liquors, but the equipment is non-negotiable. 100% worth the effort though.²

Extremely important and very official notes:

1. This latke recipe has 1 teaspoon of kosher salt for a pound and a half of potatoes. My rule of potato seasoning (season more than you think!) would suggest this isn’t enough. If you want a better way to think about the amount of salt: it should be from about 0.5% (for home cooking) and up to even 2% (for typical restaurant cooking) of the weight of your food. So if you have a kitchen scale, weigh the shredded potatoes and add about 0.5% - 1.5% of that weight in salt (depending on how salty you like things). You’ll end up with properly-seasoned latkes.

2. Chefsteps has both free recipes and recipes that require you to be a paying subscriber. This recipe is a free one, but it does require you sign up for a free account. If you’re interested in excellent, but slightly involved projects and you have a sous vide setup, it’s definitely useful.

Let us know what you tried (just reply)! More soon.

Your Salt Pig Pals