Stuffed Gougeres, Always a Winner

As usual, I made gougeres for new years because a) I can make them ahead, freeze and reheat, b) I can serve them plain or slice them open and stuff them with lots of items such as egg salad, so they’re incredibly versatile and c) everyone loves them. This is a bonus recipe for any busy home cook.

HERB AND CHEESE GOUGERES (CHOUX PUFFS)

• 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons water

• 1/4 pound unsalted butter, cut into chunks

• 1 cup all purpose flour

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 4 large eggs

• 1-1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh mixed herbs, or 1-1/2 teaspoons dried

• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Gruyere cheese

• pinch cayenne pepper

• egg glaze: 1 large egg mixed with 2 teaspoons water, optional

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cook the water and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. When the butter has melted, add the flour and salt all at once. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture is well blended and begins to come away from the sides of the pan. Remove pan from the heat and let the mixture cool for 2-3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, blending thoroughly after each addition. Add the herbs, cheese and cayenne pepper and blend them in thoroughly. Drop 1-inch mounds of dough from a teaspoon onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Leave space between the mounds for the puffs to rise. For a shiny surface on the puffs, lightly brush the tops of the mounds with some of the egg wash. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the puffs are lightly brown and crispy. Lower the heat to 300 degrees and bake for another 5-6 minutes. Turn off the heat but leave the puffs in the oven for 3-4 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature. Or cut them open and fill them. Makes about 60

#gougeres #gougères #horsd #horsdoeuvres #horsdoeuvre #newyears #newyearseve #cocktailnibbles #newyear2025

Naan Pizzas with Peas

Ed and I always host New Years Eve for our cousins and my brother and sister-in-law. It’s been a long long family tradition and years ago we all realized that we would rather have a day of nibbles rather than a sit down dinner. So we have one round at about 2:00 and another in the evening. (Dessert much later.) Works for us. I always try some new recipe or two but also serve some old favorites. One that we always like are Naan Vegetable Pizzas. There are a couple of versions on this website, all similar but it always depends on what’s on hand in my house. Recently I didn’t have cooked carrots and cauliflower but I did have some frozen peas! Made these easy hors d’oeuvres even easier! Go for it! Everyone loved it at our New Year’s feast.

Naan Vegetable Pizzas with Peas

• 2 Naan breads

• 1/2 cup Mango chutney

• 1/2 cup peas

• 1 teaspoon curry powder

• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

• 1/4 cup grated Gouda cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the two Naan breads on the cookie sheet. Spread equal amounts of the chutney on each bread. Scatter the peas on top. Sprinkle with the curry powder. Scatter the mozzarella cheese and Gouda cheese over the vegetables. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the vegetables are hot, the cheese has melted and pizzas look toasty. Cut into pieces and serve. Makes about 16-18 pieces

#naan #naanpizza #newyear2025 #horsdoeuvres

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13Sue Freedland, Dana L Shrager and 11 others

Smoked Salmon Tartare

Are you watching the presidential debate tonight? It might be a circus. It might be frustrating. It might be maddening. But noshing on a few goodies (and maybe a drink) will help your mood! Try these:

SMOKED SALMON “TARTARE”

1/4 pound smoked salmon pieces
2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
a few drops of olive oil
few drops of lemon juice
Crackers

Chop the smoked salmon. Add the red onion and dill and mix thoroughly. Sprinkle in a few drops of olive oil and lemon juice and mix. For a dairy hors d’oeuvre, spread the crackers with cream cheese, sour cream, crème fraiche or mascarpone cheese. Top with some of the salmon mixture. (Or place a small spoonful of sour cream, etc. on top of the salmon). For a parve hors d’oeuvre, place the salmon mixture directly on the crackers

Makes 16-24

Spinach and Cheese Bourekas

Many years ago I learned to make spinach pie, loaded with crumbled feta cheese and seasoned with fresh dill. My family absolutely loved it, so it was — still is — a regular item on my menu. It’s almost always part of my break-the-fast feast.

Most of the time I make spinach pie using buttered layers of phyllo pastry, which makes for a crispy, delicate crust for the savory spinach filling below.

But we like the dish so much that on Passover, I top the pie with buttered matzo.

At one time I used the filling for spanakopitas, making spinach-filled layers of phyllo dough into small triangles. These were perfect as hors d’oeuvre and I would make dozens at a time and stock them in the freezer.

That was a LOT of work!

This year, thanks to inspiration from my Facebook friend Dana Shrager (@Danastable), who posted her recipe for spinach and cheese bourekas as a treat for Purim, I realized that I could make those wonderful hors d’oeuvres again using puff pastry, as she suggested!

SO MUCH EASIER!

I made a whole bunch of these, using my recipe for spinach pie as filling but using puff pastry. All I can say is that I will never go back to phyllo dough for these hors d’oeuvres. My tasters gobbled these down and I served them again to everyone’s absolute delight.

Thanks Dana, for your suggestion to use puff pastry and also that these, triangular shape that they are, would be perfect for Purim. Yes. They are indeed!

Here’s the recipe for spinach and cheese filling and instructions on how to make the triangle bourekas.

Spinach and Cheese Bourekas

• 1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 medium onion, chopped

• 1 large egg

• 4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

• 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh dill

• freshly ground black pepper to taste

• 2 sheets puff pastry, defrosted

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Squeeze as much water out of the spinach as possible and set aside. Heat the olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the spinach and mix well. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the egg, feta cheese, Parmesan cheese, dill and pepper. Mix well and set aside. Using one sheet at a time, roll the puff pastry on a lightly floured board slightly thinner (I did 12”x9”). Cut each sheet on the long side into 4 equal strips (3”). Cut the strips into thirds (making 12 pieces). Place equal amounts of the filling in the center of each piece of dough. Fold the dough to enclose the filling and make a triangle. Press the edges to seal them. If necessary, wet the edges of the pieces before folding, OR, press the edges down with the tines of a fork. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before baking. Bake for about 15-18 minutes or until browned and crispy.

Makes 24

Scallion Cakes - a Three-fer Celebration

Scallion Cake

It’s almost Chinese New Year and also Ed’s birthday and also Super Bowl. I can think of no food that would be more perfect for all three occasions than Scallion cake. Crispy. Delicious. Freezable.

SCALLION CAKES

• 3 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 cup boiling water

• 1/3 cup cold water

• vegetable oil

• 4-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

• 3 scallions, finely chopped

Place the flour in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the boiling water and mix at medium speed until a rough dough has formed. Let cool for 2-3 minutes. Pour in the cold water and mix until the dough forms into a ball. Knead for 4-5 minutes or until smooth and elastic (you can do all this in a food processor). Divide the dough into 6 pieces. Using a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface, roll one piece of dough into a 10-inch circle. Brush the dough with about 1-1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil. Sprinkle with about 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Sprinkle with about one tablespoon of the chopped scallion. Roll the circle jelly roll style. Form the rolled dough into a coil. Press down on the coil to flatten it slightly. Roll the coil into circles about 1/8-inch thick (don’t worry if some of the dough breaks and the scallions pop through slightly). Repeat with the remaining dough, salt and scallions. Keep the circles separated. Heat a small amount of vegetable oil in a skillet large enough to hold the circles. Cover the pan and cook each circle, one at a time, over medium-high heat for about 2 minutes per side, or until browned and crispy. Add more vegetable oil to the pan as necessary for each circle of dough. Drain the fried circles on paper towels. Cut each circle into 8 wedges. Serve hot. Makes 48 pieces

Mushroom Chips

It doesn’t get easier than this: one of the hors d’oeuvre I’ll be serving on New Year’s Eve.

Mushroom chips

• 4 large king oyster mushrooms

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• kosher salt or sea salt

• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Slice the mushrooms about 1/8-inch thick. Place the mushrooms on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush both sides with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and thyme. Roast for about 20 minutes, turning them over after the first 10 minutes.

Makes 4 servings

Meatball Nosh

I had a little cranberry sauce and a bottle of chili sauce and a small amount of ground beef. Not enough to use for dinner, so I made a version of the Elegant but Easy Cookbook recipe for cocktail meatballs (Marion Burros and Lois Levine). I didn’t have the recipe in front of me but remembered it was little meatball cooked in a combo of grape jelly and chili sauce. The version I made was delicious and just enough for a nice little nosh for 2. I made a fraction of the recipe below.

Gonna make these for New Year’s, when we have hors d’oeuvres at different points during the day (no actual dinner).

Cocktail Meatballs: heat 1-1/2 cups cranberry sauce, 1-1/2 cups chili sauce, 1/4 cup orange juice and 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger in a saucepan. Stir to blend the ingredients. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat to low. In a bowl, mix 1 pound ground beef (or use turkey or veal) with 1 egg and enough breadcrumbs to bind the mixture well. Make 1-inch meatballs and place them in the sauce. Cook for 35-40 minutes, spooning the sauce over the meatballs occasionally and turning them to coat all sides.

Makes 8 servings