Keep in mind that you can turn a simple meal into something a little more elegant by serving the food in courses. Doing so will prolong the meal and give everyone the sense that you went to much more effort than you actually did. A light cocktail or aperitif—even the nonalcoholic limeade—will perk up the appetite and enhance almost any meal.
Tapenade is a southern French olive spread that makes a delicious hors d’oeuvre on little pieces of toast. Traditionally made in a mortar and pestle, tapenade is a snap to make, provided you start out with pitted olives and use a food processor. Don’t overwork the olives and turn the tapenade into a stiff paste; it should have the consistency of pickle relish. Tapenade often contains capers (in fact, the word “tapenade” is derived from an old dialect meaning “capers”), but this version contains raisins instead. The raisins contribute sweetness—a welcome counterpoint to the saltiness of the olives—though admittedly a bit of an anomaly.
Makes 8 hors d’oeuvre servings
½ cup raisins, soaked in just enough water to cover, for 30 minutes
¾ pound pitted black olives, such as Niçoise
French bread toasts, to serve
Drain the raisins and puree them in a food processor with about a third of the olives. Add the rest of the olives and pulse until the mixture has the consistency of fine pickle relish. Serve on toasted French bread.
These make a great emergency hors d’oeuvre if all you have in the house is a chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano. You’ll also need a nonstick baking sheet or, better yet, a sheet pan lined with a silicone mat.
Makes 8 hors d’oeuvre servings
4 cups (½ pound) finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Divide the cheese into thirty mounds on a nonstick or silicone-lined sheet pan and gently flatten the mounds with the back of a spoon until they measure about 2 inches in diameter for flat rounds or 3 inches in diameter for tuiles, which are curved fricos. Bake until lightly browned, 5 to 10 minutes. Let the fricos cool slightly, gently remove them from the sheet pan with a spatula, and transfer to a plate, or for tuiles, a rolling pin or bottle.
This makes a quick hors d’oeuvre and is especially easy if you happen to have everything in the house. The most important ingredient is, of course, the cheese. Try virtually any good hard cheese, such as Gruyère, Emmental, Gouda (preferably aged), Cheddar (English or American), or Comté. Just about any type of cracker will work here—use your favorite type.
Makes 8 hors d’oeuvre servings
4 cups (½ pound) hard cheese
24 crackers
2 teaspoons chopped fresh or dried thyme or marjoram (optional)
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Slice the cheese and place it on the crackers. Sprinkle with the herbs and slide into the oven. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve immediately.
These little cheese puffs have become the hors d’oeuvre du jour. Fortunately they are easy to make. Traditionally made with Gruyère, this version calls for Parmigiano-Reggiano since it’s drier and makes the gougères lighter. The only scary part of these is they require using a pastry bag which, admittedly, takes a little practice.
Makes about 40 bite-sized puffs
½ cup (1 stick) butter, sliced
1 cup water
¼ teaspoon salt, plus a pinch
1 cup flour
7 large eggs, or more as needed
About 2 cups (¼ pound) Parmigiano-Reggiano, finely grated
Salt
Pepper
Put the butter in a saucepan with the water and salt. Bring to a simmer over high heat and dump in the flour. Work the mixture over the heat with a wooden spoon until the flour is mixed in and the dough pulls away from the sides of the saucepan, about 1 minute. Transfer to a mixing bowl and work in the eggs, one by one. The dough has the right number of eggs when a thick groove made with a wooden spoon closes in on itself. Work in the cheese and pepper.
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Fit a pastry bag with a ½-inch plain tip, fold down the upper part to make a cuff, and fill the bag halfway with the dough. (See box on pastry bags for more information.) Unfold the cuff and seal in the dough. Pipe out the cheese puffs into small mounds of about 1½ tablespoons each onto a nonstick sheet pan or a regular sheet pan lined with a sheet of parchment paper, leaving a couple of inches of space among them.
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until puffed and golden brown. Serve immediately.
To make the best guacamole, don’t mash the avocados. Instead cut them into chunks and chop them to the consistency you like, but I recommend leaving them a bit on the coarse side. Use chipotle chiles for heat (jalapeños can no longer be relied on for heat; it seems to have been bred out of them) and to provide an irresistible smoky element. You can buy chipotles dried and reconstitute them by soaking them in warm water for an hour, or you can buy them in little cans packed in adobo sauce, which should be rinsed off. Here I also flavor the guacamole with a roasted poblano chile but if you’re in a rush, leave this out. Of course guacamole is typically served with tortilla chips but consider also serving it with warm tortillas for people to roll up.
Makes 8 hors d’oeuvre servings
4 ripe avocados, preferably Hass
Juice of 1 lime
1 to 2 chipotle chiles, dried (soaked for 30 minutes in hot water) or canned in adobo sauce (adobo sauce rinsed off)
1 poblano chile, roasted (see box)
1 small bunch cilantro, chopped
Salt
Pepper
Cut around and through the length of the avocados all the way down to the pit. Rotate the two sides in opposing directions and pull them apart. Whack at the pit with a knife, give it a twist, and lift it out; discard the pit. Cut the avocado lengthwise into quarters and pull away the peel from each elongated wedge. Chop the avocados. Stem, seed, and chop the chiles. Combine the avocados and chiles and stir in the lime juice, chiles, and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper. Serve as soon as possible so the avocados don’t get dark.
Bell peppers and most chiles have a thin, shiny and translucent skin. To remove this skin, blacken the peppers completely, directly on a gas flame. Turn the peppers as needed to get them to blacken evenly. Make sure they’re blackened on all sides. If at any point the peppers begin to turn white, you’re overdoing it and turning the peppers into ash.
If you don’t have a gas stove, you can use a broiler or an electric stove. To use an electric stove, bend down an uncoated metal coat hanger hanger, place it directly on the stove coils, and rest the peppers and chiles on the hanger. Turn and blacken evenly on all sides.
Avocados with Hazelnut Vinaigrette
When buying hazelnut oil, be sure to buy the kind made from roasted nuts (see nut oils). You can substitute walnut oil for hazelnut oil, or simply use the classic vinaigrette.
Makes 4 hors d’oeuvre servings
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon hazelnut oil, made from roasted nuts
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, such as canola
Salt
Pepper
2 ripe avocados, preferably Hass
To make the vinaigrette, spoon the mustard into a small bowl and whisk in the hazelnut oil. Whisk in the vinegar and the vegetable oil, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Cut around and through the length of the avocados all the way down to the pit. Rotate the two sides in opposing directions and pull them apart. Whack at the pit with a knife, give it a twist, and lift it out; discard the pit. Pull the peel away from each half. Set the halves on individual plates. Spoon the vinaigrette into each of the halves and serve.
While avocado on toast may seem a little prosaic, for the uninitiated it’s a revelation. Be sure to buy Hass avocados, which are smaller and have rougher skin than the large, smooth-skinned Fuerte variety. You may have trouble finding a ripe avocado, in which case, you’ll have to postpone this dish. A hard avocado ripens in about two days. A ripe avocado should barely yield under pressure and should be somewhat firmer than a ripe peach.
Makes 4 hors d’oeuvre servings
4 slices crusty French or Italian bread
4 tablespoons butter (optional)
2 ripe Hass avocados
Salt
Pepper
Place the bread slices in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast on both sides under the broiler. If you like, spread butter on the toasts.
Cut around and through the length of the avocados all the way down to the pit. Rotate the two sides in opposing directions and pull them apart. Whack at the pit with a knife, give it a twist, and lift it out; discard the pit. Cut the avocado lengthwise into quarters and pull away the peel from each elongated wedge.
Put half an avocado—two quarters—on each piece of toast and spread it firmly with a knife. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.
Leeks are perhaps the most delicate members of the onion family. Cold leeks tossed in mustardy vinaigrette make a delightful hors d’oeuvre or first course.
Makes 4 hors d’oeuvre servings
12 medium leeks, or 20 small leeks, white part only
Salt
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar (tarragon vinegar is worth trying, but not essential)
½ cup canola oil
Pepper
Fill a large pot with water and add a small handful of salt (Don’t worry about all the salt; it’s going to be rinsed off.) Bring to a boil. Add the leeks and simmer, uncovered, for about 20 minutes, or until a knife slides easily in and out of the base of one of the leeks.
Meanwhile, to prepare the vinaigrette, combine the mustard and vinegar in a small bowl and whisk in the oil a tablespoon at a time. Don’t worry if the sauce separates since it’s all going to be tossed together with the leeks anyway. Season the sauce with pepper. (It usually doesn’t need salt because of the mustard.)
Drain the leeks in a colander and immediately rinse with cold water. Gently press the leeks between your hands to extract any water and place the leeks in a mixing bowl. Pour over the vinaigrette and, using your hands, toss gently. Arrange on individual plates and serve.
Variation:
Try adding a few teaspoons of a nut oil, such as hazelnut or walnut oil, to the vinaigrette.
Many recipes call simply for the whites of the leek but, most of the time, you can get by using an inch or so of the green. In any case, cut off the greens leaving an inch of pale green attached to the whites. Cut off the hairy looking root end of the leek and cut the leeks in half lengthwise. Rinse out any sand that may have gotten trapped in the leeks by holding the leeks under cold running water. Hold the root end up so the sand doesn’t get driven farther down into the leek.
The only hard part to making this dish is slicing the celeriac. It’s best to do this with an Asian vegetable slicer. Once you get the celeriac sliced, you need to slice the slices into julienne (little sticks), no big deal as long as you have a sharp and heavy knife. It’s always a treat to make this with homemade mayonnaise, but here we just add egg yolk and fresh oil to store-bought mayonnaise, which gives the impression of fresh.
The name of this classic dish is confusing because it implies that a rémoulade sauce is being used on the celeriac. In fact, a very mustardy mayonnaise (actually a sauce Dijon) is used instead.
Makes 4 hors d’oeuvre servings
1 large celeriac or 2 medium celeriac, about 1¼ pounds total weight
½ cup store-bought mayonnaise
1 egg yolk
½ cup vegetable oil, such as canola, or extra virgin olive oil
Water or fresh lemon juice (optional)
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Salt
Pepper
Peel the celeriac with a sharp paring knife. Slice about 1⁄16 inch thick with a vegetable slicer. Stack about four slices at a time and slice them into thin little sticks, the same width as they have thickness.
Make the sauce in a bowl large enough to hold the celeriac. Spoon the mayonnaise into the bowl. Beat in the egg yolk, then gently and slowly stir in the oil with a whisk. If the mayonnaise starts to get very thick (which can cause it to break), add a tablespoon or two of water or lemon juice. Whisk in the mustard and season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss the celeriac with the mayonnaise and put on individual plates. Serve within a few hours.
These make a great emergency hors d’oeuvre because they only take minutes to prepare. Buy a nice crispy baguette for making the toasts; ideally the bread will not be too fluffy or create slices that have holes the radish slices will fall through.
Makes 4 hors d’oeuvre servings
1 crispy baguette
8 radishes, preferably French breakfast radishes (white on one end, red on the other)
4 tablespoons butter, slightly softened
Coarse salt
Cut the baguette at an angle (so the slices are longer) into slices about ¼ inch thick. Arrange the slices in a single layer on a baking sheet. Slide the slices under the broiler and brown them on one side only.
Cut the radishes as thinly as you can (a vegetable slicer works well for this). Smear the butter over the toasts on the browned side and arrange the radish slices on top. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Serve immediately.
What will make these hors d’oeuvres outstanding, and not as banal as they might seem, is real Roquefort cheese instead of a generic blue cheese. You can also use Gorgonzola or Stilton.
Makes 18 sticks (about 6 hors d’oeuvre servings)
½ pound Roquefort cheese
¼ pound whipped cream cheese
6 stalks of celery
Use a wooden spoon or the paddle blade of a stand mixer to work together the cheese and cream cheese until smooth.
Cut the leaves and tops off the celery and cut the stalks into 3-inch pieces. Use a knife to fill half of each of the pieces with about 2 teaspoons of the cheese mixture. Refrigerate until cool before serving.
Slow-Roasted Cherry Tomato–Garlic Toasts
While this dish requires forethought—the tomatoes have to go in the oven 3 hours in advance—there is very little work involved, except cutting the tomatoes in half, a chore that can be done while watching television or something equally brainless.
Makes 16 toasts (about 4 hors d’oeuvre servings)
2 pints cherry tomatoes
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
1 baguette
2 cloves garlic, peeled but left whole
Preheat the oven to 300°F. Sprinkle a sheet pan with water and place a second sheet pan on top. This prevents the tomatoes from burning.
Cut the tomatoes in half through their equators and put them cut side up on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with the salt and oil and toss right on the sheet pan. Spread out on the sheet pan in a single layer.
Bake for 3 hours, or until the tomatoes shrivel and dry out slightly—they should curl up and look a little wizened.
Cut the baguette on an angle (so the slices are longer) into sixteen ¼-inch slices. Broil them on one side to brown them. Rub the garlic cloves against the toasted side of the toasts to flavor them. Spread the tomatoes on the toasts. Serve.
If you really want to make this dish in no time, just pop open a can. Otherwise you can cook dried beans, which means this is no longer a quick dish. But if you have the time (about 2 hours), there’s really very little work involved and the beans will have a nicer flavor and texture. Dried beans are usually soaked overnight, but this isn’t necessary; it just cuts the cooking time by about 30 minutes. When cooking beans, don’t add the salt at the beginning as this can make them tough. On the other hand, if you add it at the very end, it won’t get absorbed into the beans. So a good compromise is to add it halfway through the cooking. You can serve the beans hot, as a simple salad, or as suggested here, atop little toasts. Bruschetta is pronounced “broo-SKEH-tah.”
Makes 4 hors d’oeuvre servings
1 cup dried beans, such as navy, cannellini, borlotti, or other white bean
Water
2 cloves garlic, peeled but left whole
10 sprigs fresh thyme
1 imported bay leaf
1 bunch parsley
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Pepper
12 slices baguette, cut on an angle, toasted
Put the beans in a pot with enough water to cover by about 3 inches. Add the garlic. Tie together the thyme, bay leaf, and parsley with a piece of string and submerge the bundle in the beans. Simmer until a test bean is soft to the tooth, about an hour or two. Thirty minutes into the cooking, add the salt and add water as necessary if the beans begin to dry out. The goal is to have all the water evaporate at the instant the beans are done.
Transfer the beans to a mixing bowl and mix in the oil. Season to taste with pepper and let cool. Add more salt if necessary. Toast the bread on both sides under the broiler. Spoon the beans onto the toasts and serve.
When the warm weather comes along, I could eat this dish every day of the week. I never tire of it.
Lovers of prosciutto and melon are often confronted with the problem of finding a decent melon. Oddly, it doesn’t seem to matter what time of year it is, a melon can be stunning or boring in August as easily as in December. There are a couple of hints that might be helpful. When picking out a smooth-skinned melon, feel for one that has a tacky rind—it will be slightly sticky from the extra sugar it contains. If the melon doesn’t have a smooth rind, smell the base of the stem end and compare the fragrance of the melons. Choose the most aromatic.
Picking out the prosciutto is somewhat easier. Use prosciutto di Parma or prosciutto San Danielle, or try some of the Spanish hams that have recently come onto the market. Worth investigating also are American hams from Kentucky or Tennessee.
While this recipe is for an hors d’oeuvre, if you’re a little more generous, prosciutto and melon also makes a great first course.
Makes 4 hors d’oeuvre servings
1 medium melon, such as cantaloupe or honeydew, chilled
1 pound prosciutto, thinly sliced (but not paper thin)
Cut the melon in half and scoop out the seeds. Cut the halves into wedges so you end up with a total of twelve to sixteen wedges with the rind on. (If you like, you can also remove the rind, but this isn’t necessary and isn’t usually done.) Place the wedges on plates and drape the prosciutto over. Serve right away or the prosciutto will dry out.
Variation:
Prosciutto is also delicious wrapped around figs. Count on ½ pound thinly sliced prosciutto for 16 figs (four each).
These bruschetta are popular in Tuscany as an antipasto. They also make a good first course or a pass-around hors d’oeuvre. There are several ways to approach these miniature toasts. The easiest (as shown in the photograph above) is to cut the cooked chicken livers in half and just arrange the halves on the toasts. Another method, most likely to be encountered in Tuscany, is to puree the livers with butter and spread on the toasts. Last, the French technique is to puree the livers with butter and then fold in beaten cream.
Makes 8 hors d’oeuvre servings
1 pound chicken livers
Salt
Pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup (1 stick) cold butter (optional)
1 cup whipping cream (optional)
16 slices baguette, toasted on both sides
Pat dry the chicken livers and season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a sauté pan over high heat until it barely begins to smoke. Quickly add the chicken livers, one by one (don’t crowd them) while standing back (they spatter). Brown for 2 to 3 minutes and turn the chicken livers over. Brown on the second side until the chicken livers feel firm to the touch and no longer fleshy, about 1 minute. Transfer to a paper towel–lined plate and allow to cool for about 5 minutes.
Method One: Slice the chicken livers in half lengthwise and arrange the halves on the toasts. Sprinkle with salt.
Method Two: Cut the butter into slices and puree it in a food processor with the chicken livers, about 1 minute, or until the mixture is completely homogeneous. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let cool to room temperature if it’s still hot. Spread on the toasts and serve.
Method Three: Puree the chicken livers with the butter as in Method Two. Beat the whipping cream to medium peaks (fluffy but still sagging off the whisk when lifted) and fold into the cooled chicken liver mixture. Refrigerate, tightly sealed with plastic wrap, for about an hour, until firm. Pass the toasts and let your guests help themselves to the chicken liver mousse.
The trick to a successful shrimp cocktail is to buy wild shrimp. The best ones are the so-called “pink” shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico and are harvested by American or Mexican shrimpers. If you can find shrimp with the heads on, be sure to use them, provided they’re wild. Shrimp is much tastier when it has the head on and you can suck out the flavorful juices encased in the shell.
Makes 4 hors d’oeuvre servings
20 large shell-on shrimp, preferably with heads
½ cup ketchup
½ cup chili sauce
3 tablespoons grated horseradish from a jar or from a 2-inch piece of fresh horseradish
1½ teaspoons Tabasco sauce or more to taste
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice or more to taste
4 lemon wedges
Bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Add the shrimp and boil for 2 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse with cold water. Peel the shrimp and, if you wish, devein them. If you’re using head-on shrimp, be sure to leave the head attached. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or until well chilled.
Combine the ketchup, chili sauce, horseradish, Tabasco, and lemon juice in a bowl. Divide the sauce among four martini glasses or wine glasses and hook the shrimp around. Garnish each glass with a lemon wedge and serve.
The oysters here aren’t really barbecued, or even grilled, for that matter. They’re just warmed on a hot grill to get them to open.
Makes 4 to 6 hors d’oeuvre servings
2 dozen oysters
Lemon wedges
Hot sauce
Fire up a charcoal grill so you have enough coals to cover the bottom of the barbecue, which will give you plenty of rooms to spread out the oysters. The temperature isn’t terribly critical although it should not be too hot. The critical thing is to take the oysters off the grill as they begin to release liquid around the edges of the top shell, usually after about 5 minutes. The amount of heat doesn’t matter as it will only affect how long the oysters take to open.
When the grill is hot, arrange the oysters in a single layer on the grill grate. Grill for about 5 minutes, or until liquid starts to sizzle along the underside of the top shells.
Serve with lemon wedges and hot sauce, letting your guests pull away the top shells with their fingers. If the shells are too hot, provide kitchen towels or cloth napkins.
Oysters never fail to make an exciting hors d’oeuvre. They come in amazing variety with connoisseurs forever arguing the merits of Malpeques, Fisher Islands, and Cotuits, to name a few. Oysters are best shucked at the last minute and served on plates or a platter of crushed ice. The only accompaniment need be lemon or mignonette sauce, if you like it.
Makes 6 to 8 hors d’oeuvre servings
¼ cup white wine
¼ cup white wine vinegar
1 shallot, minced
20 black peppercorns
3 dozen oysters, shucked and on the half shell
Combine the white wine, vinegar, and shallot in a small bowl. Crush the peppercorns on a cutting board by rocking over them with a saucepan. Add the peppercorns to the sauce and let the sauce sit for 30 minutes up to overnight, to infuse the sauce with the flavor of the shallot. Pass around the sauce with a small spoon to allow guests to serve themselves. (Not everyone will partake of sauce.) Serve the oysters on a mound of cracked ice or some seaweed, which you can get from the fish store.
Variations:
If you’re feeling very extravagant, try topping each oyster with a rounded teaspoon of caviar. Or serve oysters on the half shell with Pernod and use a clean eyedropper to put exactly 1 drop of Pernod (or Ricard) into each oyster.
Traditional Iranian and Russian caviars have become outrageously expensive (there’s a moratorium on beluga), but fortunately new caviars are appearing on the market all the time with some, while never cheap, at least not astronomically priced.
The most famous caviars—osetra, sevruga, and beluga—each come from a different species of sturgeon. Royal Siberian caviar comes from the Siberian sturgeon, farm-raised in Florida. It is by no means cheap. Hackleback (from wild hackleback sturgeon in Tennessee and Illinois), Chataluga (from wild paddlefish), Alverta (white sturgeon, northern California), and Royal Transmontanus (white sturgeon, farm raised in California) are a few alternatives to the usual Iranian or Russian caviars.
By far the most luxurious way to serve caviar is as a main course. Blinis are the best accompaniment since their soft texture does not interfere with the texture of the caviar. Instead of buying a large tin and letting people help themselves, it sometimes makes more sense to buy individual tins of caviar for each person. In this way everyone is sure to get the same amount. (I once weighed out the caviar for a dinner with an analytic balance.) Anywhere from 1 to 4 ounces is appropriate for one first-course serving, or, in the case of a 4-ounce tin, one main-course serving. Garnishes of any sort are superfluous.
Caviar can also be served as a first course as an accompaniment to oysters. (Try putting a small dollop on each oyster.) Even when serving caviar as a first course, blinis are a good idea. Avoid crackers because their texture interferes with that of the caviar.
The main difference between blinis and “regular” pancakes results from their being made with yeast instead of the baking soda that we’re used to. Blinis are also made with buckwheat flour, but you can skip this if you don’t have any on hand.
Makes blinis for 4 hors d’oeuvre servings
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon flour, for testing the yeast
2 cups all-purpose flour, or 1½ cups all-purpose flour combined with ½ cup buckwheat flour
4 eggs
1 cup milk, warmed to body temperature (it should feel neither hot nor cold)
4 tablespoons melted butter for the batter (optional)
3 tablespoons of butter for cooking the blinis
Combine the yeast, the sugar and the testing flour with 2 teaspoons of warm water. Let sit in a warm place for 15 minutes. At the end of this time, the mixture should have started to expand.
While the yeast is being tested (called “proofing” in professional parlance), combine the two flours if you’re using the buckwheat flour and work in the eggs with a whisk. Gradually work in the milk with a whisk so the flour forms a smooth paste (adding all the milk at once will result in lumps). Stir in the melted butter. Cover with a wet towel (don’t let the towel touch the dough) and let rise in a warm place for an hour or two, until doubled in volume.
Heat one tablespoon of butter in a wide skillet or non-stick pan and ladle in pancakes of the dough. Cook over medium heat until bubbles rise up on the surface of the blinis and then pop, after about 5 minutes. Flip over and cook for about 2 minutes on the other side.
This recipe contains none of the raw egg yolk served with beef tartare but relies on tartar sauce instead to provide the right accent.
Makes 8 hors d’oeuvre servings
½ pound salmon fillet with skin, pin bones, and dark patches removed
¼ pound smoked salmon
½ cup Tartar Sauce
To Serve
6 tablespoons capers, drained
Whole-grain mustard
Regular mustard
Toasted baguette slices
Chop the salmon fillet and smoked salmon by hand or in a food processor to the consistency of hamburger meat. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the tartar sauce. Arrange in chilled glasses with enough room for guests to stir in condiments. Pass the capers, mustards, and the toasts.
Keep in mind when making steak tartare that hamburger meat isn’t what it says it is. Instead, butchers describe their meat—ground chuck, ground round, ground sirloin—based on how much fat it contains. To avoid this, and to guarantee that your meat is fresh, pick out a cut of meat in the case (sirloin is good) and ask the butcher to grind it. If you don’t have access to a butcher, select ground sirloin that is well before its expiration or sell-by date. It is best to use meat from a small farmer; such meat is less likely to be contaminated by E. coli.
Makes 4 hors d’oeuvres servings
1¼ pounds top sirloin or round, preferably from a small organic farm
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 small bunch parsley, finely chopped
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
To Serve
6 toasts, cut into triangles
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 hard-boiled eggs (see box on boiling eggs), peeled and chopped
½ cup capers, rinsed
Worcestershire sauce
Have the butcher grind the meat with the fine setting on the grinder. Place the meat in a large bowl. Stir in the chopped onion, parsley, mustard, egg yolks, salt, and pepper.
Place a dollop of the tartare on each of four plates and divide the toasts among the plates. Pass the red onion, hard-boiled eggs, capers, and Worcestershire sauce for your guests to mix into their servings of the tartare.
To elevate these sandwiches from the banal, use homemade mayonnaise. Possible additions include paprika, olives, chopped gherkins (cornichons), and capers. These make a great snack.
Makes 4 sandwiches
6 hard-boiled eggs (see box on boiling eggs)
⅓ cup homemade mayonnaise
Salt
Pepper
8 slices good-quality white bread
Peel the eggs and chop them to the consistency of hamburger relish. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the mayonnaise. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread the egg mixture over half the slices of bread and add the second slice. If you like, cut into quarters either in squares or diagonally.
Variation:
To make deviled egg sandwiches, add cayenne pepper to taste to the egg mixture.
