There's an App for That!

What’s a holiday season without cocktail parties? A drink or two here, chat with friends, spill some drinks, it’s all good. If you’re one of the brave ones hosting a get-together this season, thinking about what nibblies to prepare can be a chore, which is why the frozen appetizers aisle at the supermarket resembles the running of the bulls in Pamplona this time of the year. Granted, there are plenty of choices from the array of ready-for-the-oven festive snackers, and some ain’t too bad. I personally like President’s Choice vegetable samosas.
But if you’re like me, I like to mix store-bought and home-made. Even just one appetizer made by you, the host, can make the party so much warmer, and friends may even pretend to want to get the recipe. Cute. There are some easy ones you can do like Chicken Skewers with Melon (pictured above), Mini Wrap Apps (pictured below), or Baked Brie and Apricot Jam baked in puff pastry.











Speaking of puff pastry, my favourite go-to appetizer ingredient, here’s my recipe for Pastry Triangles with Chicken and Chorizo. I’ve tried it with different fillings, but I know this combination of barbecue chicken and Portuguese sausage is a definite winner. Tantalizingly sweet and piquant, these pastry pockets are great as appetizers before a sit-down dinner or as tasty treats for pecking throughout the evening.

Don’t overwhelm yourself. Make the filling ahead of time, or even better, make the pastries a few days in advance and freeze them. From your freezer and into the oven, you’ll have plenty of time to socialize with your friends and family.

Pastry Triangles with Chicken and Chorizo
For the filling:
3 skinless, boneless chicken thigh
¼ cup barbecue sauce
1 medium onion, diced (about ¼ inch)
1 medium carrot, diced (about ¼ inch)
1 stalk celery, diced (about ¼ inch)
¼ cup canned corn, drained
1 hot or sweet chorizo (Portuguese sausage)
2 Tbsp raisins, chopped
2 tsps tomato paste
2 Tbsps extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp paprika
¼ cup chicken stock (or water)
Salt
Pepper

For assembly:
1 pkg. frozen puff pastry, thawed out in the fridge.
egg wash (1 beaten egg + 2 Tbsp water)
flour (for dusting)
sesame seeds (for sprinkling)
poppy seeds (for sprinkling)
dried parsley (for sprinkling)

In a medium bowl, toss chicken in barbecue sauce and 1 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Marinate for at least 1hour and up to 1 day.

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Place chicken on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 min. Then, transfer chicken on a plate and let cool. Once cooled, shred the chicken meat into strands. Set aside. (This can be done 1 day ahead.)

Cut chorizo into quarters lengthwise, then cut into ¼ inch slices. Set aside.

Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large skillet. Sauté onion until translucent (about 2 min). Add diced carrots and diced celery. Saute until tender (about 5 min).

Add chorizo and cook for another 5 min.

Add paprika and tomato paste. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring continuously.

Pour chicken stock (or water) into the pan, scraping the bottom with a wooden spoon to loosen any sticky bits.

Add shredded chicken, raisins and corn. Cook, uncovered, for about 7-10 min. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer onto a plate and let cool.

Remove puff pastry from the package (pastry comes in 2 blocks. Use one block and leave the other in the fridge until ready to use).

On a lightly floured surface, roll out pastry into 12 inch square (about 1/8 inch thick). Flour the rolling pin to avoid pastry from sticking. (Don’t worry if it’s not a perfect square.)

With a pizza cutter (or a sharp knife), cut pastry into 4 inch squares. Brush edges of squares with the egg wash.

Place about 2 tablespoonful of cooled chicken filling onto each square. Lift one corner of the square and fold it onto the opposite corner to form a triangle. Pinch the edges with a fork to seal the pastry.

Brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle sesame seeds, poppy seeds and dried parsley. Place on a baking sheet.

On Learning

I spent last weekend with my friend Rona and looking back, I realized that our weekend had a theme: Learning

I learned about her family and about growing up in London, Ontario over dinner at a Japanese/Korean restaurant. We munched on agedashi - a crisp deep fried tofu appetizer - as she told me about her studies at York University. By the time she started on her zaru soba - cold buckwheat noodles - she had recounted her exploits in Europe, which were spicier than the Korean soup of tofu, kimchi, seafood and vegetables (sundubu) I had ordered so I will mention them here.

Rona and I share a love of scrabble, so a game or two of this fabulous word game was inevitable. Unabashedly, we sat at the kitchen table and started our Friday night word war. Here are two new words I learned: ewer, which is synonymous with jug or pitcher and ovoviviparous, which refers to egg-producing animals. (Did you know that xi and qi are words accepted in scrabble?)

The weekend of learning continued as we cooked together on Saturday night. We discovered that creating flavourful dishes doesn’t have to be complicated. We made a quick appetizer with pita bread and goat’s cheese topped with mesclun greens, grape tomatoes and mango (see recipe below). We paired this wih Chilean chardonnay, a lot of it.

Still at dinner, we learned to appreciate a new kind of pasta called permanente, (we inferred that it came from the word perm, as it permed hair) by cooking it simply: In a bowl we combined chopped capers, kalamata olives, lemon zest and juice, Dijon mustard, grated garlic and extra virgin olive oil. Then we added the boiled pasta with some of its water. We threw in some watercress and halved grape tomatoes, covered it with plastic wrap for 10 minutes to let the flavours meld. It was simple. It was light. It was good.


The weekend of learning culminated in a celebration of reading and books - Word on the Street. At this book fest, we learned about a few authors and their works as they shared selections from their new novels. We met Jeffrey Rounds, who had written a book called The Honey Locust - about the war in Bosnia, Nino Ricci, whose book The Origin of Species tells the story of a man’s exploration of life and the Galapagos Island, and Jonathan Goldstein, who reinvents the story of creation in his work Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible!. Walking along the different booths and pavilions, we discovered new publishers, browsed at hundreds of books, and got to know other writers. There were also writing classes, workshops and volunteer opportunities to help adult literacy. It was great to see so many people hungry for knowledge and others who want to share it.

When I had the chance to speak briefly with The Origin of the Species author Nino Ricci, I asked him what advice he would give to someone who is thinking of starting to write. In summary his answer was, “Keep at it.” Good advice, which I think could be applied to learning as well. All of us to want to learn. “Keep at it“. When I saw some booths for organizations that help underprivileged children from other parts of the world have access to books and education, I realized that there is one things that binds us human together - our natural thirst for learning. As soon arriving home, I read through the first few pages of Nino Ricci’s book, I learned words that I never knew existed. So whether it be new words or new recipes, let’s keep at it. And share what we know, so others can learn.


Here’s my recipe for the pita bread appetizer Rona and I made last weekend:


4 pita bread
8 tbsp goat’s cheese
2 med. pepperoni, thinly sliced
mesclun greens (mixed greens), 4 handfuls, enough for 4 salad servings
1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, quartered
1 cup ripe mango, peeled and cut into ½ cubes
3 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped
3 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp Olive oil, plus extra for brushing pita
Salt and pepper to taste


1. In a bowl combine mesclun greens, tomatoes, mango and oregano. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Add balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Toss well. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Brush both sides of pita with olive oil then spread goat cheese. Place on baking sheet.
4. Put pepperoni slices on pita, then a handful of mesclun green mixture.
5. Place pita in 375° F pre-heated oven for about 10 minutes.
6. Remove pita from baking sheet and cut into quarters. Serve warm.