Juicy Post: Summer (hors d’oeuvres) Horses Doovers & A Contest

Summer (hors d’oeuvres) Horses Doovers & A Contest

This twice yearly post about nibbles to have with drinks — first when it is depressingly cold and cloudy and then when we are all hot and sweaty — has turned into a tradition. Our (hors d’oeuvres) horses doover recipes are frequently downloaded throughout the year. And if you need a suggestion for a cocktail to go with them, check out the carefully curated suggestions by our Resident Bartender. Plus, we are running our second annual Horses Doover KD Readers Contest so KD readers can have a chance to win one of three prizes. The KD crew wants to hear about your favorite Horses Doover inventions or adaptations. It can be your own original recipe or your interpretation of an existing one. And certainly tell us a bit about the recipe itself, such as if there is a bit of family history to it. Did you make it up with ingredients you happened to have on hand and it was a wild success? Or it can be  your take on something you tasted in a restaurant or party and recreated.  We want to know all about how it came to be your favorite Horses Doover.

Get Ready, Get Set, Go!

 Winners will be announced in our Juicy Post the first week of September. First Place winner will be sent a hand made and hammered copper mixing bowl from Sertado Copper in Austin, Texas. This company makes beautiful and functional copper cookware that is competitive in design and quality with our favorite French and Italian brands.The hammered surface is not just a pretty face; it improves the tensile strength of the piece. 

The second prize is a fully forged Santoku cleaver from Lamson Products, another US company that produces excellent cutlery and tools in Massachusetts. This is the jack-of-all trades knife that always goes in my travel batterie de cuisine.  Third place winner will receive one of  our large prints of the hilarious Roger Blachon poster commissioned by Louis Tellier in France that we call  “Chaos In the Kitchen”

 

Rules Of Engagement

• To enter, you have to subscribe to the newsletter. You must be subscribed here.
• You can enter more than one recipe. 
• Entries accepted from July 5 through July 31.
• Recipes will be tested and photographed during August.
• Winners will be announced in the Juicy Post of September 2.
• You must include at least one photo.
• 24-36 portions is suggested but not a game breaker
• Your amazing recipes should be submitted using our handy-dandy form, here.

 

Back To Our Summer  (hors d’oeuvres) Doovers

Cucina Italiana has both an Italian language site and an English one. I found this on their English site in 2015, and it has been a mainstay in our house since. You really should add the Kirsch, as it adds to the flavor, just as it does to a cheese fondue. And you need fine bread crumbs, so if you use Panko, grind them in a processor or blender before creating the coating for the cheese mixture. You can freeze  the puffs on a tray after they have been rolled in the bread crumbs and then store them in a freezer bag for up  to three months. Allow them to come to room temperature before frying.  It takes just seconds for them to become golden and crisp, but if they are still frozen, the cheese won’t melt. 

 

Kevin Canfield from K Aubrey Flowers and Vintage serves these at his parties. I fell in love with them and stationed myself right next to the platter where they were placed.  It is a riff on shrimp and grits, He freezes the grits “tart shells” and then makes the ham filling and shrimp garnish the day of his party. If you make  lots of them, just put a few on a plate as people like myself will eat them all and won’t have any room for dinner. Having fallen in love with real grits when we first lived in Charlottesville, Virginia, I was determined to carry a really good brand in the shop.  We found a winner with the corn products produced by Wade’s Mill in southern Virginia. I made this with their Butcher’s Blood grits, ground from a red corn local that Indian tribes introduced to Virginia settlers in 1840. It gave the tart shells a nutty flavor and texture. If you want a creamier texture to your shrimp n’grits tarts, use the white kind instead.   You should try  Wade’s buckwheat and polenta too. On a non-recipe note, I have fallen in love with the school teacher’s cabin that is available for vacation rentals. I can’t think of a better way to self-isolate. 

I had never heard of Hildegard Von Bingen before I read this recipe on the Italian site of Cucina Italiana.  She was a remarkable  and revered abbess in the 12th century who founded an independent convent (no mean feat) near Bingen in Germany. She wrote  music and hymns, which are still played today. Her philosophy and adaptations of her recipes come from a treatise she wrote on how to live  a healthy life amid the pestilence of the Middle Ages. They still have followers today, and there are even Pinterest boards dedicated to her. This is a reconstruction of one of her recipes. I am not a religious person, but I do grow a lot of sage and I found this crisp chip an unusual light and savory bite with drinks. Having experimented with different types of sage, I think the smaller leaves crisp up better than the larger ones. You can dip them in the batter lightly or leave a heavier coat before roasting.  A great improvement over kale chips.