Appetizer for white burgundy tasting

[MattJohnson]

A friend is having a white burgundy tasting and asked that I bring an app for people to nosh on. There will be 7-8 people and it will be pretty casual.

An easy idea is a cheese plate - what kind of cheeses?

Any other suggestions?

[pounce]

Sashimi

[merstar]

Salmon Canapes:

Chopped smoked salmon mixed with cream cheese and fresh chopped dill. Spread onto mini pumpernickel rounds or squares, and top with chopped red onion. Delicious.

Edited April 12, 2007 by merstar (log)

[markk]

Something creamy and with mushrooms would be nice - perhaps a vat of mushrooms (the baby bella/cremini would be ideal) that you sauteed in butter and a some shallots, and then reduced with heavy cream. You coud heat it up there and serve it with toast points. You could also top it with some fresh parsley.

Similarly, you could do the same thing with chicken livers - sautee them with butter and shallots (and in fact, even the mushrooms), then puree or mash them and serve them as a spread, and again parsely would go at the end.

And, you could add garlic to the sautee of both of those, as snails in garlic and parsley Iare a traditional white Burgundy pairing.

And a final thought which comes to me in a stroke of brilliance - if you sautee some leeks in butter, add to it some chopped thick bacon (lardons) which you have crisped up, and add some cream and goat cheese and reduce it a bit, you can spread that on rounds of toasted bread. That'd be ideal as well. (This is a classic dish that comes from Madeleine Kamman's "When French Women Cook", btw.)

[MattJohnson]

Sashimi

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Not sure if my knife skills or seafood supply is up to that, however it sounds good.

Salmon Canapes:

Chopped smoked salmon mixed with cream cheese and fresh chopped dill. Spread onto mini pumpernickel rounds or squares, and top with chopped red onion.  Delicious.

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This is a really good idea. Actually a couple buddies and I are getting together to do some kitchen experimentation and one of the recipes we're trying is the cornet from the french laundry cookbook. Its filled with salmon tartar and creme fraiche with shallots and some other stuff. But I like the idea of smoked salmon... Have to see what kind of salmon I can get. Maybe I'll use the leftovers for the tasting on Sunday.

Something creamy and with mushrooms would be nice - perhaps a vat of mushrooms (the baby bella/cremini would be ideal) that you sauteed in butter and a some shallots, and then reduced with heavy cream.  You coud heat it up there and serve it with toast points.  You could also top it with some fresh parsley.

Similarly, you could do the same thing with chicken livers - sautee them with butter and shallots (and in fact, even the mushrooms), then puree or mash them and serve them as a spread, and again parsely would go at the end.

And, you could add garlic to the sautee of both of those, as snails in garlic and parsley Iare a traditional white Burgundy pairing.

And a final thought which comes to me in a stroke of brilliance - if you sautee some leeks in butter, add to it some chopped thick bacon (lardons) which you have crisped up, and add some cream and goat cheese and reduce it a bit, you can spread that on rounds of toasted bread.  That'd be ideal as well.  (This is a classic dish that comes from Madeleine Kamman's "When French Women Cook", btw.)

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The chicken livers are a good idea. I was thinking pate' as well. Doing a faux escargot with mushrooms is also a really fun idea too.

All good ideas. If there are any others, please feel free...

[Rebel Rose]

All excellent suggestions. I always think of rich, yet fluffy, with white Burgundy. Love mushrooms. A little butter, not too much. For the salmon, I would stay away from "smoked" and go with storebought gravlax, which is actually lightly cured and has little of the "smoke" character. Whip it up in a blender with the cream cheese, some sour cream, and fresh dill and you've got a simple app.

I could be way off here, but I also like ripe exotic fruit juxtaposed with white Burgundy. A small schmear of mango salsa tarted up with ginger, onion, cilantro, cucumber and Hungarian wax pepper (small schmear, mind you) on triangles of puff pastry. (I soak the ginger, pepper and garlic in Tequila for 15 mins. to extract flavor, then drain and combine with the rest of the salsa.)

Chicken liver pate and bacon are good too, if sustenance while tasting is your goal. The white Burgs will go nicely with that, but more as a marriage than a flirt. So I would hold off on those until later in the evening if your purpose is to explore the whites first.

[SBonner]

Oysters if your Burgundy line up includes Chablis or Macon. Big Burgundies: I like idea of a leek dish.

Stephen Bonner

Vancouver

[MattJohnson]

I'm going to do a dry run with some of your apps. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for all the suggestions.

[MattJohnson]

It went really well. We had a bunch of 1er cru. Puligny Montrachet and Chassagne Montrachet.

As my appetizer, I brought my rendition of the cornets filled with creme fraiche and salmon tartar. I lucked out and my fish market has some nice salmon, so I felt comfortable doing tartar. If that didn't work, I was going to substitute some gravlax.

I also through together chicken liver pate from the joy of cooking cookbook. It turned out pretty well, although I didn't get it quite as smooth as I would have liked.

Thanks for all your help.