Living with the Webers - Appetizer

Cheese Crackers

si1ver2 — Sun, 08 Dec 2013 23:58:53 +0000

Quick and cheesy crackers. Dairy free.

Serves:

1 cup flour
3/4 tsp salt
4 tbsp oil
4 tbsp nutritional yeast
water

Place all ingredients in food processor. Blend and add water until it forms a dough.
Kneed out dough and use cookie cutters to form crackers. Make sure they are thin enough otherwise they don't become crispy enough.
Bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes. Until browned slightly on top and crunchy.

Artisan Bread

si1ver2 — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:35:51 +0000

Delicious artisan bread with very minimal effort. (Just takes time!)
Eat it for breakfast, use it for sandwiches, fashion it into an appetizer, or serve it alongside a soup for dinner.

3 cups all purpose or bread flour
1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 - 1 1/2 cups cold water

Must have a dutch oven!

1. Mix together all the ingredients in a bowl. The dough should be a bit sticky. No need to knead the dough; just enough to form a ball. The amount of water depends on the humidity and the type of flour you use.
2. Put a kitchen towel over the bowl to keep the dirt out and let it sit for 12-18 hours.*
3. Use the same towel or a bread towel if you have one and sprinkle flour on it. Take out the bread laying the top dry part face down. Push to sides together into a ball if it stretched a bit. Sprinkle the top of the dough with some more flour. Fold the towel over it and let it sit for 1 to 2 hours.
4. Preheat your oven to 475°F with the dutch oven inside. When it is at full temperature take out the dutch oven and lay the bread inside. Put the top on and throw it in the oven for 30 minutes.**
5. Take of the top of the dutch oven and bake it for another 15 minutes at the same temperature.***
6. Let it cool for about 30 minutes before eating.

*Letting the dough rise for such a long time allows the yeast to do its work resulting in long strands of gluten in the dough and a sweeter bread. It also means the dough requires less yeast than conventional methods and no sugar.
**Using the dutch oven allows us to bake it at a high temperature without burning the bread or letting too much water escape!
***The last 15 minutes of baking without the top is to allow the delicious crust to form.

Recommended With

Vegan/Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

Lemon Curd

Pia's Garbanzo Bean Soup

Red Lentil Soup

Mixed Salad

Samosas

Alicia — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 09:59:34 +0000

Recipe for 20-24 pieces.

Serves:

Dough:
100 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
40 g butter
4 tablespoons water

Stuffing:
3 potatoes, boiled (less if you use those big fat american ones ;) and as a variation, I love using sweet potatoes)
1 tsp freshly minced ginger (I prefer more)
1 garlic clove (I prefer more)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp black cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp crushed chili
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 small, freshly minced green chillies

ghee or oil for deep-frying

Dough:
1) Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add butter and mix into a crumbling mass.
2) Add the water and using a fork mix together the ingredients into a dough. Knead the dough until it becomes smooth (about 5 minutes). If the dough starts to stick add a little more flour. Let it sit.

Stuffing:
1) Boil the potatoes/sweet potatoes until they are soft and then mix them in a food processor or just use a fork.
2) Add all the stuffing ingredients.

Filling
1) Separate the dough into several pieces. Roll it flat. Lay out flour underneath if it sticks. Cut the flattened dough into triangles.
2) Add a teaspoon to a tablespoon of filling to each triangle depending on how large they are. Wet the edges of the triangle with warm water and fold the triangle over into a smaller triangle and close the edges.
3) Deep fry the samosas in portions or for a healthier (easier/cleaner) approach, lay them out on a baking tray and brush some oil on top. Bake them on 350°F (180°C) for about 20 minutes. Turn it to broil for the last couple minutes to brown the outside.

Recommended With

Mixed Salad

rice
sweet chili sauce

Crispy Garbanzo Bean Appetizer

Pia — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 22:14:07 +0000

A yummy and healthy vegan snack or appetizer.

1 1/2 cups dry garbanzo beans, or 3 cups cooked garbanzo beans (the equivalent of two 15oz cans)
2 teaspoons cumin
dash of cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
dash of olive oil

If using dry garbanzo beans, boil until cooked.
Mix everything together in a bowl until all of the garbanzo beans are coated with spices.
Spread in a single layer on a cookie baking sheet covered with aluminum foil, as they sometimes stick.
Bake at 400F for 30-40 minutes, mixing occasionally, until the garbanzo beans are crispy.
Cool and serve.

Bacon-wrapped brussel sprouts

Christoph — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 04:14:46 +0000

This was our Thanksgiving Day appetizer and stole the show. Sorry Mr. Turkey!

Serves:

Half pound of brussel sprouts, halved
Quarter pound of prime quality bacon (don't go for the cheap stuff)

Blanch the brussel sprouts in a pot full of boiling water for about three minutes.
In the meantime, cut bacon strips in half.
Remove sprouts from water and let them drain.
Wrap the short bacon strips around brussel sprouts and fix with tooth pick.
Bake in oven at 375 F until bacon is cooked. (Go by sight, you know how you like your bacon, right?)
Serve fresh from oven, but beware, the bacon is hot initially!

Recommended With

Wine, beer, or a nice juice.

Spring Rolls

Sarah — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:58:34 +0000

Though known as an appetizer, we most often eat them for lunch. If you plan to serve them as a main dish, plan on using one time this recipe per adult, so that they get 4 rolls each. Also, we prefer them stuffed with only tofu and vegetables, so we omitted the rice noodles that typically are part of the stuffing.

Serves:

Spring roll wrappers

2 slices of firm tofu, cut in half length-wise (4 pieces) OR approximately 4 tablespoons of soft/silky tofu (we use Mori-Nu brand)
1 tablespoon Soy Sauce, or to taste
2 tablespoons Nutritional Yeast flakes (if using soft/silky tofu), or to taste

1 green onion, cut into small pieces
1 carrot, grated
1 1/2 cups greens such as lettuce or spinach
1/2 cup sprouts (add more greens if you don't have sprouts)
optional: add any other raw vegetables you like or have available

Sweet Chili Sauce or another type of sauce to dip

1. Fry your tofu. If using firm tofu, fry until slightly browned, adding soy sauce after flipping them over. If using soft/silky tofu, fry for a few minutes together with soy sauce and nutritional yeast flakes over low heat (it will look somewhere between a pudding and scrambled egg, depending on how soft your tofu is).

2. Mix your vegetables in a bowl.

3. Boil water. Pour water onto a big plate with a rim or a shallow but wide bowl large enough to fit the spring roll wrappers in. Soak the wrappers in the hot water until soft, but make sure to not leave them in too long, or else they will start falling apart and make wrapping/eating very difficult.

4. Place wrapper onto a clean countertop, place tofu (1 piece or approximately 1 tablespoon) and 1/4 of the vegetable mixture on the bottom third of wrapper.

5. Roll up Spring Roll: Fold in left and right side, then, while holding vegetables in place, fold up part closest to you and roll away from you until it is fully wrapped.

6. Serve with Sweet Chili Sauce.