Conversation and music make a party fun but sharing favorite foods, new recipes, foreign flavors and comfort food can make a party memorable.
Although traditionally served before a meal, an assortment of sweet and savory hors d’oeuvres that includes vegetables and fruit, meat, fish and cheeses can be dinner. Whether there are waiters passing trays, platters strategically placed around the room, or a buffet brimming with savory finger food, an hors d’oeuvre party makes it possible to entertain more friends that I can seat at my dining room table.
Was the apple that Eve offered to Adam the first appetizer? Perhaps not, but translating the names gives culinary insight. Hors d’oeuvre means “apart from the main work” it is less important than what is to come.
Canape in both French and Spanish means couch or settee, maybe a nod to the cracker or piece of bread that the caviar or foie gras is sitting on. French chefs offer a selection of amuse-bouche, morsels to “amuse the mouth”, while diners await the main course.
Antipasto means “before the meal” and like a platter of cold cuts, consists of cured meats, pickled vegetables, olives, and cheeses. Crudités, French for crude, used to mean an artfully arranged platter of carefully carved raw vegetables for dipping. Unfortunately, now it usually means a bowl of “baby” carrots with or without a container of ranch dressing beside it.
In Istanbul, my favorite dinner was an assortment of seven meze. There was no menu. I choose small plates of prepared vegetables, meat and fish from a large tray that a waiter brought to the table. Even though I was unable to identify all of the dishes, the small portions made me more willing to try unfamiliar things and I was rarely disappointed.
There are endless combinations possible when creating hors d’oeuvres. Maybe it was the excitement of creating new dishes in the 1950’s, after the hardship of rationing, that led to hors d’oeuvres with names like: Hollywood Dunk, Apple and Salami Porcupines, Pineapple Fingers, Fisherman’s Find, Herb Ring-a-Round, Ruby Red Franks, Pearl of the Sea Mousse and Sardine SURPRISE!
Was it peace or Yankee ingenuity that lead to the creation of combo’s like Potato Chip Snappies – bleu cheese and minced onion thinly spread onto potato chips, watermelon pickles wrapped in bacon, or Cocktail Kabobs – button mushrooms and cocktail franks cut in half and marinated in French dressing? Perhaps it was battle fatigue.
The minimum structural requirement for an hors d’oeuvre is that it must be able to be moved a minimum of 40 cm, from platter to mouth, without exploding, dripping or collapsing. With so much history, it comes as no surprise that there are a few rules to consider: 1 Don’t chase a waiter who is carrying a tray. 2 Never put anything back on the tray. 3 No double dipping. 4 If “Surprise” is in the name, walk away. 5 If you don’t know what it is, don’t eat it. 6 If the waiter doesn’t know what it is, don’t eat anything.
There were ten guests at my most recent hors d’oeuvres party. Charles served wine, sparkling water and fruit spritzers. I served olives, roasted peppers and artichokes from the market, and a cheese platter. I made three hors d’oeuvres as well. Here’s how I did it: … read more
