Goat Cheese and Smoked Oyster Puffs

I don't know about you guys, but every time I get invited to a gathering where I will be bringing food I like to make a new recipe. This is actually not a great idea, considering that if it turns out to be inedible then your guests are the guinea pigs in your cooking experiment gone wrong. Nonetheless, I always find myself scouring through cookbooks to find something new to try for each event.

A while ago we went to a house warming party for some friends, and I decided to make some Smoked Oyster and Goat Cheese Pastries as my contribution. The recipe calls for very few ingredients and it sounded quick and simple, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Everything turned out pretty good, although I'd make a few changes when I make them again (and I will make them again).

First, these really need to be small and bite - sized. I cut a couple of mine about 1-1.5" thick, and it was just too big (keep in mind: these are long pieces). Second, I would probably use a teeny bit more goat cheese. When assembling these, I used every last crumble that I had, and I think it could have used a little more. Lastly, I tasted these when they were warm out of the oven and again at room temp (the recipe suggests serving at room temp), and I enjoyed them a lot more when they were warm.

I never would have thought that goat cheese and smoked oysters would work together (they do!), but if you're looking for a tasty, quick, simple and inexpensive appetizer to make for your next gathering I suggest you give this one a go!

Smoked Oysters and Goat Cheese Pastries
Serves 12


Ingredients

• 4oz soft, fresh goat cheese, crumbled
• 1 sheet ready made puff pastry dough
• 6-oz can of smoked oysters
• 1 egg, beaten
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut rectangle of dough in half lengthwise. Put half the crumbled goat cheese down the middle of one piece of dough. Arrange half the oysters in a row on top of the goat cheese. Brush the beaten egg along both the long sides, fold the dough over the oysters, and gently press the edges together to seal. Repeat with the other piece of dough and remaining cheese and oysters.

Lightly brush both puff pastry packages with beaten egg, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cut both packages into 1-inch slices, then transfer to a buttered baking tray. Bake for 12 minutes, or until puffed and golden. Let cool to room temperature before serving.

Please excuse the poor quality of the pictures.. my iPhone sometimes doesn't do the best job!

Things That I Learned This Weekend

This past weekend was actually pretty uneventful. It mainly consisted of running errands (getting stuff for the apartment), putting together furniture for the living room, hitting up the farmers market and going out for date night. Pretty normal, indeed.

That being said, I learned a couple of interesting things that I would like to share:

1) There are great restaurants out there that don't cost an arm and a leg.

Ok, this is actually something I've been realizing for a few weeks now, but Saturday solidified that. On our date night we went out to Cafe Condesa, a cute and quaint little restaurant in the West Village. We decided to go here based on our normal last minute restaurant finding criteria: highest star rating possible, close proximity, upcoming available table. This time we settled on Cafe Condesa, and I am so happy that we did!

The food was amazing! I would even go as far to say that it was just as good, or even better, than some of the much nicer places we've been to ::Gotham Bar and Grill::. Is it deserving of a Michelin star anytime soon? Nah. However, the mouthwatering steak and avocado and the chicken enchiladas for $18 and $15 (respectively) will certainly make us repeat customers.

2) I don't know how to cook Swiss Chard very well.

After being super excited about the gorgeous produce I picked up at the farmers market (and for such a good price!), I made a dinner that consisted entirely of items from my shopping trip:

Pheasant Sausage Patties
Sauteed Zucchini and Yellow Squash with Ricotta and Fresh Basil
Rosemary Roasted New Potatoes
Sauteed Swiss Chard with Garlic

The zucchini and potatoes were very good, the sausage was pretty good, and the chard was.. well.. not. I treated it like I was cooking spinach, thinking that it would come out the same; but unfortunately it came out overly bitter and not tasty. Next time I may read through a few recipes to get some better ideas or tips, but in the meantime I have a whole lot of sauteed chard in my fridge that I'm not sure what to do with.

3) If I could be any of the "Avengers", I would be Iron Man.

Minus the ego, of course.

Another Year Older...

...Another year wiser?? Sure, we'll say that.

On Tuesday I celebrated the 5th anniversary of my 21st birthday, and I have many people to thank for making it such a wonderful day! I received many sweet cards and messages, enjoyed an amazing meal with Vlad, and ended the night in the way all good birthdays should end: drinking champagne with a group of great people :)

For dinner Vlady took me to Veritas, and although it was surprisingly empty, everything was quite excellent. Unfortunately I did not take pictures of anything other than the dessert.. I was too famished to whip out the camera for a photo op, so mostly everything was inhaled before a flash could have gone off. It happens.

My meal consisted of 2.5 appetizers (one being split with my lovely guest) plus dessert, and I have to say that I think that's the way to do it. I have always much preferred tapas style dining where you get numerous small plates over consuming one large entree. Variety is the spice of life, so why not try as many dishes as possible in one sitting?

The first course that we split was the crab salad, and not only was it delicious, but they were kind enough to evenly portion it out onto two plates (rather than setting one plate in the middle of the table for us to share). That earned major points in my book. The description of the crab salad says: lemon jam, black olives and arugula.. but that doesn't quite do it justice. It contained lots of sweet lump crab meat, over a small tapenade of black olives and a light topping of the peppery arugula. The lemon jam was on the side, but I ate every bite of it, and the whole thing came with a black olive-filo wrapping that they artfully split in two and made into an architectural piece on our plates. Highly recommended: this dish was summer perfection.

My second course was the baby spinach salad, and the description simply read: pancetta, point reyes blue cheese deviled eggs. When I ordered the dish the server mentioned that it was her favorite thing on the menu, so although the description was not in fact descriptive, I felt as though I had probably made a good decision. I was right. The spinach was lightly dressed with a mustard vinaigrette, and on the side were two deviled eggs split in half with a large pancetta wheel in each half. The eggs were filled with creamy blue cheesy yumminess that I could have eaten all night. Seriously, they were the best deviled eggs EVER. That combined with the crispy pancetta and dressed spinach was enough for me to realize why the server loved this dish so much. It was light, but so, so decadent!

For my third course I chose the sea scallop with foie gras, simply described only as that. This is the one dish that I'm bummed I didn't get a picture of, because the presentation was so elegant. It was one large sea scallop, split in half, with the seared foie gras in the middle, and a slice of roasted potato stacked in between as well. The whole thing was placed in the center of a large, white bowl and topped with a pan jus and some micro greens. No knife was required, and it really just melted in my mouth.. and while the whole thing was only about 4-5 bites, they were some pretty amazing bites indeed.

Dessert was kept simple (since my meal had been so rich up until then), and I had a scoop of basil sorbet and chocolate sorbet. These did not disappoint. The basil sorbet tasted exactly like fresh picked basil, with just the tiniest hint of sweetness, and the chocolate was also only slightly sweet but very rich in cacao (and topped with some crumbled cacao nibs). Oh, and they wrote a lovely message on the plate (see below):

So as you can tell, it was a lovely birthday full of great food! I would highly recommend Veritas as a special occasion restaurant; the food and service were both excellent.