Seattle area readers, a quick reminder that I’ll be at Seattle’s fabulous cookbook store Book Larder for Small Business Saturday on November 29 from 2:00 to 3:00 for a special signing of the new Essential Shellfish Collection box set. The sets will be on sale December 2 wherever books are sold, still a few days to pre-order if you like.
This post is a quick round-up of some recipes and general ideas for leaning on some of the easiest and most delicious options for appetizers in the coming weeks. Seafood can be one of our very best friends around the holidays, and any time we’re gathering folks together with snacky-appetizers part of the plan. If not the whole plan. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m such a big fan of snacks—the savory kind—that I wrote a whole book about them. (Salty Snacks is out of print, used copies still in circulation.)
This is all about things that are easy to make, delicious, ideal for festive, celebratory occasions. Mostly dishes that require little fuss, no special plating, no last-minute cooking. This is the snacky side of appetizers. Items that can be on a buffet or passed around on a platter, requiring just small plates or a cocktail napkin.
I’ve gone through past issues of this newsletter to gather a bunch of recipes already shared. And there’s a new one below for Smoked Salmon Rillettes. That recipe is one I highly recommend if you need an eleventh-hour idea for a Thanksgiving item, or maybe something to take to a Friendsgiving this weekend.
Dips are Always a Good Idea
The latest post for my Long Live the Recipe Box newsletter had a bit of a “dips” theme as well. For a gathering focused on cherished recipes that I wrote about there, three folks brought dips: soup-mix onion dip, shrimp dip, and dill dip. All served with potato chips. Chips and dips—a classic choice for a great reason.
One dip I’ve shared is this Smoked Oyster Dip, or what I call “fill-in-the-blank-dip” because it’s such a versatile recipe, using chopped clams, other smoked seafood, chopped shrimp, crab meat.
Another riffs on the perennial favorite hot artichoke dip, with the addition of salmon. Of course that would also be amazing with crab meat instead of salmon. Who can resist a warm, cheesy combination like that??
A great thing with cold dips in particular is that they’re an ideal way to add some vegetables to our holiday snacking, making carrots, cucumber slices, celery, etc. available for dipping in addition to chips and/or crackers.
Endive for the Snacking Win
Belgian endive has long been one of my favorite tricks for fun snacks, an edible serving piece with a slightly elegant touch. The slender, cupped leaves of endive make perfect edible containers for countless snack options. The broader bottom of the leaf is the ideal place for a bite-sized portion of countless things, leaving the narrow tip end for your guests to easily pick up the leaf.
Potential fillings seem endless: your favorite poke or ceviche, a delicious tuna or shrimp salad, a few bay shrimp topped with a bit of cocktail sauce, a bit of crab that’s tossed with green goddess dressing. Even the smoked oyster dip above or the smoked salmon rillettes below would be great served this way. A recipe I’ve shared pairs chopped shrimp with gribiche sauce, spooned onto endive leaves for serving. But really, there are so many options.
Hit the Sauce
I suppose these are just slight variations on the ‘dips’ category, though thinner in consistency a bit less versatile. Shrimp or crab with cocktail sauce is another one of those classic combos. I offered a recipe for Firecracker Cocktail Sauce from my Crab cookbook, which would be great with shrimp or lobster too.
And tonnato sauce is interesting because instead of being a sauce for seafood, it’s a sauce made with seafood: tuna. That links to the recipe itself, but I devoted that whole newsletter to the sauce if you want to read more about it and its core ingredients, of which I tried a few variations.
And a couple others
My previous newsletter focused on oysters and celebration, with a bit about potential toppings for raw oysters and a couple recipe links.
Shrimp always go over well. I said earlier I wasn’t going to include any with last-minute cooking, but this Crisp Shrimp with Shichimi Togarashi seems worth including. It takes little time to prep and the cooking is quick too. Supremely snackable!
And this last recipe is one I put together for my Gourmet Game Night cookbook, one that promised tidy eating so hands are clean and free for tossing dice and dealing cards. Herb Marinated Shrimp with Cocktail Onions takes a little bit of advance work—an hour for the shrimp to marinate and time piercing the shrimp and onions onto picks—but nothing complex, and delicious results worth the time.
This is a fish-lover’s interpretation of the classic French rillettes de porc. The traditional bistro and café fare takes well to smoked salmon, with butter standing in for the pork fat inthe original, and a touch of cream cheese for texture. This would be a great use for leftover grilled or baked salmon, or do a half-half mix of that with the smoked salmon.
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup cream cheese, at room temperature
8 ounces hot-smoked salmon, skin removed
2 tablespoons dry vermouth, dry white wine, or lemon juice, more if needed
Pinch freshly grated or ground nutmeg
Kosher salt, if needed
Crackers, baguette slices, and/or cucumber slices, for serving
Cream together the butter and cream cheese in a medium bowl with a rubber spatula until thoroughly blended and smooth. Finely flake the smoked salmon into the bowl, discarding any pin bones you come across. Add the vermouth and nutmeg, stirring well. Taste for seasoning, adding salt if needed. The texture should be spreadable, still with some texture from salmon pieces. If the mixture is quite stiff, stir in a bit more vermouth.
Spoon the rillettes into a single serving bowl or individual small ramekins, cover well with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving, to allow the flavors to meld. The rillettes can be made up to 4 days in advance.
About 30 minutes before serving, take the rillettes from the refrigerator to soften. Serve with small knives for spreading onto the crackers, baguette slices, and/or cucumber slices.
Makes 6 to 8 servings
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