Tapenade Stuffed Mozzarella Cheese Appetizers

Bite-sized food is one of the best ways to create a romantic atmosphere for your Valentine dinner. That way you can feed each other while talking and kissing in between! To that end, I created cheese appetizers using small mozzarella balls that I emptied and stuffed with homemade tapenade. The preparation is quite simple if you prep everything in advance.

I made the tapenade using kalamata olives. I love the way the blackish deep-purple color contrasts so well with the white mozzarella; they're also the best choice because of their rich and fruity flavor. I served the mozzarella appetizers on herb-Parmesan crackers, so they're easy to pick up and eat in one single bite.

Foie Gras Creme Brulee Recipe (+Giveaway)

I've mentioned it in the past; even though it might raise some eyebrows, foie gras, or duck/goose liver, is my guilty pleasure. Maman would always serve this French delicacy during our holiday dinner. If you've never tasted foie gras before, it's like eating a piece of intensely flavored, semi-softened butter.

I got a lovely whole duck foie gras from The Milk Pail Market in Mountain View, CA. Instead of serving it as a main course (I’ll publish a main course recipe soon), I added the foie gras to a savory custard and made crèmes brûlées. Obviously, this is not your ordinary vanilla flavored dessert crème brûlée. I made savory crème brulees in the past with ingredients like garlic, so this isn’t exactly new territory for me. The result was amazing; foie gras and sweet flavors pair perfectly together. I added specks of foie gras to the custard as well as a large piece in the center of each ramekin. I also topped them with a larger chunk on top of the sugar crust as a reminder of the flavoring inside. I served the fancy starter with toasted bread so the foie gras could be spread onto the toasts.

This weekend giveaway is for Bay Area readers or people who are able to redeem their prize on site. The Milk Pail Market, which happens to be my favorite local market, is generously donating five $25 gift certificates. You could put this to good use and create a marvelous Christmas dinner for your loved ones. At any rate, I love this market; you can find a wide variety of cheeses, (check out the fromage blanc), French products such as Mamie Nova yogurts and tons of other European products as well. And don't forget to try their famous croissants!  Be sure to stop by and discover these fabulous ingredients. The address is 2585 California Street, Mountain View, CA 94040. To participate to our giveaway, visit our 25 Days of Giveaways page and enter today. Good luck!

Make sure you're a fan of PhamFatale Facebook fan page and the Milk Pail, or follow @Phamfatalecom and tweet about this giveaway. To make it easy, you can just copy and paste this tweet if you’d like: "Five $25 Gift Certificate #Giveaway from @Phamfatalecom and the Milk Pail: http://bit.ly/sp4V7y".

Potato Cutlet Recipe (Indian Snack)

Aloo cutlets are pancake-shaped snacks made of potato (aloo means "potato" in Urdu). Indian cooking rarely uses eggs as a binder so to make sure the patties don't break, soaked bread is added to the potato mixture. It's an easy vegetarian snack that satisfies my family's cravings. To make the cutlets a more complete meal, I added protein-packed chana dal (garbanzo lentils). I flavored these appetizers with a little ginger, turmeric and amchur (mango powder) to balance the flavor of the cutlets.

We often make a huge batch of cutlets on Saturday mornings with the girls. They’ve gotten so good that they pretty much do it on their own. Once they’re done cooking, we usually just serve them with a bowl of sour cream. Yum!

Stuffed Potato Appetizers (Bolognese Potatoes)

Our family loves potatoes, any kind of potatoes. They're filling and delicious, especially when they're baked. Personally, I love the crunchy exterior and creamy inside. Today, I played with white-fleshed sweet potatoes (Japanese sweet potatoes), purple-fleshed potatoes (Okinawan sweet potatoes) and regular Yukon Gold potatoes, respectively from the sweetest to the least sweet variety.

I wanted to make sure that the entire family could enjoy the trio of bite-sized potato appetizers I made, so I filled them with soy chorizo. If you're a meat lover, you could replace it with ground beef. I topped the potato bites with a cheesy crust. They took some time to assemble, but it literally took half a second for our family to inhale them all!

Easy Party Appetizers: Foie Gras Stuffed Prunes with Almond Tuiles

Foie gras stuffed dried plums are my guilty pleasure. The dried plums (prunes) are baked with maple syrup, and to enhance the texture and flavor, I add a pinch of fleur de sel and a sprinkle of crumbled almond tuile cookies. These little appetizers will definitely be served by the dozens during our New Year Eve's dinner.

I know this recipe might raise some eyebrows on several levels. I've always loved,  perhaps worshipped, the French culinary delicacy called foie gras. If you've never tasted foie gras before, it's like eating a piece of intensely flavored, semi-softened butter. Some people think it's an abomination and constitutes cruelty to animals. I believe that in Chicago for a time there was even a ban on foie gras and that the sale and production of foie gras is still illegal in California.

The other thing you might find odd is that I chose to use prunes in an elegant appetizer. I was surprised to learn from Lulu that in America, prunes are marketed as digestive aids and have a rather negative stigma. That is not the case in France. Prunes are often served as a snack for children, and just yesterday I saw them on a fruit and cheese platter at the end of a lovely meal we had at my friend's home. They’re now marketed in the U.S. as dried plums, not prunes, because there was so much negativity associated with prunes as a laxative.

I hope this recipe will inspire you to try new ingredients, or perhaps old ingredients in new ways.