I have been talking about holiday appetizers. I received my Costco Connection magazine and it has a couple interesting articles in it about food and wine pairings and appetizers. There is a paragraph here that I want to go over before I give you my recipe on Spiced Nuts.

Nuts As Health Food

“Many nuts are an excellent source for anti-oxidants, tummy filling fiber, vegetarian protein, healthy non-unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats” and those are the fats that are in olive oil that are healthy for you. “Vitamins and minerals, including calcium and magnesium for strong bones, prosperous, iron, potassium and vitamins E and B.” So nuts are very good for you. Okay, not convinced?

Simple Appetizer

I suggest that you keep your appetizers simple for your holiday party. I assure you that if you put out these spiced nuts, especially “home made”, that people are going to eat them up. They always do. This recipe will also help you because the nuts need to be done a couple days ahead. You can customize your “Chex Party Mix” by using your own spiced nut mix. We still serve Chex Party Mix at the holidays.

Spiced Nuts Recipe

The method of preparation I use, is adapted from a recipe from Cooks Illustrated. It is a great magazine if you are learning how to cook. Even if you know how to cook it is a great resource. They are known as “Americas Test Kitchen”. They test a whole bunch of recipes and only print the best ones. And there is very little advertising in it. Enough promotion.

Spiced Nuts

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Take a cookie sheet and line it with parchment paper. Then spread out the nuts in a single layer. Toast them for about 4 minutes. Rotate the pan; stir the nuts around a little bit, and brown for another 4 minutes. For the second browning let your nose alert you if the nuts are toasting too quickly. Or check them frequently, as they can start over cooking or get too browned.

While you are toasting the nuts you want to put your spice mix together. This spice mixture can be flavored in any number of ways. Asian, Mexican, Cajun, Italian, it really doesn’t matter; it is a matter of the spices that you use. Here is the combination; it is generally 2 parts sugar to 1 part salt (use kosher salt) and 1 part of your spice mixture. By that I mean, if you have 3 or 4 different spices in your mixture, like cumin, coriander and cayanne pepper, then all those spices together equal 1 portion. 2 portions sugar, 1 portion salt, 1 portion spice mixture.

Then prepare your glaze. This is for a small batch. This is for about 2 cups of nuts.

2 T. water

1 tsp. brown sugar

1 T. butter

You melt all the ingredients in a pan while you stir. Then you add in your nuts. Stir the nuts until they get coated and absorb the glaze. Pour the glazed nuts into a bowl with your spice mixture and combine. Then spread them back out on the parchment lined cookie sheet until they cool. Then store them in an airtight container for 2 or 3 days ahead of your party. You can just open the container and serve.

Experiment with your spices. Practice ahead of time. Treat yourself this weekend (or a weeknight) and make up a batch of spiced nuts, but practice, practice, practice. Don’t wait to do a new recipe until you are on stage!

My first tip about appetizers is, keep it simple.  Make sure they are easy for you to make. Make your appetizers inviting.  Write a list of all the items that you were thinking of serving.  Then, compare them against the “Big Five”…your time, your money, your skill level, the guests you have invited and the limitations of your kitchen.  Balance your need to impress against your need to have fun at your own party.

Stress Busting Appetizers

Do as much preparation ahead as possible.  You don’t want to be scurrying around at the last minute with guests showing up and you still haven’t gotten into your party clothes yet.  The oven is full of turkey and you don’t want to be making hot appetizers at the last minute.  Give yourself a break.  These are bite sized snacks and don’t be afraid of purchasing prepared items for people to snack on before they get to the main event.

Four Types of Appetizers

Appetizers can be broken down into 4 different categories. The first, is nuts and olives.  These items are purchased already done.  You can serve them as they are or enhance them with your own specific flair and taste.  And still they can be made days ahead and then just brought out and served. The second type is cheese and crackers.  This is another simple choice unless you are making your own cheese.  You go to the store, you buy a selection, arrange it on a platter nicely and your second appetizer is already done.  The third is dips and spreads.  Here is where you can get a little creative.  You can flavor your mayonnaise and sour ccream, or cream cheese based dips with lots flavor.  Try mixing some pesto in there. Or you can make guacamole or hummus, a shrimp dip or crab dip.  What are you serving to scoop up the dip or are you spreading it on toasted bread, crackers or vegetables? How is it presented?  There are many different ways you can mix and match with your dips and chips.  The last appetizer category is seafood.  You can serve shrimp cocktail, caviar, oysters, marinated herrings, smoked salmon, or ceviche.  These are pretty simple choices as well.  Seafood tends to be a little bit more pricey than the other categories, but still can be pre-made.

One From Column A…

These four different categories of appetizers allows you to mix and match with the holiday – or with your event.  They are pretty much done ahead of time as well, and pretty simple for you to do too.

Let Your Tastebuds Be Your Guide

Let me cut to the chase right from the beginning. Cook some food, buy some wine, eat the food, drink the wine, and let your mouth be your guide. That’s basically it. I’m trying to tell you how to pair food and wine. Your wine merchant or your “helpful friend” is going to try to tell you how to do it, or the liquor store owner is going to try to tell you how to do this. It is up to your own personal taste. There really is no other way around it.

Why Bother?

If you are eating a meal and then you take a drink of that wine and something doesn’t taste quite right, it is your pairing. So why do people go through all the trouble of pairing food and wine anyway? It’s because if you get it right, the food tastes better and the wine tastes better. If you get it wrong, one of the two, or both, aren’t going to taste as good. So that is why there are all these rules. I am going to go over a few of the basics, but these are just guidelines. It can be so confusing that I have to admit to you, I don’t even go there. Let me just cook and if someone brings a bottle of wine, let’s open it and enjoy.

General Guidelines

If you are serving highly acidic food (meaning it is tomato based, or citrus based) go with a highly acidic wine. In this instance, you are matching the flavor characteristics of the food and wine. Some examples of acidic wines are Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, maybe a Chianti. If you are serving rich or fatty foods like duck or goose or cheese, maybe you want to try a wine that is more oaky, like a Chardonnay perhaps. Or if you prefer a red wine, try a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Merlot. With spicy foods that are highly seasoned or are smoky or salty, try a complimentary wine that is light and fruity. You could choose either a red or a white wine like a Gewurztraminer, Pinot Noir, or a Zinfandel. If you are serving a sweet sauce with your food, like a fruit sauce, try a sweet wine. Be careful to make sure the wine is as sweet as the food. If your wine isn’t as sweet as your food, then the wine is going to taste sour. Does that make sense?

Match Or Contrast

Sometimes you want to serve an acidic food with an acidic wine. You may also want to try and balance the flavor characteristics like pairing spicy food with a fruity wine. The easiest thing to do is to cook with the wine as a marinade or the flavor of the sauce, then serve the same wine with that course. This reminds me to make an important point. If you’ve got any “Cooking Wine” in your pantry, that you bought at the grocery store, go there now, open the cap and pour it down the drain. Do not, I repeat, “DO NOT!”, ever use cooking wine to cook with. I know, it sounds like an oxy moron, right? But that stuff is horrible. I hope you never ever actually tasted it. It is disgusting, it is not wine and it is only going to ruin your food. I don’t even know why they sell it.

Let me make myself perfectly clear. Make some food, buy some wine, eat the food, drink the wine. If it tastes good in your mouth you win! You have made a successful food and wine pairing. If it doesn’t taste good, then try again!

Start With The Bottom Line

Now don’t panic. I am not a wine connoisseur, so this shouldn’t be terribly complicated, but maybe for some people it will be. Entire books are written on food and wine combinations so, there are a lot of customs, a lot of “laws”, and a lot of rules. But after looking at as much information as I could stand, it all comes down to your personal taste. Look, buy some wine that you like. If you have had it before and you think it is good, buy it. Cook a great meal, invite some interesting people to dinner and have a good time. Ok, that is it, thanks!

The Most Basic Rules

OK, you knew I had more to say than that. And I do. So here goes. Everybody knows the basic rule that red wine goes with red meat.

Fish, poultry and white meat goes with white wine. Everybody has heard that rule, I am sure. But while that may be true, it is not always true. There are all different types of wines now and there are some extremely assertive white wines that could overpower a fish or a pork dish like roast pork loin. You have to let your own taste buds be your guide.

Ask For Help

Now, the next thing that you could do is create your menu based on all the tips that I have given you so far, and then consult with someone who knows better. Probably better than me. There’s a very good chance you will find somebody who knows more about it than me. Whether it is a friend of yours or whether it is the wine merchant or whether it is your liquor store owner (beware of the liquor store that only has boxes of wine or screw off caps), but even then, they might know more than me.

Proper Pairing

The second suggestion that I have for you is what you are trying to do it pair the two. You don’t want your food to overpower your wine and you don’t want your wine to overpower your food. That is the reason why you’ve got the white wine, white meat – red wine, red meat rule. Generally, fish and poultry recipes are more on the light side. Your red meat and beef combinations are generally more hearty, so that is where this basic rule comes from. But for every rule, you get exceptions. What about Chicken Cacciatore? Let’s say you made the dish with a chicken breast. You have a nice mild, white meat and a very assertive, acidic sauce. You would probably serve a red wine in that instance.

Three Basic Characteristics

There are three basic qualities that you are looking for. The first quality is “body”, whether the wine is light or heavy (that is basically how it tastes in your mouth). The second quality is the “intensity” of the wine (whether it is bold and assertive or it is delicate and mild) and the third quality is the flavor characteristics. Is the wine dry or is it fruity? Now, with a lot of American wines, all you have to do is read the label and the vineyard will probably describe these characteristics on the back of the bottle. Foreign wines are not as likely to advertise in this manner.

Is Wine A Condiment?

Look, bottom line here, is your wine should compliment your food like a condiment. Is that confusing? Well, it may be, but I hope not.

Cocktail Recipes

Mixing a great drink is like creating a great meal. It starts with the highest quality of ingredients that you can afford, then add a time tested recipe. You put the two together and you get consistently great results. So make sure on your self-service bar you include shot glasses or some kind of measuring device and a mixing guide or a mixology book. I find that most people actually do use them and are fascinated by all the different drink recipes that are listed.

Mixology

When I went to culinary school at Johnson and Wales University, we were required to take a mixology class and had to memorize 50 different drink recipes with the proper glass and garnish. Each drink does have a recipe. Over pouring does no one any favors. It causes you to go through your liquor very fast and professional bartenders will tell you that measuring is the only way to get a consistently good drink.

Stocking The Bar

Now, let’s talk about the liquor. You have six, or seven, maybe eight different liquors for a standard bar set up. You’ve got vodka, gin and rum, usually white rum. You might choose an amber or a darker rum depending upon your preferences. Then, you should have some kind of whiskey, tequila and then scotch or bourbon. During the holidays you might want to add a few liqueurs to that list. Try something that mixes well with coffee maybe, Tia Maria, Bailey’s Irish Cream, Grand Marnier, or something like that. During Christmas time, of course you have eggnog and you may be serving champagne.

Let’s Mix It Up

Your standard mixers are club soda, tonic water, Coke or Pepsi, and diet sodas, ginger ale, lemon-lime soda and water. The common juices are orange, cranberry, tomato and then if they are available, get a few small cans of grapefruit and pineapple juice. These are less popular juice mixers, but at the same time, there are a lot of drinks that you can’t do without them. Slice lemons and limes into half moon shapes or wedges and buy a bottle of marischino cherries and cocktail olives for garnishes.

Wine And Beer

You will want to offer wine. You basically have red and white wines and potentially a desert wine if you are so inclined or if you have guests that enjoy those. I’m going to talk about those a little bit when I talk about food and wine pairings. In addition t o wine, you want to have a selection of beer. You can choose domestic and/or imported, light beers and some people prefer non-alcoholic beer as well. This adds up to a lot of liquor. If you are stocking your bar from scratch, be careful, because if you are buying high quality brand name alcohol, your bar tab may be a little large. You could spend as much on liquor as you do on the food…maybe more! I just want you to be aware of that.

How Much?

As far as quantities are concerned, they are going to vary with your guests. This is why I am always saying how important it is to know your guests. But here is a general guideline for you. One quart or liter bottle of liquor should be enough for up to 10 cocktail drinkers. Then, one bottle of wine should serve two to three wine drinkers. Two or three, sometimes four beers, for each beer drinker. And then a quart or a liter of water for every two guests. I found out something interesting about bottled water the other day. It takes about three times as much water to make the plastic for the water bottle as the water that actually goes into the bottle. I thought was kind of fascinating. I never knew that.

This is the basic guideline to stocking your own self-serve bar.