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.

Hi I’m Marty Richardson from chefmartyrich.com. Welcome back to our daily tip series.

Why Seafood?

I am finishing up my discussion of holiday appetizers today with seafood. You might want to ask, “Why seafood?” Well, it is because I think seafood is the most decadent appetizer of them all. Think about Shrimp Cocktail, Oysters Rockefeller, Clams Casino, and Caviar. It doesn’t get much more decadent than that. Even the names sound expensive! So, if you’ve got the budget, I’d say go for it.

Shrimp Cocktail

When someone comes to your party, and you are serving shrimp cocktail, they know right away that this is an event. It is not everyday food, although you can get cocktail shrimp at most supermarkets pretty easily. Some supermarkets have it already prepared in the frozen food section, or you may find it in the seafood section. They may have it cooked in the store, or already thawed for you. Now if you are going to go this route, make sure you order ahead. You can also get shrimp already peeled and deveined and then you can steam it yourself. So if it works within your budget, shrimp is pretty simple, straight forward and done ahead.

Smoked Salmon

The next seafood appetizer I want to speak about is smoked salmon. This is another ingredient that is easily found in most supermarkets. This is another use for your dips and spreads that I spoke about yesterday. You can make a canapé out of the smoked salmon. Just spread some of your dip on a toasted piece of bread or a cracker and put a little piece of smoked salmon on top, then garnish with a sprig of dill and maybe a little dollop of sour cream, and you are finished. Or take a slice of smoked salmon, spread a thin layer of your dip or spread on it, then roll up the smoked salmon and then slice it into bite-sized pinwheels. This is another very easy appetizer, best done ahead.

Caviar

The third appetizer I want to talk about is caviar. Ok, I know! First of all, it is an acquired taste. I happen to love it, but I happen to love really good caviar. And that is not cheap. A little 1 ounce container can cost you over $100.00 if it is really good. I have a few tips regarding caviar just in case this is something for you. Serve it iced cold. It needs to be served on crushed ice if possible. Second, use it very sparingly. You can use it for a garnish for your canapés. Third, you need to serve it with a special caviar spoon. Caviar spoons are made out of bone or shell. Metal reacts very badly to caviar. It is going to give the caviar an off-taste and it may also discolor your silverware.

Ceviche

A fourth appetizer I want to discuss is ceviche. This is a Latin American or South American appetizer. It is fish or shellfish marinated in lime juice. It takes about four hours for the acids in the lime to actually “cook” the seafood. Then, you mix in your tomatoes, scallions or red onion, celery, peppers or chilies and season it up with some cilantro or parsley (if you are not a cilantro fan). It makes for a great dip. Obviously, it’s extremely flavorful with the bite of the chilies and that acidic lime juice cooked seafood. If your guests haven’t tried ceviche, maybe you want to make a small batch.

Sushi

I am not going to go into sushi today, because I don’t think it is really appropriate for Thanksgiving. But if you are serving it at your Thanksgiving dinner, then you are having an eclectic meal. So right on! I am going to do a few videos on sushi because I’ve been asked some questions on the website about nori paper and rolling sushi. A tip I can give you is use a rice cooker. Once you get the rice down, sushi is easy.

Finally, The Main Event

And now for the main event! In just two weeks time we will have, in this corner, The Champ! Undefeated for three hundred and eighty eight consecutive fall classics, weighing in at 21 pounds, 5 ounces… The frozen – The feathered – The fowl of fall! The tender, the tantalizing, the terrific, “Tasty Tommy Turkey”! Don’t worry. I’m in your corner. See you tomorrow.

Hi Marty Richardson here from chefmartyrich.com. Welcome back to our daily tip series.

Spiced Nuts

I have been talking about holiday appetizers. In my last video, I received my Costco Connection magazine and it had 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. Practice soon, you still have 3 weeks before Thanksgiving. 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! Tomorrow, I am going to do a quick video on olives. This is another appetizer that is often overlooked. Thanks for watching. Talk to you tomorrow.

Hi Marty Richardson here from chefmartyrich.com.  Welcome back to our daily tip series.

Bring On The Food

Today, I’m going to start talking about holiday appetizers. Finally, we get to “talk turkey”.  But first, I have an announcement for you. I have secured the kitchen. I am going to be shutting down this front porch studio and taking it inside. Hopefully, you will be able to see, up close and personal, the preparations and presentations in HD.  I’m sure it will be more interesting for you.  My second announcement is please go to the blog www.chefmartyrich.com and leave a comment.  Let me know what is working for you and what areas I can make improvements. I’m shooting this series specifically for you.  If there is a topic that I can do a video on, please, don’t be shy.  Let me know how I can help you and I will shoot a video for you. By the end of this month, I hope to have answered all your questions about holiday entertaining.

Appetizer Tips

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. That’s it for today.  The next 4 days, I am going to run through these categories in a little bit more detail and then we are going to move on to the main event. Thanks for watching.  Go over to the blog and add a comment.  Thanks.