Outside the Work

Hors D'oeuvres. We all know how it's pronounced, but none of us really know why. Do we even know what it actually means?

Back in the day, when a waiter wanted to impress a table (presumably to get a bigger tip), after a table would order, he would bring them an appetizer on the house. Usually, this appetizer was created by the waiter himself. He would slip to the back of the kitchen, sneak around and find odds and ends that weren't being used for dinner service. He'd quickly put something together and bring it to his table to impress his customers. This dish was made "outside of the kitchen," and so the dish became called "Hors D'oeuvres" which means "outside of work" in French.

Hors D'oeuvres are usually one biters. When you're a a cocktail party and you're meeting new people, you usually have a drink in one hand and an hors d'oeuvre in the other, and when someone comes to shake your hand, you need to act fast. So, you pop the food in your mouth, and viola! A free hand! Simple as that.

We know hors d'oeuvres as mini hot dogs and little potato knishes. On Wednesday, we took it a little further. We also learned something about canapes, which have a base of a bread, cracker, or chip. Canapes consist of a base, a spread, a body (protein), and a garnish.

My lovely cousin, Aliza, came to cook with us on Wednesday. It was such a great day for her to join and we had so much fun! We started on blinis with sour cream, smoked salmon, and garnishes. Aliza tasted the first one and immediately suggested that we add some heat. So, instead of chives, we added jalepeno to half of our blinis.

The blinis were made from a buckwheat flour mixture. It's very similar to a pancake mixture and the blinis are made similarly, too.

She's a natural!

We also worked on these (fake) crab meat wontons with an apricot dipping sauce. It wasn't anything I would have thought to put together in the mix, but they turned out to be delicious! We used the fake crab meat, mixed it with cream cheese, and added scallions, sesame oil, worcestershire sauce, garlic, salt, and pepper. We wrapped them in wonton wrappers (so time consuming when you wrap a hundred of them!) and then deep fried them. Meanwhile, the we made the apricot dipping sauce with apricot preserves, ginger, dry mustard, and red wine vinegar.

After everyone was done with their dishes, we made a banquet table filled with hors d'oeuvres.

And how great does Aliza look in (my) chef's coat?!

Tip of the day: When making small pancakes, or blinis, heat up the griddle and spray it with nonstick spray. Use a squeeze bottle as a way to keep the mess to a minimum, instead of dripping batter everywhere with a ladle.