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neat finger foods work best at a cocktail party – they’ll keep
guests mobile and avoid a pile-up at the food table – let’s
face it, dippy-type things are so much easier to make. I
compromise by cooking up a few fancy finger foods, then offering a
few filling, easy things like homemade hummus, guacamole and onion
dip as well. The great thing about most dips is that they can be
made a day or two before, and will probably taste better by the
time your party arrives, since they’ll have had time for the
flavors to properly develop and meld.
onion dip
1 16 oz. tub of sour cream, light okay
1 medium onion
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsps. minced red onion
2-3 stalks scallions
lemon
salt and pepper
Thinly slice the onion. Heat 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, then add
the onion, letting it slowly cook until golden and sticky (be
patient: this can take awhile, say 20 minutes.) Stir in the
balsamic vinegar and cook for a couple more minutes, until the vinegar has mellowed. Let
cool, then mince. Meanwhile, mince the red onion and chop the scallions. Mix all three onions with
the sour cream and add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.
Refrigerate for at least a day, to give the flavors time to develop.
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mini cheesecakes
60
vanilla wafers, more or less
3 pkg (8oz.) cream cheese, softened
3/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp. nutmeg OR 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice plus 2
tsps. zest
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
Preheat
oven to 325F. Trim the wafers down to size using kitchen
shears (you’ll want to do this over a wastebasket.) Place the wafers, flat side
down, on the bottom of the paper-lined mini muffin tins.
Beat
the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla, plus either
the nutmeg or lemon juice/zest, on medium speed until well
blended. Add eggs; mix until just combined, and don't overbeat. Pour the batter over the wafers,
filling each cup to the brim. Bake for about 15-20 min,
until the cheesecake has set.
Let cool in the pan a bit before removing from pan. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Refrigerate overnight or freeze for longer.
Topping the
cheesecakes
On the day of the party, thinly slice both the (de-stemmed)
strawberries and the (de-skinned) kiwis, trimming them if
necessary so that they’ll fit onto the cheesecakes. The
easiest way to deal with the kiwis is to slice off both
ends, then stand the fruit on one end. Make vertical
slices to remove the skin, rotating the fruit a little each
time, until you have something that more or less resembles a
cylinder of naked kiwi goodness.
In a small sauce
pan, spoon a few dollops – say 3-4 heaping teaspoons –
of strawberry jelly. Add a teaspoonful of water. Heat it up
until the jelly’s melted, stirring often to help break it
up. Spoon a
little of the strawberry jelly liquid on half the
cheesecakes, then pop a strawberry slice on each one. Repeat
this step with the apple jelly/apricot jam and kiwi slices.
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