Crostini with Parma ham, sun dried tomatoes and Parmesan cheese #168

Easy to do, easy to enjoy, making crostini is a good way of serving great snacks that everyone will appreciate without spending the entire day in the kitchen. This is simply what it looks like, roasted slices of bread with Parma ham, good Italian sun dried tomatoes and some Parmesan cheese.

Crostini with Parma ham, sun dried tomatoes and Parmesan cheese

baguette
Parma ham
Parmesan cheese
sun dried tomatoes
olive oil

Slice the baguette and roast the slices in olive oil until golden and crisp. Add Parma ham, a piece of tomato and grate some Parmesan on top. Serve!

10 great Super Bowl snacks!

Super Bowl is just around the corner and what greater opportunity to put a little bit of extra effort into some great snacks! Below you will find my personal top ten favorites that will be great snacks when enjoying the game. For each picture there´s a link that you can follow if any of the snacks look to complicated, have a great Super Bowl and may the best team win!

First let´s start with something very simple, some roasted pumpkin seeds with sea salt.

Roasted pumpkin seeds with salt.

And follow it with a little bit of vegetables (don´t worry there´s chips and other great stuff coming right up).

Radishes with cream cheese and herbs.

And you just can´t get tired of edamame beans can you?

Edamame beans with salt.

Now for a classic with a twist, home made potato chips with a spicy Sriracha dip!

Potato chips with herb salt and Sriracha dip.

And who doesn´t love popcorn with lime and chili butter!

Popcorn with chili butter and lime.

 

No snack table is complete without some of this delicious middle eastern classic.

Hummus on toast.

Nachos, gotta love it!

Nachos with peppers and avocado mayonnaise.

Broccoli is probably not what you´re thinking of when planning you Super Bowl snack selection, but then make some room, this is great stuff.

Broccoli with Sriracha mayonnaise.

Home made grissini wrapped in delicious Parma ham.

Grissini with Parma ham and cream cheese.

And why not some more crostinis, this time with a garlic packed white bean dip!

Crostini with white bean dip.

New Years recipe ideas when you´re not on a budget

New Years Eve is coming up and if you haven´t decided on what to serve I have picked some of my own favorite recipes from Delicious Tapas and have some great suggestions for you!

This is part four in this series and for this post I will focus when you have an unlimited budget and want to treat yourself and your guests to something extra.

All recipes can be found in their original post that I have linked for each dish. I haven´t suggested any dessert but since I´m not that much into desserts. But if I have to recommend something I would go for any great ice cream, because who doesn´t love ice-cream?

New Years menu when you´re not on a budget

Appetizers - these three appetizers can more or less be eaten using your hands and of course you will be serving loads of Champagne on the side.

Duck liver paté with rosehip jam and bread
Grilled asparagus with Parmesan cheese
Grissini with Parma ham and cream cheese

Starter

Tuna tartar with avocado and chives

Tuna is always appreciated and I love the freshness and elegance of this recipe, since the budget is not an issue get the best tuna you can find.

Main course

Lobster tail with caper aioli
Linguine with truffles cream and Parmesan

Combine these two recipes but instead but skip the caper aioli for the lobster and you can serve the lobster warm instead of cold.

Grissini with Parma ham & cream cheese #120

Making your own Grissini is really simple and a good way to make use of leftover or extra dough. I usually make Grissini whenever I make regular bread, just make a bit too much dough and make some Grissini with a small amounth of dough because it will make a lot of Grissinis. However if you´re not into baking then just buy some Grissinis, they usually available in most food stores.

Another great thing about Grissini is that they will keep for a long time so why not make a big batch while you´re at it. They are perfect for snacking or serving as a side for all sorts of stuff. Plus you can brag about them no matter what you´re serving for main course.

Grissini with Parma ham & cream cheese

wheat flour
yeast
water
sea salt
olive oil
cream cheese with herbs
Parma ham

Combine wheat flour, yeast, water, sea salt and olive oil into a dough (use same proportions as you would for regular bread) and knead the dough until it´s smooth and not to sticky. Cover the dough and let it rise for about one hour.

Put the dough and a baking surface and cut it into long Grissinis, roll or twist them to make the shape a bit irregular, let them rise again and then bake in oven until golden. If the Grissinis are not crisp but are starting to brown you can remove them and lower the heat in the oven and put them in later to let them get dry enough.

Smear some cream cheese on each Grissini and then roll the Parma ham around it. Serve!

Parma ham with balsamic vinegar glazed plums & goat cheese #115

This is a great and unusual way to use plums, try to get firm and red ones because the won´t get to soft when heated with the vinegar. The combination between sweet and sour plums the salty ham and creamy cheese is a great one that you can apply to other dishes like salads or bruschettas. 

It also works well as a side to grilled meats, if you think it would get to heavy on the meat you can exclude the Parma ham.

Parma ham with balsamic vinegar glazed plums & goat cheese

Parma ham

balsamic vinegar

fresh plums

goat cheese

parsley

olive oil

sugar

Cut the plums in half and remove the pit. In a pan add a little bit of sugar and let it melt, add the plums flesh side down and let cook for a few seconds. Add some balsamic vinegar and bring it to a boil, add a splash of water in case it gets to dry.

On a plate combine the Parma ham with the plums and the vinegar from the pan with crumbles of the goat cheese. Add a few leafs of parsley.

Parma ham with cantaloupe #98

Well this is not much of a recipe but that´s the great thing about serving tapas, you can keep it as simple or complicated as you like. However, serving Parma ham and cantaloupe is of course all about the ingredients.

You can replace the Parma with any other high quality Italian ham, but I usually stay away from the Spanish hams when I do this because I think they can be a bit to powerful for this dish. Have your shop slice it for you and then find a decent cantaloupe to go with the ham.

Parma ham with cantaloupe

Parma ham
cantaloupe
olive oil
black pepper

Remove the seeds and peel the cantaloupe and cut in pieces, arrange with the ham on plates with a few drops of olive oil and a twist of black pepper. Done.