A meal of appetizers?

March 17, 2015 10:49 AM

My husband recently went on a big speech about how he likes his meals to have lots of different tastes and flavours, and that uni-flavour meals (like pureed soups or some casseroles) are boring. So now I want to make him a meal where almost every bite is a different flavour!! Brilliant, right? but there are some snowflakey details within.

My husband and I take turns doing a monthly date night. After this (I made beef welling ton) it is my month again. I had a brilliant idea to make a meal of just a bunch of appetizers, or just small little bits of something delicious. Sort of like a sampler meal? I'm probably not explaining this very well...

In an ideal world I'd be able to make 6 or more different appetizers/foods, each with a very different flavour/look. Cohesiveness not required! I want just a bit of each appetizer so that we can have a wide variety of things.

Same restrictions as last time:
- NO POULTRY
- No shellfish
- No gluten
- protein can only be beef, pork, salmon, or haddock
- preferably not really high carb but I'm flexible on this
- preferably kinda fancy-like but I'm flexible on this

But the addition this time is that I'd like some awesome appetizers that scale down easily so that I don't have a ton of appetizers left over. I'd like appetizers that you can just make a bit of, rather than enough for a dinner party. Obviously some leftovers would be fine, just not a ton.

Suggestions?


ALSO I know people are going to suggest sushi but I recently had a very very bad run in with some sushi and man, I am just not ready to go there again. So no sushi.

posted by PuppetMcSockerson to Food & Drink (28 answers total)

Search for recipes for tapas+the ingredients you want to use.

Such fancy.
posted by phunniemee at 10:52 AM on March 17, 2015 [8 favorites]

Coming here to say tapas too.
posted by mareli at 10:55 AM on March 17, 2015 [3 favorites]

Yup! Tapas is exactly what you're looking for. Or if you really want to exert yourself, 'tasting menu' is the restaurant-level idea--look up cookbooks from noma, Alinea, elBulli, The Fat Duck, etc.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:55 AM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Teryaki beef (careful of the teryaki sauce for gluten).
Onion rings (gluten free coating)
Vegetable Kabobs.
Stuffed mushrooms.
Beef tartare.
posted by xingcat at 10:55 AM on March 17, 2015

I was kind of amazed by the variety in the recent FPP All You Wanted To Know About Chinese Dumplings and how many were listed which I'd never heard of before.
posted by XMLicious at 10:58 AM on March 17, 2015 [2 favorites]

Also, as well as the appetizer angle I'd look at condiments. One entree, a couple of sides, and a manifold splendor of condiments can also produce a meal where every bite tastes different.
posted by XMLicious at 11:00 AM on March 17, 2015 [2 favorites]

Mezze - taboulli, hummus, pickled vegetables, grape leaves, eggplant a dozen ways, and on and on (seriously, see that link, the recipes go on and on).

Plus skewered meat! I love kofta/kefte/kiffte/koobideh etc, and then a chicken thigh or ground chicken.

My favorite thing about mezze is that I can, in fact, have a different bite every time. A cornichon with a dip of hummus, then a bite of kofta with roasted eggplant, then taboulli and hummus, etc.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:01 AM on March 17, 2015 [5 favorites]

My husband and I call this 'snack dinner' and yes, it's basically a take on tapas or mezze.

We usually have:
Baguette (sliced)
Variety of cheeses
Olives/pickles/pickled vegetables (whatever we have)
Rotisserie chicken
Tapenade
Apple slices
Dolmas
Some sort of salad from the deli at Whole Foods

It's easy fun and satisfying
posted by Flamingo at 11:04 AM on March 17, 2015 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: Okay, so yes I was apparently looking for tapas. This search term should help! However, so far I am pretty overwhelmed by the sheer volume of different types of tapas, so having some specific recipes/types/things to make would be super.

Also, love the idea of one thing but have a spread of all kinds of different condiments to change it up.
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 11:05 AM on March 17, 2015

Try something like Korean bbq. There are always a variety of small sweet and savory vegetable plates (kimchi, marinated onions, some kind of potatoes) to go along with the barbecued meats.
posted by vignettist at 11:18 AM on March 17, 2015

Try dim sum! The only drawback is that it can be pretty labor-intensive...
posted by gemutlichkeit at 11:31 AM on March 17, 2015

if you're OK with barely cooked salmon, I've replaced a quick sear with the tartare one in here
http://paleoleap.com/salmon-tartare-with-fresh-herbs/ and it was delicious. I'm not sure about the gluten side of stuff
posted by TravellingCari at 12:13 PM on March 17, 2015

I was recently at a dinner party where the appetizer was three small servings of beef tartare with different dressings/condiments. It was quite amazing. The main course was a lovely fish soup, but in a way, it was too much, we had to skip the cheese to make room for the dessert.

For the tapas: albondigas, gazpacho, cuts of smoked salmon or filets of smoked herring or both, chorizo, manchego cheese with quince jelly. Is a Spanish omelette tortilla (omelette with onions, potatoes and potentially other good stuff) off because of the eggs? I've had one served with very thin slices of pickled red pepper, it was delicious.
posted by mumimor at 12:22 PM on March 17, 2015

Deviled eggs are easy to make only a few of.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:22 PM on March 17, 2015 [3 favorites]

A lot of very different spreads have similar bases -- you could get a package of cream cheese and experiment with blue cheese spread, honey-rosemary spread, artichoke dip, etc.

Fruit and cheese pairings! A single sliced apple with some cheddar, a single sliced pear with gorgonzola, etc.

You could roast small amount of many different vegetables on the same tray (or different small trays if you think they'll get runny) and then season them all very differently: roasted endive with lemon and walnuts (French), roasted red peppers with capers, garlic, olive oil and red wine vinegar (Italian), roasted cauliflower with cumin and a little fresh ginger (Indian), etc.
posted by ostro at 12:28 PM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Gravlax - dry cured salmon in herbs (corriander, dill, pepper, horseradish). You can make it a few days beforehand. Slice thin to serve. Most recipes call for a sauce, or serving with bread, but we have always skipped that portion.

It's totally wonderful. If you want the recipe we use, Mefi Mail me and I will send it to you.
posted by axismundi at 12:40 PM on March 17, 2015

I like fondue for this. You can make a yummy broth for the protein and veggies, and then have as many different dipping sauces as you care to make and/or buy. Lots and lots of different flavor/texture combinations.
posted by gatorae at 1:37 PM on March 17, 2015

Like Flamingo, we do "snack night" fairly often. I'm trying to reduce the carbs, so here are some of my standbys:

Meatballs
Chicken wings
Roasted vegetables (roasted green beans are a surprising favorite)
Cheese & fruit platter
Spinach artichoke dip (veggie dippers)
Hummus

It occurs to me that with the request for a different taste in every bite, you could try roasting a small roast of some sort (pork tenderloin, turkey breast, beef tenderloin) and serve it with some different sauces: horseradish, plum sauce, mushroom sauce, herb sauce, etc. You could add roasted veg for even more variety.

The sauce thing led me to reminisce about my mom serving us fondue. She'd have fondue pot of oil (I think you can use hot broth, too, to save on the fat) and we'd cook beef and vegetable chunks in the hot oil and then eat them with a variety of sauces. I've seen fondue pots & long handled fondue forks at thrift shops, if you wanted to take that route.
posted by sarajane at 1:57 PM on March 17, 2015

Roasted vegetables (roasted green beans are a surprising favorite)

Yes, several beautiful roasted vegetables. Roast cauliflower with capers, anchovies and parmesan is a favorite here.
posted by BibiRose at 2:57 PM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Besides tapas, the other word to use as a search term is meze/mezze. Wikipedia has a pretty good definition and list of some of the dishes.
posted by gudrun at 3:28 PM on March 17, 2015

Fair warning, this is a highly addictive way to eat. Portion control is slightly difficult (you're kind of eating your own mini buffet in some ways) but easy to overcome; the addictive thing is that eating this way is so damn easy. I'm not saying that's bad! Just that this (as in, something heavier on the tapas/meze side of things) style may well take over your general dining habits.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 3:31 PM on March 17, 2015

Bacon wrapped dates. The last time I had them, there was a balsamic reduction and ohhh, so good.

Every once in a while, the mister and I do a charcuterie board for dinner. For a gluten free cracker, I love Mary's Gone Crackers, because they have a complex flavor that pairs wonderfully with meat and cheese.

Spinach stuffed mushrooms, using gluten free breadcrumbs.

Steamed artichoke with a variety of dipping sauces. I think everyone should try a whole steamed artichoke at least once in their lives. My 13 year old daughter loves this for a snack.
posted by Ruki at 4:24 PM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Honestly, don't be afraid to cheat. The frozen arancini balls sold by Trader Joe's are really good. Pop in the oven and serve with a spicy marinara sauce. He doesn't have to know you didn't slave over a stove making risotto for arancini balls.
posted by AppleTurnover at 7:56 PM on March 17, 2015

I was going to suggest much the same thing as AppleTurnover. It's possible to buy frozen appetizer assortments that might have something like 6 pieces each of 4 different things. If you bought a couple of those, you could potentially have 8 different bites without a lot of work or a lot of leftovers. You could then supplement with a few small dishes you made yourself.

The other thing I wanted to mention, not specifically for this fancy date night dinner, but for some morning when you want to impress him with a quick but awesome breakfast is the striped PBJNHFPB sandwich.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:05 PM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Bibimbap
posted by Neekee at 8:49 PM on March 17, 2015

seared steak medallions with grated horseradish on top

basically anything with romesco sauce (i think additional almonds and water could replace the traditional stale bread)
posted by Juliet Banana at 7:09 AM on March 18, 2015

I love the traditional Jakarta Rice Table. although labor intensive rice (being gluten-free) and the unending varied of meat and vegetable sides are delicious.
posted by Twist at 8:00 AM on March 18, 2015

Your question made me think of Hot Stone Cooking.
posted by fourpotatoes at 4:17 AM on March 23, 2015