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Fancy Gourmet Appetizers with Beet and Feta Cheese
This recipe is made with beets and feta. You can use cow feta if you like but goat feta has a superior flavor and is better for this appetizer recipe. Anyone who likes beets will love this wonderful and easy recipe.
If you are looking for a recipe you can make in five minutes, you can substitute pickled, sliced beets for the fresh ones. Then you will not need to cook them. Using raw beets and cooking them yourself does give better results though.
Serve this delicious feta beet appetizer on a bed of salad leaves if you like, or garnish it simply with some watercress, mustard cress, or alfalfa. You will need to serve this immediately, or else the juices from the beets will soak into the cheese and make it pink, which does not look as good as the contrasting purple and white stripes.
Gourmet Feta and Beet Stacks
Ingredients -
6 raw beets
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
8 oz goat feta
3 tablespoons olive oil
Handful of watercress, for garnish
Black pepper
Preparation:
Wipe any dirt off the beets and trim the stalks to ½ inch away from the flesh. Do not trim the root.
Boil the beets in water until they are tender.
Rub the skin off using your fingers or peel them using a sharp knife.
Cut off the root and stalks.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and cut the beetroot into slices.
Toss the beetroot with the olive oil and roast it for 20 minutes or until it looks caramelized and roasted.
Toss it with the balsamic vinegar and black pepper.
Slice the feta cheese and alternate slices of cheese with slices of beets on serving plates to make beet and cheese stacks.
Decorate with watercress and serve immediately.
(Serves 6)
Wine Suggestion:
What Wine Goes with Fancy Gourmet Appetizers
Choose a grassy Sauvignon Blanc to go with the tart, slightly sour flavor of the feta. Sauvignon Blanc is sometimes known as Fume Blanc in California and its flavor ranges from herbaceous to fruity, with aromas of grapefruit, bell pepper, or gooseberry. This light-tasting wine goes beautifully with the roasted beetroot as well as with the cheese.
Fancy Gourmet Appetizers
Photo Description:
This is an elegant appetizer and it is also quite unusual. The smoothness of the beetroot contrasts nicely with the crumbly feta cheese and the watercress makes a perfect garnish. If you have never cooked beets before, there is nothing difficult about it. You just need to boil them until tender and then roast them until they caramelize. Wait for them to cool and then stack them with the goat feta, or stack them while they are still hot for a different take on this gourmet appetizer recipe.
Ideas for Fancy Gourmet Appetizer Stacks
You can make really simple gourmet appetizers by using the stacking method, stacking different ingredients to make your hors d'oeuvres. The key is to use ingredients which not only go together (and of course that is very important) but also to play with color and texture, so you can come up with melt-in-the-mouth ingredients combinations.
Tips for Delicious Appetizer Recipes
Try to use at least two colors when making fancy gourmet appetizers, so they look appealing. Beets and feta cheese contrast a lot, since one is purple and the other is white. You can make healthy appetizers using vegetables. Slices of cucumber and tomato would be a good idea for simple yet gourmet appetizers and you can add some lemon mayonnaise or garlic mayonnaise between the layers, to add another flavor. For the gourmet touch, you can dot a little caviar or place a shrimp or two on top of each one.
A lot of ingredients can be sliced and stacked. What about hard-boiled egg, fish, meat, lightly cooked zucchini, mushrooms, or hard cheese? You can stack two different ingredients, or even three or four. Drizzle olive oil over the top and scatter some fresh herbs over the appetizers if you are serving them on toothpicks or with cutlery. If you are stacking ingredients which might collapse, you can use a toothpick to skewer right through the fancy gourmet appetizers. Use decorative toothpicks so people can see them and will know to take them out before enjoying the appetizers.
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