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Goat Cheese Appetizers in Filo Pastry Canapes Recipe
These amazing canapé parcels are perfect for buffets or dinner parties. They are best served piping hot from the oven but they are just as nice warm or even at room temperature. Making them is really simple, even if you are a beginner in the kitchen.
You can increase the recipe if you want to make more. Making more does not take much more time than just making the amount in the recipe. If you want to make bigger parcels, just use two filo pastry sheets, eight inches across, and put all the ingredients into that. That size would make an entree but following the recipe as it stands you will get four canapés.
The dressing can either be drizzled over the top of these canapés (do this just before serving them, so they do not go soggy) or you can serve it on the side as a dipping sauce. Obviously if you are serving these at a buffet it is best to serve the dipping sauce on the side; some people might not want any and you do not want the canapés sitting around getting soggy.
Thai Canape Parcels with Goat Cheese and Ginger
Ingredients -
1 finely chopped red onion
1 finely chopped red bell pepper
Juice from 1 orange
2 inch piece fresh ginger
2 oz pine nuts
2 oz crumbled goat's cheese
1 tablespoon sweet white wine
2 tablespoon prepared mustard
8 squares filo pastry, 4 inches across
½ tablespoon oil or butter, for sautéing
Melted butter, as needed
Shredded lettuce, to serve
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350 deg F.
Toast the pine nuts in a skillet until they are browned, then let them cool.
Sauté the onion and red bell pepper in the oil until soft.
Let them cool.
Brush 4 filo pastry square with melted butter and top them with another square.
Divide the cheese between them, placing it in the centers.
Top with the cooled vegetables and bring the sides up, pinching them closed.
Brush more melted butter over the filo pastry and bake them for 15 minutes or until golden.
Combine the orange with the mustard and wine.
Grate the ginger finely and add it to the orange mixture.
Serve the hot Thai canapé parcels on a bed of lettuce with the dipping sauce on the side.
(Serves 4)
Wine Suggestion:
What Wine Goes with Goat Cheese Appetizers
Sauvignon Blanc is the classic wine pairing to use if you are serving something with goat's cheese, because it is fruity, acidic, and clean. It cuts right through the richness of the cheese, preparing your palate for another wonderful bite of the Thai canapés. Because a lot of Thai food, and recipes with Thai flavors, tend to be delicate and aromatic, dry white wines usually work. If you are eating Thai food, which is spicy and not sweet, go for something sweeter like a Reisling.
Photo Description:
As you can see from this picture, these little Thai canapés are very special. The onion, bell pepper, and goat's cheese might not be typical Thai ingredients but the ginger and orange sauce has a true taste of the Orient. Serve these little parcels hot with a chilled dipping sauce and your guests will be in heaven when they take their first bite. This is a colorful recipe if you serve the canapés on lettuce and everyone is sure to want to taste these amazing little snacks.
Sauvignon Blanc - Some Interesting Facts
The first cuttings of Sauvignon Blanc, which is also known as Fume Blanc, were introduced to California shortly before the start of the twentieth century. The plantings were successful in the Livermore Valley and a sweet version of Sauvignon Blanc (sweeter than we know now anyway) soon became very popular. The vines need to be pruned with care because they grow fast and the plant's energy needs to go towards making the fruit ripe rather than growing new leaves. If you crop too much or too little, the resulting wine will be bland.
Sauvignon Blanc, which is wonderful with goat cheese appetizers or a Thai canapé recipe with cheese, can be mild or intense. The flavor is often compared to bell pepper, grapefruit, or grass. Sauvignon Blanc has a distinctive, aggressive aroma and it has been compared to lemongrass, smoke, toast, flint, vanilla, and green olives. This wine is zesty and tangy because of its high acidity and that applies to the sweeter versions too, which is good because it stops them from being too heady or cloying. If the grapes are harvested before they are ripe or there has not been enough sun, Sauvignon Blanc might smell like a cat grit box, which is not very attractive!
Some California wineries chose to make early Sauvignon Blanc bone dry, like the French Sauvignon Blancs, and others preferred a sweeter style like the Barsacs and Sauternes. Confusingly enough, the California 100% Sauvignon Blancs are usually in Bordeaux style bottles and the blended and oak-aged wines are named Fume Blanc and are usually in blended, oak-aged wine style bottles! This wine is also produced in South Africa and New Zealand, as well as Argentina, Chile, Australia and Italy. This varietal is often blended with Semillon to give a fig flavor and more richness and complexity.
Which Foods Suit Sauvignon Blanc?
A dry Sauvignon Blanc, or Fume Blanc, is a versatile wine. Serve it with a goat cheese appetizer recipe or even smoked cheeses. Bell peppers, tomatoes, raw garlic, and cilantro are examples of sharp-tasting foods which would be too rough-tasting for Chardonnay and most other dry white whites but which are beautiful with Sauvignon Blanc bringing out their unique flavors. Sauvignon Blanc is not only great with a goat cheese appetizer recipe but it goes with many other pungent foods too.
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