DIY Network

Appetizers That Go Well with Wine (Recipes)

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By Joyce Rosencran
Scripps Howard News Service

A party began with two hours of appetizers and get-to-know-you talk. Though the hosts had set up a full bar within easy reach of the guests, a majority seemed to request wine, both red and white, instead of hard liquor.

The lesson for holiday hosts may be to give a thought to matching appetizers and hors d'oeuvres to the wines offered. This doesn't have to be an agonizing process; just avoid the obvious ingredients that clash badly with wine, such as curry powder. Artichokes are another despoiler of wine flavors. Both ingredients, unfortunately, are prominent in popular appetizer recipes, such as curry-roasted walnuts, curried cheese spreads and the ever-present hot artichoke dip containing mayonnaise and Parmesan.

An important principle of amateur wine matching is that sparkling white wine or a medium-priced champagne is more forgiving of unfortunate food matches than your chardonnays, merlots and cabernets.

At a prix fixe meal recently, I was served a lagniappe of spicy pecan halves butter-roasted with hot pepper, sea salt and curry powder. Knowing they were on the menu just prior to a creamy onion soup with Parmesan, I simply ordered a glass of the "house" champagne, which was dry enough and delightful with the curried nuts. My enjoyment of a red wine, in that case, would have been ruined.

This holiday season, you'll surely find a sparkler to suit your budget. If not a pricey French Champagne, then sparkling wine from California or a Spanish Cava. Go for the driest (brut) sparkling wine to accompany hors d'oeuvres a first course.

Simple appetizer spreads of fruits and cheeses, olives and nuts, smoked fish or prosciutto wrapped melon chunks go well with fruity "still" wines. Consider a fruity chardonnay from California or Chile to please most guests. And it's good to include a mellow, fruity red for those who prefer a more robust wine, such as pinot noir, a Burgundy red or Italian barolo. Such wines can carry through dinner, but the sparklers can, too. It's so true that "champagne goes with everything."

Leslie Brenner, a contributing editor at Travel and Leisure magazine, is a wine expert and cookbook author. Her latest of four books on food and wine is American Appetite: The Coming of Age of a National Cuisine (Avon, 1999), but the relevant book here is The Art of the Cocktail Party (Penguin/Plume, 1994).

Each of these appetizers goes well with wines: Prosciutto and Melon with Port-Pepper Sauce; Cherry Tomatoes Stuffed with smoked Trout Mousse; Smoked Salmon Canapes and Belgian Endive Spears with Gorgonzola and Walnuts.

She would favor sparkling wines (brut) with the salmon canapes and the endive spears with the blue-veined Italian cheese. She suggests fruity still wines, chardonnay or pinot noir, with the rich flavors of the prosciutto-wrapped melon and stuffed cherry tomatoes. Because grape tomatoes are so sweet and so well loved by supermarket shoppers these days, by all means, stuff those tiny pear-shapes, if you have the time and patience. Regular cherry tomatoes will do, but select the smaller sizes from among the pint containers so they'll be bite-size appetizers for guests.

According to the Wine Market Council, 65 percent of Americans are white-wine drinkers, while 35 percent prefer red wine. Ms. Brenner says that offering a variety of wines for guests is easy on the hosts. Setting out carafes of wine or bottles decorated with wine collars to catch drips is much less effort than serving an iced punch or collecting all the components for mixed drinks. With wine, there's no need to worry about ice running out. Wine serving temperatures are quite flexible, too. A cool room temperature is fine for reds, while whites should be served at chillier temperatures.

Purchase wine according to this formula: 60 percent white wine and 40 percent red wine. Champagne, sparkling wine and rose are considered white wine for these calculations. For a champagne toast, buy one bottle for every eight guests.

Here are some myths concerning this season of entertaining:

• You must serve white wine with turkey because it's mostly white meat. Sure, chardonnay is great with turkey, but so is a pinot noir or Beaujolais. The best rule is that you should drink the wines you enjoy.

• Red wine should be drunk out of a larger, fuller wine glass, even a balloon glass. Ms. Brenner says red wine can be enjoyed in any type of glass that you have on hand, even a tumbler will do the trick. Just don't overfill a wine glass; allow room at the top for swirling and aromas to rise.

• You don't need to bring a gift to a holiday party. But why arrive empty-handed? Bring a CD of holiday music or an inexpensive, lidded glass jar of sweet snack mix (dried cranberries mixed with white chocolate chips and broken cashews). If the gift is wine, slip the bottle inside a slender gift bag or Christmas stocking. Or tie an ornament around the bottle's neck.

Ingredients:

7-8 Belgian endives
1/2 lb. each cream cheese, gorgonzola
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
64 walnut pieces

Preparation:

Trim ends, then separate endive leaves; wash and dry. Blend cream cheese with Worcestershire; stir in the crumbled gorgonzola or blue cheese. Spoon cheese at end of each leaf or spoon in a strip the length of each leaf. Top with walnuts.

Serves: 64 hors d'oeuvres


Smoked Salmon Canapes

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. smoked salmon, thinly sliced
8 slices pumpernickel bread, firm
Softened unsalted butter
1 Tbs. lemon juice
Capers
Shredded lemon zest

Preparation:

Spread bread with butter and cut out shapes with cookie cutters, 1-3/4 to 2-1/2 inches. Cut identical shapes from salmon. Lay over bread to fit; sprinkle with lemon and garnish with capers and a few shreds of zest. Or dab on sour cream, top with fennel leaves.

Serves: 20 to 36


Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes

Ingredients:

24 cherry tomatoes or 48 grape tomatoes
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 small smoked trout, about 1/2 lb.
2 dashes hot sauce
Milled white pepper
1 bunch chives, finely chopped

Preparation:

Cut a tiny slice off the bottom of each tomato so it will stand up. Then cut about 1/4 of the top off each. Using a melon baller, scoop out the seeds. Drain tomatoes upside down on a paper towel.

Remove skin and bones from trout and put the fish in the bowl of a food processor or blender. Add hot sauce and pepper; process until smooth. Beat the cream until it holds stiff peaks. Stir the fish into the cream. Chill for 1 to 24 hours. Using a pastry bag, pipe a portion of the mousse into each tomato. Garnish with chives.

Serves: 24 hors d'oeuvres


Prosciutto and Melon

Ingredients:

1 ripe cantaloupe
1/2 pound sliced prosciutto (Italian cured ham) 2 cups ruby port (wine) 1/2 teaspoon milled pepper Cut melon into 1-inch chunks or use a melon baller to scoop into balls. Cut the prosciutto into pieces just big enough to cover a piece of melon. For the sauce: Put port in a small saucepan with pepper and simmer until it is reduced by two-thirds. At the end it should measure 2/3 cup and should be almost syrupy.

Wrap each piece of melon with prosciutto and secure with wooden picks. Place a small bowl of the warm port sauce in center of a large platter and surround with the wrapped melon pieces.

Serves: 50 hors d'oeuvres


(Contact Joyce Rosencrans of the Cincinnati Post at www.cincypost.com.)

RESOURCES :
American Appetite: The Coming of Age of a National Cuisine
Model: 0380788254
Author: Leslie Brenner
(1999)

To order this title from Amazon.com, click here.

Avon Books
New York, NY 10019
Phone: 800-223-0690

The Art of the Cocktail: The Complete Guide to Sophisticated Entertaining
Model: 0452272351
Author: Leslie Brenner
(1994)

To order this title from Amazon.com, click here.

Plume (Penguin Putnam, Inc.)
New York, NY 10014
Phone: 212-366-6000