This is an absolutely too die for appetizer. The recipe is originally from 128 Cafe in St Paul, Minnesota. Many years ago, in 1999 to be exact, Bon Appetit published it in the October edition of their magazine. Don't let the seemingly odd combination of ingredients fool you. They blend together wonderfully.
To begin, you will need some garlic. These were small heads, so I used all three.
Cut the very top of the head of garlic off
place it on a piece of foil and drizzle with a little olive oil. Wrap each head individually in the foil and roast it in the oven at 450 degrees for 30 minutes.
While the garlic is roasting, prepare the chutney. Combine 1/2 cup of brown sugar
and 1/2 cup of rice vinegar in a small sauce pan and heat over low heat.
Next, mince two cloves of garlic.
Peel
and grate 3/4 teaspoon of fresh ginger.
Add one cinnamon stick and sprinkle with an 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.
When the sugar has dissolved, add all four ingredients to the saucepan and stir.
To finish the chutney, you will need one Granny Smith apple and two Roma tomatoes.
Peel, core and cut the apple into small pieces.
Add 1/2 cup of golden raisins.
Once the sugar mixture is reduced to about 1/4 cup and syrupy, add the apples and raisins.
Stir to combine and cook on high heat until the apples are tender, about ten minutes.
While the apples are boiling, take a few springs of mint
and chop, combining in a bowl with the chopped tomatoes.
When the apples are tender, remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.
Once cool, combine the apple and tomato mixtures.
and stir to combine.
When the garlic has cooled, unwrap it from the foil and squeeze the cloves out of head.
To prepare the crostini, slice a French baguette into 1/3-inch-thick slices
and brush with olive oil.
Bake in 450 degree oven for 8 minutes.
Put the chutney, roasted garlic and one log of goat cheese on a platter.
This is a hands on appetizer. Smear the crostini with goat cheese.
Smash a clove or two of roasted garlic on top of that.
Finally, top with apple chutney.
Yum! I took these pictures last week, but I might have to make this again today, just for myself, because my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Enjoy!
Crostini with Roasted Garlic, Goat Cheese and Apple Chutney serves: 4 (Recipe also on epicurious)
3 heads of garlic
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 t fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 cinnamon stick
1/8 t cayenne pepper
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and cut into small pieces
1/2 c golden raisins
2 small Roma tomatoes, diced
1 T mint, chopped
1 French baguette
olive oil
6 ounces fresh goat cheese
Cut the very top of the head of garlic off, place on a piece of foil and drizzle with a little olive oil. Wrap each head individually in the foil and roast it in the oven at 450 degrees for 30 minutes.
For the chutney, combine 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of rice vinegar in a small sauce pan and heat over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Add garlic, ginger, cinnamon and cayenne and simmer until mixture is syrupy and reduced to 1/4 cup, about 8 minutes. Mix in the apple and raisins and boil until apples are tender, about 10 minutes. Cool to room temperature and mix in tomatoes and mint.
To prepare the crostini, slice a French baguette into 1/3-inch-thick slices and brush with olive oil. Bake in 450 degree oven for 8 minutes.
Serve chutney, roasted garlic, goat cheese and crostini together and allow guests to assemble their own appetizers.
I have one more recipe to share so that you can use up all the peppers you roasted last week. This one is an easy appetizer recipe that makes a wonderful, bite sized puff of yumminess.
The cast of ingredients are all simple. From your produce drawer, you will need a bell pepper, lemon, red onion plus fresh dill and cilantro. You will also need cream cheese, sour cream, black pepper and refrigerated buttermilk biscuits.
To begin, roast your pepper. Here is the tutorial on roasting bell peppers again if you missed it. This time, I'm using a pretty orangish yellow bell pepper. It looks orange in the ingredient picture and yellow here. I have lots more to learn about my camera!
While you are roasting the pepper, take 4 ounces of cream cheese and get it nice and soft in the microwave.
Once the cream cheese is softened, add 1/2 of cup of sour cream to the bowl.
Next, take and finely dice about 3 tablespoons of red onion
and add it to your bowl,
followed by a nice bunch of fresh dill
or about 2 tablespoons. You can use dried dill weed if you don't have any fresh dill, but fresh is always better and my dill plant was prosperous this week. Either way, add it to the bowl with the cream cheese, sour cream and red onion.
Once your pepper is roasted, cut it in half and finely dice about 3 tablespoons
which also goes into the bowl.
Finally, cut your lemon in half
and squeeze about 2 tablespoons of lemon juice into your bowl. If you lost any seeds, now is the time to fish them out.
Finally, take your pepper grinder
and grind a healthy amount, or about 1/4 teaspoon, of pepper into your bowl.
Mix it all up, set it aside and preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Now grab a can of refrigerated buttermilk biscuits. Or do you call this a tin? I have no idea. Anyway, grab one of these out of your fridge. These happen to be the BIG biscuits because that is what my husband came home with, but the normal size work just as well.
Cut the biscuit into four pieces and roll them into a ball. If you are using the normal size, you will probably cut them in half or thirds instead. Just form them into about 1 inch balls. You don't have to be precise. This is "art", not science.
Grab a mini muffin pan and give it a good spray down with cooking spray so the appetizers pop right out after being cooked.
Take the little buttermilk biscuit balls you made and start pressing them into the muffin tin, using your thumb to make a hole in the center.
When the tin is full, grab the sour cream mixture you set aside
and begin dropping heaping teaspoons into the indentations in the biscuits. When they are all filled, pop the pan into the oven for 14 to 17 minutes, or until they are nicely browned.
While they are cooking, roughly chop some cilantro for garnish.
When the appetizers are nicely browned and the cheese mixture is bubbly, they are done.
Pop them out of the oven and onto a plate. Sprinkle with the cilantro and give one a try. They should melt in your mouth. Best served warm! Enjoy!
1 16.3 ounce tube of refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1/4 c cilantro, roughly chopped
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Soften 4 ounces of cream cheese in the microwave. Add sour cream, red onion, roasted pepper, dill, lemon juice and freshly ground black pepper and mix well.
Open the refrigerated buttermilk biscuits, cut into fourth (if you have the big biscuits) and round into 1 inch balls. Push the biscuit balls into a greased mini muffin pan and make an indentation in the center of each biscuit with your thumb. Place a heaping teaspoon of the sour cream mixture on each biscuit and bake for 14 to 17 minutes.
Roughly chop fresh cilantro for garnish.
When the appetizers are nicely browned and the cheese mixture is bubbly, remove them from the oven, and top with the chopped cilantro.
