From Dip to Hors d'œuvre

It just so happened that a couple of days after making Artichoke and Goat Cheese dip for the Oscar party, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were in town and we had a semi-impromptu gathering in their honor. I had left-over dip and it would have been super easy to serve the dip again with crackers and bread, but I was feeling creative. I had a notion that the dip would also make a good filling for a hot hors d'œuvre.

I bought some phyllo dough at the store and defrosted a roll overnight in the fridge. I’d never really worked with phyllo dough before, but I felt a little adventurous and figured I’d improvise my way through creating a vague representation of what I had in mind. I unrolled the dough and cut it into squares.

You’re supposed to keep it moist by keeping any dough you’re not immediately working with under plastic wrap, and then layering a damp cloth over it. I accidentally splashed water over half of it, turning the lovely delicately sheeted dough into mush. Oh, well, I wasn’t going to use them all anyways.

Once the dough was cut into squares, I took a stack of a few sheets at a time (4-5) and brushed the top with little bit of melted butter.

Then I spooned a little bit of the goat cheese mixture in the middle. Then I simply gathered up the sides around the middle to create a little cup. (But make whatever shape you want. I left the cups open, but you could close them up to make little bundles, or fold them over to create pockets.) I then brushed a little more butter around the sides to help them turn golden in the oven. Once I had all the cups made and lined up, I placed them on cookies sheets and baked them in the oven at 350, for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden.

I must admit, not a bad first attempt. If the whole phyllo dough thing sounds too complicated, I also saw that Pilsburry makes a puff pasty dough especially for this type of use. I saw cans of this in the refrigerator section of the grocery store, in same area where you find the cans of pre-made biscuits and cinnamon rolls. As another alternative, if you have a restaurant supply store near you (there is an awesome one in Culver City called Surfas) they might carry pre-made hors d'œuvre shells. You could simply spoon in the dip and serve hot or cold.

I had another party come up this past weekend. A pot luck this time - or PoT LoVE, as my friend Kim’s yearly tradition is called. I’d had a rather crazy week, so I wasn’t up to attacking a new recipe, and figured I’d give the Artichoke Goat Cheese Baskets another go. I considered trying a sun-dried tomato version, but when I went to get started early last Saturday morning, the jar of sun-dried tomatoes proved difficult to open and I gave up five seconds later, returning to the easy to open can of artichokes with a trusty can opener. Even so, I have no doubt this would have been a delicious variation.

I can, however, tell you that the prepped, unbaked cups do travel decently well. I put the cups on sheets of foil and stacked them gently in a larger tupperware container and kept them refrigerated until it was time to go. I would just say to make sure to brush the bottom of the cups with butter to keep them from sticking. Upon arrival to the party, I commandeered the gracious host’s oven and baked up the cups right away.

One batch of artichoke and goat cheese dip is just about the right amount for one roll of phyllo dough. This yielded approx 25 cups.

As a final note, I have to admit that I wanted to tweak the consistency of the filling a bit, and I still haven’t quite got it right for the cups. Ideally, I’m aiming at a consistency in between the two versions I described in my previous post. Smooth and creamy, but a tad more firm and dry so that it’s able to get that nice baked goat cheese gold on top. I’ll keep you posted of future attempts.

Fabulous Party Dip

Years ago my friend Steff gave me an absolutely ADORABLE cookbook called Mary Engelbreit's Let's Party Cookbook. Despite the fact that I’ve thumbed through the pages of this book a million times, I must admit that I have not made all that many of the recipes.

There is one recipe, however, that I latched onto early on, and have made it a hundred times since – Artichoke & Goat Cheese Dip. I LOVE goat cheese and this recipe is super quick to whip up.

Here’s the list of ingredients:

- One 14 ounce can of artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed
(I never really bother to rinse them)
- One 10.5 to 11 ounce log of Montrchet or other mild fresh goat cheese at room temperature.
- 3 tablespoons light cream, half and half, or milk
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh tarragon or ½ teaspoon dried
(Just tarragon??? Please. Shake in a little of this and little of that, to taste. Whatever herbs your heart desires or happen to have—basil, thyme, rosemary, dill, oregano -- just go ahead and sprinkle it in! This past occasion I had thyme, so that's what I used. To further cheat, get one of the goat cheese logs that is already rolled in herbs and use that as a starter)
- Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
( I also like to use a spice blend G introduced me to called Cavender's All Purpose Greek Seasoning . It comes in regular and salt free varieties and goes great on a million things. Eggs in particular love this stuff)
- Crackers to serve (or bread, or crostini, or whatever you feel like serving the spread on)

1. Gently squeeze the excess liquid from the artichoke hearts. Cut them lengthwise into slivers and transfer them into a medium bowl. Add the cheese, cream, and tarragon and blend well with large wooden spoon. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 24, to allow flavors to blend.

2. About 15 minutes before serving, remove the dip from the refrigerator. Serve with crackers and several small knives for spreading.


The majority of the times that I’ve made this dip, I have made it just like this. It’s quick and easy, but you can play around and tweak the herbs and spices to your liking. It also makes a good sandwich spread because it has a thick and chunky consistency, given the pieces of artichokes that are mixed in.

Recently, I made batch to take with me to an Oscar party. This is a great item to bring to a party because it travels very well – just put in a portable container, grab some crackers or a baguette and you’re good to go,

On this occasion, I thought I’d play around with the texture a little bit. I brought out my Hand Blender and simply blended until smooth. A blender or food processor would work fine as well, but the hand mixer gives you a little more control. The artichokes breakdown pretty quickly and the result was somewhat more liquid -- now more a typical dip consistency, rather than a spread. At this consistency, it could also work well with crudités. Both versions are good, but actually really different. Try them both and let me know what you think.

February Supper Club: Won Tons - Part 2. Fill, Wrap, Fry

Next up on the won ton odyssey was the filling.

The filling was actually incredibly easy. If spending all day playing with kitchen toys doesn’t sound appealing to you, just buy won ton skins at the grocery story and the whole process will actually be very easy and fairly quick.

I took my recipe from a Chinese cookbook I received as a Christmas gift:
Encyclopedia of Chinese Food and Cooking
I used Won tons 1 recipe.

1 Egg
½ ground pork
1 tablespoon scallion
8 water chestnuts
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
12 won ton skins

(I skipped the water chestnuts, added 5 spice powder, and a little hit of chili sauce. I also doubled the recipe)


- Beat egg

- Mix All ingredients well

- Fill each Won ton skin with 1 tsp of pork mixture
Shape each into a cap to make won tons by drawing the four corners together and seal by pressing gently at juncture.

I had fun creating different ways to fold the won tons. G helped too , creating some sausage-esque won tons.

- Boil 2 qts of water, add won tons, bring to boil and cook 5 minutes. Drain won tons in colander, run cold water over won tons to cool. Cooked wontons can be frozen or left in refrigerator for a few days.

To deep fry, I busted out another new toy—my mini deep fryer. I filled the deep fryer with peanut oil and plunged the suckers in for a few minutes each until they reached a toasty color. The mini deep fryer is super convenient, but it is compact and the room inside is limited. I had to turn some of the won tons to get a more even color. If you don’t have a deep fryer, I think you could just as easily fill a giant pot with oil and scoop out with a strainer. You would just need a thermometer to know when you’d reached the proper temperature. Once fried, I just placed them on paper towels as they came out to soak up excess oil.

We served them with dipping sauces. We mixed up soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, and hoisin, but they would be good with any one of those on it’s own.

I have to say I was actually pretty impressed with my first attempt at making these guys from scratch. Next time, I’ll try to get the dough even thinner, as a few came out a wee bit doughy in spots. As well, I would try to make the won tons smaller, because they puff up and expand A LOT during the cooking phase. On the whole though, they were SUPER tasty. Go me!