With the holiday season on the horizon, we’re all looking forward to getting together with family and friends and thinking about festive foods to share. For something a little different this year, I suggest this simple appetizer, featuring cups of crisp endive leaves filled with tangy blue cheese and topped with toasted walnuts.
Belgian endive is a type of chicory that boasts a crisp texture and mildly bitter flavor. Its pale color is due to a process called forcing or blanching. This involves growing the plant in dark conditions to prevent chlorophyll production, which would turn the leaves green. Harvested from fall until spring, Belgian endive is an excellent choice for a winter salad green. It can also be braised or turned into a gratin, but one of my favorite uses is as an edible cup for this delicious appetizer.
Equipment: portable electric mixer; piping bag fitted with a large star tip or zip-close food storage bag (optional)
Ingredients
¼ cup walnut halves
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 ounces blue-veined cheese, such as Roquefort
4 Belgian endives
Preparation
1. Preheat a toaster oven or oven to 350°F. Spread the walnuts in a small baking pan and bake until fragrant, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool completely, then chop coarsely.
2. Meanwhile, beat the cream cheese with a portable electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add the blue-veined cheese and beat until blended. Spoon the cheese mixture into a piping bag fitted with a large star tip or a food storage bag. If using a food storage bag, snip a small hole in one corner. Piping is the most efficient and attractive way to fill the endive leaves, but you can spoon the filling into the leaves if you prefer.
3. Rinse the endives and pat them dry. Carefully separate the leaves from the stems. Reserve the largest and most attractive leaves for filling, and save the small center leaves and any ragged ones for salads. Pat the cavities of the endive leaves dry.
4. Pipe or spoon a large rosette of the cheese mixture into each endive leaf cavity. (You can refrigerate the filled endive leaves, covered, for several hours.) Shortly before serving, sprinkle the filled endive leaves with the toasted walnuts.
Makes 24-26 appetizers
Tip: You can also use the blue-veined cheese mixture to fill poached dried figs. The slightly sweet figs contrast beautifully with tangy cheese. You can also serve this as a dessert, accompanied by a glass of port. Use dried Black Mission figs, rather than Calimyrna figs. Mission figs are smaller and more appropriate for a bite-sized appetizer.
To prepare the dried figs, bring 1 ½ cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Remove them from the heat; add 2 black tea bags. Cover and let steep for 5 minutes. Remove the tea bags. Add ¼ cup granulated sugar and return to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add 24 dried Mission figs to the pan, partially cover, and reduce the heat to low. Poach the figs until tender but still firm, 20 to 30 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer the figs to a plate. Let them cool completely. Using a paring knife, trim the stems from the figs and trim the bottoms so that they rest upright. Make a slit in the top of each fig. Pinch each fig gently to open the cavity, and pipe a rosette of the cheese mixture into each one. Makes about 24 appetizers.
Patsy Jamieson