We featured some new and interesting ideas of reception appies.

Here is a Southwest Chicken Mini Taco. Southwest chicken salad made with a little kick, counterbalanced with lime and honey. The crunchy corn tortilla is visually striking. It’s kept upright with a little piping of cheddar cream cheese. For display and easy pick up, we used a simple bamboo boat. Great eats!

Inspired by the sweet Cannoli dessert. Here is a savory twist. Using shredded Asiago (any Italian hard cheese, such as Parmesan or Pecorino will do), we heated until melted and formed a cannoli shell around premade crab salad filling. Just about any filling will do. Possibilities are many!

This variation on a brownie incorporates two wonderful complimentary components, chocolate and mint. Cutting the brownie into small nuggets, we had something we could skewer. Adding the brownie kabob to a small plate and a tiny shot glass of Kalhua anglaise for dipping completed this fine combination.

This one actually surprised me. I originally thought just using a plain strawberry because the combination of the strawberry and the rum sauce was quite good. Whimsically, I moved to the classic chocolate covered strawberry, presented in a small martini glass and poured the rum sauce to envelop it. It was soooooo good!

Another simple dessert worked into the micro-plane presentation-wise of just giving a taste of a classic Mexican dessert. Tres Leche is a wonderfully sweet and moist (wet) concoction of cake and sweetened milks. Here we used a small 5 oz shooter glass and alternated layers of Tres Leche soaked cake, fresh berries and fruit with lime whipped cream. What I really like about this is the interplay between the sweet and sour tartness. We used fresh squeezed lime juice and zest to really increase the pucker action of the fresh cream. We also can make this into a full blown dessert for lunch or dinner!

We’ve done this one previously, but used a tall shooter glass. Only here we changed the type of glass to a mini martini glass. I really like these sea green colored glasses. It looks really sharp and distinctive. Anyways, simple using as the base, a small amount of blue cheese dressing, we filled the martini glass half way. Topped the white dressing with buffalo hot sauce. Next up we inserted two fried buffalo chicken fingers with some flowered stalks of celery, for garnish.

Categories: Receptions