"Wharfrat" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:I went out for dinner with a girl who's a vegetarian (I'm a psuedo-
vegetarian) and we split an order of cranberry puffs. Basically they were
cream-cheese and cranberry stuffed "crab-rangoons" served with a
sweet/sour
Quoted message said:sauce.
I would like to make this appetizer for her the next time I cook for her,
but I would like to make it even better than what we had at the restraunt.
It seems like a basic enough recipe....The cream cheese was redish and
there was like one or two little cranberries in each "puff"
I think they used eggroll wrappers instead of wonton wrappers bc they were
the same size/shape as regular crab-rangoon.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to improve upon this simple recipe? What
else should I add to the cream cheese to compliment the cranberries?
Any other ideas on vegetarian puffs or rangoons would be deeply
appreciated. I really want to impress this girl.
Thanks in advance.
Sub. a soft blue cheese for the cream cheese? I have had blue cheese spiked
with cranberries and the flavours were made for each other IMO. As others
mentioned - nuts! 9Esp I agree, the walnuts, or even pecans) They'd go well
with a blue cheese in there too. Cheese-wise, you could go mild, like a blue
brie, or something stronger - I think both ways have their different merits.
For middle-of-the-road strength, if you cannot find a medium strong blue
cheese, you can use half and half, say blue brie and Danish blue, and make
the strength to your liking. Also, a sprinkle of fresh ground black pepper
(not too much!) often does a lot to enhance fruit flavours, in sweet or
savoury contexts.
As for others, staying on the cheese theme, there's stilton, port and
mushroom;
leek, lemon zest and cream cheese;
cream cheese, strengthened by a little finely grated pecorino/regiano, with
fresh basil leaves, maybe a little garlic too (teeny bit of pepper maybe
too - coarse ground for appearance);
also, white grape, black olive (or the other way round!), thin strips of
sweet red capsicum, white brie, and again, black pepper.
The combos go on and on - you just gotta work with what flavours work
together - fruit and cheese have always been popular combined, with
different cheeses preferring different fruits - let you imagination run
wild, invent some combos, try out a few different ones in small mixed
batches of each, and go with the ones you think work best, or add
to/change/subtract from ones you feel could benefit from such!
Myself, liking food with chiles in, would be tempted to add some fresh
sliced chiles to some of the above, since chiles and cheese are a match made
in heaven, and IMO, do nothing to offend the fruit!
May you score well! Heheheheh... ',;~}~
Shaun aRe
--
Life is the dream you wake up to.
