Recipe Friday: Holiday Appetizers

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line baking sheet with foil or parchment. Peel and slice sweet potatoes into 1/2-inch rounds. In a medium bowl toss sweet potatoes with oil and lightly season with salt. Arrange rounds in a single layer on your prepared pan; bake until sweet potatoes are lightly browned and tender, about 20 minutes flipping halfway through.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet over medium heat, bring butter to a simmer. Add half of the sage leaves. Cook until crispy, 2-3 minutes. Remove to paper towel and season lightly with salt. Repeat with remaining sage leaves. Reserve 2 teaspoons of the butter. In a small food processor, combine goat cheese and butter; whirl until smooth.

To make rounds, remove goat cheese to a plastic zip bag. Cut off one corner and pipe small dollops of the cheese onto each round. Top with half a slice of Prosciutto di Parma and one crispy sage leaf.

In a small bowl mix goat cheese and heavy whipping cream to make it spreadable.

Spread goat cheese to cover watermelon leaving room to hold the rind.

Place prosciutto then greens as toppings on watermelon pizza as desired.

Drizzle balsamic glaze on watermelon pizza. Pepper to taste.

In a food processor, add shallots, parsley, cilantro, garlic, cumin, ginger, salt, cinnamon, pepper, coriander and cayenne; pulse to puree. 

In a large bowl, mix herb and spice ingredients with lamb.  Scoop meatballs with #40 scoop, roll into ball and place on parchment-lined sheet tray. 

Place a soaked wooden skewer into each meatball.  Bake meatballs at 350°F, approximately 10 to 15 minutes. 

Serve each meatball immediately atop Green Chutney spooned onto serving platter if passed, or with Green Chutney in a bowl on the side placed on a buffet or station.

In a blender, combine cilantro, coconut, mint, jalapeño, lemon juice, ginger and salt; blend to a smooth paste. 

Use water as needed to adjust consistency.

For the Basil Oil: Wash and strip the basil leaves from the stems. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and blanch the basil for about 10 seconds to set the color. Remove to an ice bath to stop the cooking. Drain the basil and squeeze to remove excess moisture. Press the basil between paper towels to dry as much as possible.

Place the dry basil in a blender with the grapeseed oil. Process until smooth. Add the olive oil and blend again until smooth. Place in a container and refrigerate for at least 8 hours for the flavors to blend.

To use the oil, bring it to room temperature. Strain it through a cheesecloth-lined sieve. Squeeze the cheesecloth to extract as much oil as possible. Discard the solids and pour the oil into a squeeze bottle. Use immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 month.

For the Boursin Cheese Bites: In a bowl, whisk the eggs with a pinch of salt.

Coat the Boursin cubes in the egg and drain the excess. Dredge them in the flour and shake off the excess. Toss them in the bread crumbs. Spread the coated cheese bites on a baking sheet and freeze until just firm, about 15 minutes.

Heat the oil to 375° F. Working in batches, fry the cheese bites until golden and crisp, about 45 seconds. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bites to a paper towel–lined plate and season with salt.

For each serving, squeeze some basil oil into a Japanese soup spoon and top with a warm Boursin bite. Drizzle with balsamic glaze and serve warm.

Combine milk, heavy cream, ½ cup sugar and vanilla in a pot on induction, set to 220-250°F. Stir occasionally.

In a mixer, whip egg yolks and remaining ½ cup sugar to soft peaks (yolk will be lighter yellow in color and you should see lines in it when pulling whisk attachment out).

When milk mixture is around 195-205°F, temper it into yolks, adding a little bit initially then more the second time.

Pour tempered yolks into pot and bring up to 178-180°F.

Quickly remove from pot and strain through a chinois into a large bowl set in an ice bath. Reserve for serving.