Second, I recommend an easy, light recipe to celebrate today's weather perfection. There's a breeze in my hair, sun on my face, and good eats in my belly. The "good eats" of which I speak were a creation inspired by a friend's own creation I enjoyed at the 2010 New Year Extravaganza a few months back (They were delicious, Sarah!). I tweaked the idea little bit just to see what it would taste like. 'Twas good and simple. Good, simple, and beautiful.
How to assemble Happy Spring Apple-tizers:
These are the only ingredients you'll need.
Granny Smith apples
Chipotle flavored goat cheese (I got a version made locally in Maryland from my now-second-home, Roots)
High-quality Prosciutto di Parma (not too fatty, not too lean, not too chewy)
Chipotle chili powder
And this is all you'll have to do:
Slice the apples into wide-but-thin slices. The wider the slice, the more room for carrying the toppings. Keep it bite-sized, though.
De-rind your cheese and crumble it into manageable bits.
Assemble your apple slices on a serving platter. Top each with a generous portion of the chipotle cheese. Tear off a two-inch square portion of prosciutto and gather it into a package small enough to sit atop the cheese and apple. I kept the pile going as vertical as possible and pinched the prosciutto to keep it gathered tightly.
Sprinkle the tops of the individual portions with your chipotle powder and serve! It is so simple, but the flavors meld together like buttah. Try this or a variation of it for your next cook-out/shower/party/picnic. You can make a ton of them out of only two apples, five slices of prosciuto, one hunk of cheese, and a sprinkle of chipotle. They'll go quickly.
We had ours with glasses of chilled Asti Spumante. This may have been the perfect Spring afternoon snack.
Um, YUMMMMM! Right up my alley!! ...but goat cheese is sometimes a bit too musty-tasting for me, does the chipotle flavoring cut any of that? Or is there a Grace-approved substitute for the cheese layer? I'd love to make these. Seems like they are gluten-free, always a plus for our Dangerous Curves events/gatherings, since Lisa is HIGHLY gluten sensitive... P.S. Do you tag keywords in your blog posts? You should tag gluten-free recipes if you aren't already--I know Lisa is constantly searching for recipes online...
ReplyDeleteHow long will this last before the apples start turning ugly brown? Seems like something you have to make and serve right away.
ReplyDeleteGood question above!
ReplyDeleteI usually drizzle my apples with a citrus of some kind to add flavor and to keep them fresh. For this recipe, I think LIME would be the best because we all love the combination of lime and chipotle! The green apples stayed beautiful for a long time when I made them, but that bright color could certainly be prolonged with the help of some lime juice.
These were very tasty. There really is nothing like goat cheese: creamy like cream cheese but not gummy... I could almost hear tiny bells and bleating on a far away hillside. I made these with Aidan awhile back but I substituted graham cracker for the apple, marshmallow for the goat cheese and Hershey's chocolate for the prosciutto.
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