Parties & Potlucks

I make meat chips from cured meats like salami, prosciutto, pancetta, etc., to nibble on or dip in fondue or queso. You can crumble tem on otherwise healthy dishes like salads and granola… just kidding.  Perfect for gluten-free and paleo diets as well as for meat freaks.

A dense chocolate flan covered with chocolate sprinkles and served with crème anglaise. From Brazil, it resembles the famous Brigadeiros chocolate candy balls.

This is my mom’s Cheese, Onion & Tomato Pie based on the Savory Cheese and Onion Pie in “The Vegetarian Epicure” by Anna Thomas published in 1972. All my life, we’ve called it Cheese, Onion & Tomato Pie, but after I reached out to Anna Thomas and asked permission to publish this recipe, I looked it up and see that she has another recipe called Cheese & Tomato Pie in her book, The Vegetarian Epicure, Book Two. This is not that recipe although that one looks good too. My mom uses a frozen 9” pie crust for the pie, but the original recipe calls for a 10” shortcrust pastry. My mom adds Parmesan cheese to the recipe as well.

For your gluten-free holiday entertaining try Fall Fowl Balls. They’re little turkey meatballs studded with apples, cheddar cheese and rolled in nuts for a light and tasty autumn appetizer! Turkey meat tends to be dry. I add sautéed veggies, grated cheddar and diced dried apples to the turkey meat to give it a nice texture and fall herbs to give a cozy bite.

A Whole 30 and gluten free compliant pie with a potato crust, pork carnitas, caramelized onions, roasted tomatoes, and eggs. My idea was to take the ingredients of pork taco and make it into a pie or quiche with a layered potato crust.

Carnitas are citrus and spice infused braised pork that’s often browned in the oven before using.They’re kind of like Mexican pulled pork.

“Hey, nice looking slaw!” When was the last time someone called your coleslaw pretty? Behold, a stunning red coleslaw studded with dried cherries and topped with pistachio dust.

A recipe for a southern potato salad with eggs, sweet relish, mustard, red peppers, celery, carrots, red onions, parsley and more. It resembles confetti.

My Jewish ancestors on my mom’s side CHEER when I make chopped liver. It’s funny, my Jamaican, paternal grandfather worked in a Jewish hotel, so he was partial to chopped liver as well. For my paternal grandmother, no trip to Zabar’s was complete without picking up some chopped liver with the good rye bread, the one with the seeds.

Remember when you simply threw the canned chickpeas in the food processor to make hummus. Those were the good, easy days. Now you must slip the skins off each chickpea or die of hummus shame because it’s not smooth enough. This is my work around and you can totally grab a can of chickpeas and slip off the skins, one at a time…

This Potato, Cauliflower & Green Bean Salad in a Dijon Basil Vinaigrette is perfect for a picnic since it gets better the longer it sits.

Miang Kana means “many bites”. It’s a street food from Thailand where you combine ingredients in a leaf and eat them together for a flavor explosion. It’s a fun dish for a summer party or BBQ!

Inspired by cevapcici, a skinless, grilled sausage that originated in the Balkan states. I first had them in Australia and have never seen them in New York. Perhaps I will start a trend?

St. Patrick’s Day inspired Shepherd’s Pie Stuffed Mushrooms: mushroom caps stuffed with a hearty shepherd’s pie filling, topped with mashed potatoes and Irish cheddar cheese. St. Paddy’s Day is not really one of my celebrated holidays. I’m not one to run out and make a bunch of green-colored food or drink green beer (shuddering), but this dish is a great gluten free dish or appetizer any day..

The Roasted Asparagus, Mushroom, Bacon & Goat Cheese Tart I designed for an Easter brunch. It would also make a fine Easter bonnet, it’s so pretty.

Egg rolls used to be the staple appetizer in the New York Chinese restaurants of my youth. Now they are like hen’s teeth so I had to make them myself.

There is something so satisfying about making your own gravlax. It’s easy, but looks like you sweated over it. I added fresh beets to the curing mixture to give even more dazzle!

These lemongrass spiced beef rolls were a favorite hors d’oeuvre we served when I was freelance catering cook in Melbourne, Australia. The kitchen was near Little Saigon, so we would buy these in rather than make them.

This is a lovely salad that I originally had in Montreal, at the Dominion Square Tavern, in the dead of winter in 2012. It’s a long way from New York so I had to make my own version.

There’s nothing like the smell of browned butter and I’ve been making this recipe ever since I was a catering cook in Australia at Black Tie Catering.They were always a highlight of our petit fours and cookie platters. I prefer them with a tart dried fruit, but you could use fresh berries, stone fruit slices, baby figs, anything you like

I live around the corner from Paisano’s Meat Market on Smith Street in Brooklyn. They sell Italian sausage meat which is a fatty, spiced ground pork mixture studded with fennel seeds. You could pretty much mix anything into it and it would be AMAZING. When I was researching my International Men With Balls Brunch I came across this popular dish that’s often made with Bisquick. Mine have a much higher ratio of I made gluten free sausage and cheddar balls.

Inspired by my garden, I created a salad where green, unripened tomatoes contrast three ways with their vine ripened counterparts: color, flavor and texture. It’s a great way to use up extra homegrown herbs as well.

This is a delicious spin on potato pancakes is perfect for Passover! I wanted it to be extra crunchy, so I added crisped rice to the coating. I was curious to see how this would work out and it did so “CRUNCH-i-liciously”!

While this Smoked Duck Breast, Mango & Avocado Salad sounds pretty fancy, it’s only because smoked duck breast makes even the most pedestrian dish sound uppity. Say: Smoked Duck Breast, Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich—see? It adds instant class. In addition to raising the social strata of any dish, smoked duck breast is a quick fix for any dish. Yes, I’m calling Smoked Duck Breast Oatmeal—trend-spotting!

There are no proportions for the ingredients in this recipe, only the technique. I figure on six to ten wings per person. I always make extra since we can usually eat a ton of these and even if we can’t finish them, we are very happy to eat them the next day. Make a sticky sauce and consider giving them a wee sprinkle of a little something crunchy when they come out of the oven like garlic chips, sesame seeds, bacon bits, and so forth (more ideas below).

You can follow a recipe and eat very well, or do your own thing and eat EXACTLY what you want, which I think is even better. I’m a rule-breaker and I encourage you to do the same. You can put anything in this Franken-salad. Just make sure the colors contrast as you build it and expect GASPS from your guests.

My Mama didn’t know how to cook when she left the nest. She had to learn fast. This Madras chicken curry recipe was one of her most requested-by-us dishes. It’s so simple a newlywed could master it!

I whipped up this red white and blue salad featuring watermelon, jicama, and blueberries for a friends Fourth of July party. If you use a different cookie-cutter for the watermelon and jicama you can pretty much change the theme to create a patriotic salad for any summer occasion. I can see baby shapes for a baby shower salad, cars and trucks for a boy’s birthday, flower shapes for a garden party, etc. It could be fun to cut out initials.

This dish looks great on a plate, especially if you can get the red and white endive for contrast.

I called this a winter salad because I made it in the winter. It looks a little like a snow ball or, as a few people thought when they saw the photo, a white chocolate truffle rolled in coconut.

Here’s the cool thing about throwing events. You don’t always have to cook to bring delight to a party or potluck or even a holiday meal. Gathering the right ingredients and making your food interactive will make it FUN. Set up a banana split bar so your guests can make their own. Who doesn’t LOVE a banana split? If you’ve got a fussy friend or two, don’t invite them. Just kidding, there’s plenty of options for them too. They can just have ice cream or just bananas or eat their weight in maraschino cherries. Everybody’s happy! You don’t need all of the items under ingredients… unless you enjoy a bit of overkill like me. Use your favorites or try one of the less processed, artisan-made alternatives I’ve listed below. For a potluck, ask each guest to bring something from the list!

Once every couple of months a bunch of food lovers gather for Brooklyn Swappers where they trade homemade goods. You never know what these wonderfully creative cooks will be swapping: pickles, jams, sauces, chutneys, relishes, infused alcohols, teas, cakes, cookies, flavored salts, chocolates, candies, kombucha—it could be ANYTHING! For Sunday’s brunch swap, I made Salted Cinnamon Browned Butter Caramels. There’s also a potluck, for which I believe I invented a new dish: The Deviled Egg Egg