Monday, 18 June 2012

• Roasted Grape and Blue Cheese Bites

  This is a guest post from Feast On The Cheap.
  
  Mariel here. I’ve always been an insatiable fruit fiend. My father is very much the same way so I suspect I picked up this trait from him, but even as a tot, I’d reach for a real plum over a sugar plum – a party trick that must’ve made my parents just brim with pride.

  Over the years my sweet tooth has “matured” to include sophisticated confections like Skittles and Sour Patch Kids, but there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t fill up on fruit when I’m craving something sugary….which brings me to this month’s post for Secret Recipe Club.

  I was assigned The Avid Appetite, a delightful blog that chronicles the life of a self-taught home cook who “three years ago, couldn’t boil water.” I identified immediately with her story line, since three years ago, my mother and I launched Feast in part as a way to help me learn the family trade: food.

  While there were a number of Avid Appetite‘s recipes that caught my eye, the brilliant simplicity of this Roasted Grape nibble immediately drew me in, particularly since I’ve eaten grapes many different ways over the years – peeled, frozen, tucked in salads, pureed – but never roasted.

  This recipe is as easy as it is delicious. While I opted to use phyllo instead of tortilla chips and blue cheese instead of goat – since it’s natural saltiness deftly off-sets the sweetness of the roasted grapes – this is a bird of a very similar feather. And although these would work perfectly as passed hors d’oeuvres, I’d also ask you to consider dishing them up as dessert – a sophisticated Euro-style dessert that’ll peacock your worldliness to all your nearest and dearest. Just like you always wanted. Enjoy!

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  Roasted Grape & Blue Cheese Bites
  Makes about 24 bites
  Adapted from The Avid Appetite

  Ingredients:

  • Phyllo cups/shells, thawed and baked according to package instructions – $3.19
  • 2 cups red seedless grapes – $2.99
  • Pinch of sea salt – stock
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil – stock
  • 4 ounces of blue cheese – $2.25
  • 1 Tablespoon honey – stock

  Grand total assuming “well-stocked” kitchen: $8.43
  Cost per cup: $0.35

  Directions:
  1. Bake the phyllo cups according to package instructions (you’ll find these in your grocer’s frozen foods sections). Set aside.

  2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil.

  3. Toss the grapes with olive oil and a little pinch of sea salt and roast for 15-20 minutes, or until tender and fragrant. A few will pop.

  4. In the meantime, portion out the blue cheese into the baked phyllo cups.

  5. When the grapes are finished roasting, reduce oven temp to 350 degrees and add a few grapes to each phyllo cup. Top with a little drizzle of honey and bake for an additional 3-4 minutes. Serve warm.

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