Tapenade, Eggplant-Tahini Spread, Whole Grain Crackers, and Baguette Toasts
Happy Belated New Year's Eve!
I put together a cozy, slightly complicated dinner menu to share with a friend for New Year's Eve, and started things off with some lovely appetizers, including some baguette toasts, these whole wheat and sesame crackers from The New York Times, this insane tapenade from Serious Eats, and this roasted eggplant and tahini spread from Bon Appetit.
We were almost full before dinner! (But there's always room for risotto!)
Planning!
Because I knew the crackers and tapenade would keep for at least a couple of days, I made them the day before NYE. I would have done the same with the baguette toasts and the eggplant spread, but they and the eggplant spread were a last-minute addition when there was a strong possibility that I would have another guest! No one goes hungry in my home!
Good thing I'd gotten ahead! I had plenty of time in the afternoon on NYE to run to the store for the eggplant and baguette (I had everything else I needed at home already), and whip them into something delicious in time to serve.
And then, my potential additional guest decided it was too cold to travel to me and stayed home after all, leaving the delicious bonus food for just the two of us to enjoy.
Cooking!
I make baguette toasts for almost every holiday I host. They are easy, delicious, homemade, and impressive. All you have to do is slice a baguette on the bias, brush both sides with olive oil and lightly salt. Then pop them in a sheet pan in a 375F oven for about 15 minutes, flipping them halfway. Done. They're so easy that I didn't even take a picture as I made them!
The crackers were new to me! I actually even had toasted sesame seeds in my cupboard (I know, I'm a weirdo), so I didn't have to toast any up! The crackers came together in a flash, with the help of my stand mixer, of course. It's a very soft dough, so I rolled it out very carefully and kept it thick-ish. I cut adorable lines with my fluted rolling cutter, then used a fish turner (a nice long spatula with a bladed edge) to carefully transfer them to the sheet pans. They baked in exactly the time suggested, and go beautifully with both the tapenade and the eggplant spread.
The tapenade is an old favorite, but this year it was particularly successful. I had fewer olives in the fridge that I remembered - only about 3/4 cup where I needed 1 cup to fully double the recipe as I had hoped - but I blissfully measured everything else out as written. Also, my garlic was ENORMOUS, so I technically used fewer cloves than called for, but still had a crazy amount of garlic. So what resulted was a super briney-spicy-garlicky tapenade. And I'll never look back. I actually licked the processor blade (don't try that at home).
flavor flavor flavor flavor
tapenade joy
And finally, the eggplant and tahini spread. This is a go-to back-pocket maverick recipe for me. It takes almost no time and basically no ingredients and yet it's fresh and healthy and absurdly flavorful. It's super creamy (but there's no dairy!), and the recipe makes enough spread for a small army. Perfect addition.
how does this only take 25 minutes?
We were very happy to snack on all of this plus the shrimp cocktail during the time it took to make the risotto. No complaints!
