The story below is a preview from our July/August 2018 issue. For more, Subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition.
These recipes are perfect for summer entertaining.
Julianne Rainone
Summer fun often revolves around fabulous food. Picnics! Barbeques! Cookouts! Clambakes! But it’s no fun when the summer sun wilts the food you’ve so lovingly prepared for your outdoor soirée. To make your summer snacks cool and snappy, use Asian ingredients because they won’t wilt in the summer heat. A bonus is that the fresh fruits and vegetables of Asia are very healthy, too. Here are some ideas to incorporate Asian ingredients into your summer snack repertoire.
A fruity dragon fruit salsa makes a colorful splash on your summer table. Dragon fruit is a showstopper. Cultivated in Southeast Asia, this fruit has bright pink skin that peels back to reveal glossy white flesh and tiny edible black seeds. Tastes like a cross between a kiwi and a pear. Water chestnuts, which are native to Asia, are added to give a bit of extra crunch.
Serve this bright fruity salsa with baked wonton crisps for a healthy fun snack. These crisps are sprinkled with sea salt and ground pink peppercorns which add a bit of a spicy kick.
Dragon Fruit Salsa
¼ cup chilled dragon fruit, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons red onion, chopped fine
½ cup fresh pineapple chopped into small pieces
¼ cup water chestnuts, chopped fine
2 clementines, peeled and chopped, any seeds removed
½ ounce fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon medium peri-peri sauce (Polynesian hot sauce)
Place dragon fruit, red onion, pineapple, water chestnuts and clementines in a mixing bowl. Stir lightly to combine. Mix lime juice, honey and peri-peri sauce together in a small bowl. Pour lime juice mixture over the fruit mixture and stir lightly to combine. Chill before serving. This salsa is very juicy. Drain a bit of the juice off of salsa before serving. Serve icy cold with baked sea salt wonton crisps.
Baked Wonton Chips Sprinkled with Sea Salt and Pink Peppercorns
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut wonton wrappers in fourths to make 4 triangles out of each wonton wrapper. Spray baking pan lightly with vegetable oil spray. Arrange triangles on baking pan. Lightly brush triangles with olive oil. Sprinkle triangles with a little sea salt and ground pink peppercorns. Bake triangles for 6 -7 minutes until lightly brown and crisp. Watch carefully because the triangles can burn easily.
Of course you will want to keep your salsa icy cold with this tip: Put small cubes of ice in a plastic storage bag, seal it and nestle it in a larger bowl under the bowl that contains the salsa you are serving. (As the ice melts the plastic bag will contain the water to prevent spillage.)
While your guests are enjoying outdoor activities, encourage them to stay hydrated during summer parties. A delightful addition to your summer table is water infused with lime, mint and strawberries.
Lime Mint & Strawberry Infused Water
2 quarts water
Juice of one lime
2 limes, thinly sliced
8 fresh strawberries, caps removed, cut in half
Ice cubes
Sprigs of mint
Combine all ingredients and place in refrigerator for approximately 3 hours to allow the flavors to infuse; add lots of ice cubes and a few sprigs of mint. Once pitcher of water is chilled and flavors are infused in water, serve to guests and enjoy!
You can use frozen fruit in place of ice cubes. Frozen fruit won’t water down your beverage as it thaws. Clementine segments and whole strawberries make fabulously fruity ice cubes.
Grilled appetizers are always a treat in the summer. Beef Tenderloin Negimaki will disappear as soon as you put the platter on the table.
Beef Tenderloin Negimaki (Makes 24)
24 green beans, trimmed, cut in half
24 green onions, white part only
1 cup low-sodium or gluten free soy sauce
½ cup sugar
Finely ground black pepper
1 ½ pounds beef tenderloin, pounded out and cut into 24 ¼-inch thick slices
6 tablespoons sesame oil
Blanch green beans in boiling salted water until bright green and just tender (about 2 minutes). Remove from heat and add green onions to pan for 1 minute. Drain and place ice in the pan to stop cooking. Drain again after cooling.
Place soy sauce and sugar in a small pan. Heat the soy sauce mixture over medium-low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour one-half of the soy sauce mixture into a bowl. Reserve the rest of the soy sauce mixture for serving.
Use a meat mallet to pound each piece of beef tenderloin to an even thickness. Cut the beef into 24 1/4-inch thick slices. Dip each piece of beef in soy sauce mixture, then place on a plate. Season with black pepper. Place two green beans and 1 green onion across one end of beef, so vegetables extend over edges, roll up. Repeat with remaining beef and vegetables.
Heat sesame oil in a frying pan. Brown the beef roll-ups in the sesame oil, seam side down, for about 2 minutes. Turn and brown the roll-ups on the other side. Place negimaki and reserved sauce in refrigerator. When ready to serve, arrange the negimaki on serving platter with small bowl of sauce for dipping.
This radish rose appetizer is so colorful and pretty you can use it for the centerpiece on your picnic table. Serve it with Spicy Asian Dip.
Radish Rose Appetizer
Multi-color carrots, peeled and cut into julienned strips
Red radishes
Daikon white radishes
Purple Daikon radishes
Watermelon radishes
Cut julienned strips of carrots in half. Place strips flat in a shallow serving bowl. Cut radishes into thin slices with a mandolin. Lay the largest radish slices around the edge of the bowl. Lay the next largest radish slices on top of the first radishes. The carrot strips will help support the radish slices as you place them around the bowl.
Spicy Asian Dip to serve with Radish Rose Appetizer
½ cup light mayonnaise
½ cup light sour cream
2 teaspoons low sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon prepared wasabi paste
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
½ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon sesame oil
½ teaspoon lime juice
Finely chopped lightly salted cocktail peanuts and finely chopped green onion (white and a little of the green part only) for garnish. Place mayonnaise, sour cream and soy sauce in a small mixing bowl and whisk together with a spoon. Add wasabi, ginger, sugar, sesame oil and lime juice. Stir to combine all ingredients. Chill until ready to serve, then spoon into a serving bowl. Garnish with chopped peanuts and chopped green onion.
If you are in a hurry or want to prepare fresh vegetables ahead of time to make a quick fresh vegetable platter:
Peel fresh carrots with a two inch vegetable peeler to make long strips. Make the strips into curls and secure with a toothpick. Put the carrot strip curls into a plastic bag filled with ice. Add cucumber slices and grape tomatoes to the bag. Place the bags in a cooler or in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Icy cold vegetables are always a welcome snack in the heat of the summer. Add chilled black pitted olives, pimiento stuffed green olives and small pickles or cornichons to your platter. Pick up your favorite prepared veggie dip from the grocery to serve with your fresh veggies.
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