Appetizers Break New Ground at Trumps

Remember when dips and chips were about the only thing you could squeeze out of Mom’s repertoire of appetizers. Remember canapes? Those soggy tidbits that went down like M & M’s in Grandma’s drawing room as a preliminary to a repast?

Well, appetizers have come a long way.

Today’s tidbits have gone upscale along with the gross national product and you can find anything from Beluga caviar hiding in egg shell cups to niblets of fresh baby corn at $1 an ear.

The boundaries restricting appetizers to certain mundane items have been shattered. Chefs, such as John Sedlar of St. Estephe in Manhattan Beach, have raised tortillas to aesthetic heights by sculpting them to resemble Indian arrows and serving them with different colored squiggles of vegetable and meat paste.

Baby tamales, a traditional California holiday appetizer, now might appear with fillings ranging from lobster to truffles.

New Baby Vegetables

Instead of the stuffed cherry tomatoes of mother’s day, today’s hosts might bring out a tray of exciting new baby vegetables blanched and filled not with cream cheese, but creme fraiche or goat cheese from the Sonoma Valley.

Nothing demonstrated this culinary--and cultural--leap better than a visit to Trumps’ 11th annual birthday party last Sunday, where most of the food offered came from top California restaurants, and all of it was the latest word--upscale, some expensive, some not, but all au courant.

The maddening aromas wafting from the far corners of Trumps’ patio came from the sausages being cooked on a grill. There were, in fact, more sausages per square inch than any other type of appetizers, which should say something new about sausages.

Trumps’ chef Michael Roberts served seafood and duck sausages with a dollop of turkey chile.

Alligator (yes, alligator) sausages were served with Cajun mustard, and Chinese sausages came with honey mustard by chef Robert Bell of Chez Melange in the South Bay. Chef Tim McGrath of Columbia Bar and Grill did duck and venison sausages, and Chef Jordan Monkarsk of Jody Maroni’s Italian Sausage Kitchen in Venice served an assortment: orange cumin, lemon caraway, French peppercorn, hot Italian, Louisiana boudin and British bangers.

Top-Draw Material

Sausages are top-draw material when it comes to a low-cost, efficient and effortless way to go for a large cocktail party. They require nothing but wood picks and a bowl for dipping them in mustard or other sauces. They can be served on a tray or turned into fancy fare by having them cooked and served on the spot by a chef. Just be sure to add on the cost of the chef.

Chef Robert Van Houten of Hamlet Gardens served spicy chicken wings at Trumps’ party. A good choice. Many places, including take-outs, offer these delicious appetizers if you don’t want to go to the trouble of making them yourself. Plan on three per person.

Chile served by several top restaurants at Trumps (included was Morton’s fabulous chile) is another great appetizer that will feed a crowd at little cost and effort. You can use your favorite recipe or buy the chile at the many restaurants and take-outs that carry it regularly, and doctor it up with with your own choice of garnishes and extras: oyster crackers, guacamole, sour cream, chopped onion, chopped peppers or other vegetables. If you want to steal Trumps’ turkey chile idea, use your favorite chile recipe, but substitute ground turkey or chicken for the beef. Cooking time is about the same as for ground beef.

Fabulous Assortment

Pates and rillettes were plentiful, too. Le Chardonnay’s chef Claude Alviry, had a fabulous assortment, including a rabbit terrine with hazelnuts, a terrine of mousse and chicken liver with cognac, all flanked like soldiers on drill with plenty of crusty baguettes. Chefs Yee and Yang of Mandarette in Los Angeles brought lamb pate served with hoisin sauce and Rancho Bernardo Inn chef Robert Blakeselee brought venison pate with pistachio and truffles.

The nice thing about pates is that you can freeze them. Just arrange them on a board, or over frilly greens when ready to offer. Use unusual greens: cabbage leaves or other edible leaves. Even edible flowers (sold specifically for use on the table or from your garden sans pesticides) can be used as garnishes to spruce up a pate.

Smoked or cured seafood makes a fine appetizer because you can offer an assortment--salmon, eel, cod, mackerel, and even oysters and clams are now available in specialty food stores and require only the minimal preparation time it takes to arrange on a table. Processed seafood is expensive, but what an impressive appetizer it makes. We like seafood tables done much like the fruits de mere displays in Paris, with shell fish oozing out of cornucopias and newsprint catching the shells and juices.

The terrines that appeared at Trumps had the chefs’ personal signature--classy things that only chefs might concoct. Chef Leonard Schwartz of 72 Market Street came up with terrine of lobster, salmon and scallops, while Regency Club chef Axel Dickkers served lobster pasta terrine with basil sauce and a Sonoma goat cheese terrine wrapped in sorrel leaves in pinenut sauce. But the terrine idea is worth considering. They make great appetizer fare for crowds. And they can be prepared ahead of time and frozen until ready to thaw and serve; they need not be difficult to make. Use a good basic French or American cookbook for recipes. Terrines also can be ordered at most any gourmet take-out.

Chef Sofi of Sofi’s in Los Angeles brought batches and batches of filo pastries, which vanished the moment they arrived. Filo pastries filled with simple meat, cheese, vegetables or combinations thereof can be purchased in ready-to-bake form at many Middle Eastern grocery stores. Those who prefer to make them at home can purchase the filo dough in a roll of 20 sheets at most supermarkets. The dough usually comes with instructions for simple pastries. Use 1 egg for each 2 cups of meat or other filling for binding, plus seasonings for the filling. The nice thing about these flakey morsels is that a single package of filo dough and a few cups of filling costing pennies can make several hundred appetizers.