Monday, July 6, 2009

Flaky Sun-Dried Tomato and Three Cheese Bites

These Mediterranean-inspired hor d'ourves were a hit at my friend's wedding after-party, amongst frou-frou and non-frou-frou alike.

Select Party Quotes:

"Sun-deride tomatoes? Noooh. I 'ate sun-deride tomatoes, but those are dee-lish-hos."
- Beautiful, hilarious Ukrainian woman

Between a guest and myself as guest's husband stands near-by:
"What are these red things made of?"
"Oh, well, sun-dried tomatoes, ricotta, feta, goat cheese..."
(husband interjects)
"HA! You say you HATE goat cheese but you ate, like, thirty of those things!"

A man and his little sister approach the food. He asks me to tell the little girl what each thing is.
"Artichoke dip, cheese and tomato cups, crab and leek tartlets," I respond.
"Do you want any of those?" he asks the girl.
"NO!" she declared, backing away from the table like it was going to bite.

pictured with Artichoke Cups

Flaky Sun-Dried Tomato and Three Cheese Bites
makes about 50

Cup Ingredients and Instructions:
1 package phyllo, thawed
1 stick butter, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease mini-muffin cups.
2. Wet a clean kitchen towel. Ring it out so it is just damp. Fold in half and place near your workspace. Remove phyllo from package. Place sheets between the towel halves.
3. Remove a sheet and place it on a cutting board.
4. With a brush, drip some of the butter across the phyllo sheet. Working gently, spread the butter out until most of the sheet, especially the edges, has been lightly coated.
5. Place a new phyllo sheet on top. Repeat steps until there are 7 sheets stacked. Do not butter the final sheet.
6. Smooth your hand over the sheets, lightly pressing them together.
7. With a pizza roller, cut the phyllo into squares (about four fingers wide).
8. Press the squares into the muffin cups and bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool in the tins.

Filling Ingredients and Instructions:
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, cut into strips
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
4 tbs feta cheese
2 tbs goat cheese
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 green onions, white and light green parts only, minced
1/2 tbs fresh rosemary
1/2 tbs Italian parsley
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg

1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine all ingredients but the egg. Process until smooth.
2. Add the egg. Pulse until Incorporated.
3. Spoon or pipe filling into prepared phyllo cups.
4. Bake in a 350 F oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the filling has set up.
5. Remove and serve.

Sun Dried Tomatoes on Foodista

12 comments:

  1. These look so good and I love your guests'comments. When I first saw the title of your blog, I read it as Crazy Monkey Eats House, which is quite a headline...

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  2. Lickedspoon: Thanks for stopping by! I obviously have no talent for encouraging children to eat. Have you ever seen that movie "No Reservations" with Catherine Zeta-Jones? I'd be like her, trying to feed a whole fish to a six year old.

    I can't wait to read through your site. I love checking out recipes and food photography. You appear to have a love for traveling...Even better!

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  3. Crazy Monkey Eats House would be a wonderful title. Unfortunately, my dog (the Crazy Monkey) thinks that all human food is grody, although he once showed a keen interest in lasagna. Our blog was originally just "Crazy Monkey House" but our love of food led to a personal life/food life blog separation, leaving us with Crazy Monkey House Eats and Crazy Monkey House Lives.

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  4. What a great foodblog! I found you through the foodieblogroll and these are appetizing indeed!I'd love to guide our readers to your site if you won't mind.Just add your choice of foodista widget to this post and it's all set to go, Thanks!

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  5. very interesting.....love how the recipes are very original and unique

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  6. Hello Natalie - Thanks so much for visiting my blog. We also share our home with a crazy dog called Barney. He's not quite the epicure that Monkey obviously is - though I did write a piece on my blog about making gourmet doggie treats for him, something I never thought I'd do. But then those cute little helions have a way of making you do things you'd never thought you'd do, don't they?

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  7. Alisa: Thanks for stopping by and liking what you see! I've added the widget.

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  8. Trish: What a nice compliment. I'm trying to stay out of cookbooks this year and am happy that things are coming across as original, especially as I just cook for fun and a love of food.

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  9. Lickedspoon: Organic liver treats? That woman was definitely tightly wound. I can't wait to make these for my four-legged boys.

    That picture of "Gomez" is one of the best dog photos I've ever seen. What a cutie!

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  10. What a great appetizer. Thanks for sharing!

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  11. These look great... Mediterranean tapas style foods like this are so "summer" - Would pair well with a nice drop of cold white wine. Hmmm

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  12. Chris: A bottle of white wine went better with them than a drop. ;)

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