Have you ever found yourself invited to a potluck party and you didn’t have anything exciting to bring with you? Sure, you could bring meatballs in sauce; perhaps you can bring cheese and crackers – yes – that’s easy. Why not try to blow your friends out of the water with a really amazing, super easy appetizer? Sometimes I wish I was invited to more potlucks so that I can use all my appetizer ideas, but the only potlucks I typically go to are the ones hosted by my school and due to my schedule, I can’t always be Mr. Fancy Pants appetizer man.
My words may have you fooled and you may find yourself thinking that I may not be the best person to be writing about party foods. Between my small gigs as a personal chef, my many school potluck luncheons, and several family events, I have had my fair share of experience in party food. A few of my favorite recipes include spinach and artichoke dip, build-your-own nachos, homemade meatballs in homemade sauce, sweet and sour kielbasa, roasted shrimp cocktail, deviled eggs, and bacon wrapped scallops with lemon-caper sauce.
These are all well and good, but there comes a time, perhaps a luncheon where you want to wow your boss for a promotion or raise, when you must pull out all of the stops and bring out the big culinary guns. This means flavors that sing, a presentation that makes eyes widen, and it all has to be portable. Since we are talking really great food here, we also need to talk about what is in season – right now, slinging a platter of cranberry carrot chutney is a no – sure it might taste good, but the cost of these items could be higher because they are out of season, but the flavor and freshness also comes into question. Right now, in Maine we are in prime time for blueberries and let’s face it, there is nothing better than wild Maine blueberries in late August.
Aside from the fact that I could easily sit down and eat a bowl of Maine blueberries with a spoon, we are trying to impress people, so let’s do something with them; and we can’t do something that someone would expect – let’s make some salsa! This is a true case of sweet and savory mixing together and creating a symphony of flavor for your palette. Mixing blueberries with some jalapeno pepper, onion, cilantro, lime juice, salt, and pepper means heaven for your contribution to the potluck.
Now we need to figure out what we are going to serve this delicious Maine salsa with. Sure, we can serve it with some store bought, super salty, tortilla chips, but why not think outside the box? Taking some soft tortillas and frying them until they are golden brown and crispy, now that’s impressive! Not impressive enough, though, there has to be something else to wow your fellow party people. There has to be something to make them think you are the most amazing cook.
What this is all leading to is a stacked appetizer loaded with delicious flavors. Let’s think about proteins for a moment. Pork would go nicely with the salsa – pulled pork to be exact, but let’s hold the barbecue sauce, of course – we want our salsa to shine. Another great choice would be some rib eye steak strips cooked to medium. I think, however, the best choice – one that would wow everyone at your party (save the folks with the allergy to shellfish) would be bay scallops. These small nuggets of briny deliciousness bring great texture and flavor to the appetizer.
I have to say, sometimes it is nice to go with an easy, simple, throw-together appetizer for a potluck, but more-often-than-not it is so much more fun to get creative and bring something that dazzles. The bay scallop nachos won’t disappoint and will celebrate what is truly fresh at this time of year – scallops and blueberries.
RECIPES:
MAINE BLUEBERRY SALSA
3 cups wild Maine blueberries, washed and stems removed
¼ cup lime juice
3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
¼ red onion, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
Toss together all ingredients being careful not to crush a lot of the berries.
HOMEMADE BAKED TORTILLA CHIPS
Tortillas, flour or corn
Nonstick olive oil cooking spray
Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. Lay the tortillas out on a paper towel and spray with nonstick spray. Cut tortillas into wedges. Bake for 6 to 7 minutes until crispy.
SCALLOPS
Bay scallops
Lime juice
Salt and pepper to taste
In a sauté pan, brown up the bay scallops. Remove from heat and drizzle with lime juice and season with salt and pepper.
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