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Holiday entertaining is great fun. Years ago we used to host a big party during the holiday season and serve appetizers and dessert. Those parties were always a great success. Here are three diverse appetizers to inspire you.

Chef Steve Collins The Home Chef

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Gorgonzola Polenta with Mushroom Topping

Polenta is cornmeal mush made from ground hominy corn. Some people like them to have a very loose texture. I prefer a somewhat stiffer version which I then chill for even more firmness and either grill or fry quickly so that the resulting texture is crisp on the outside and creamy inside. The possibilities for toppings and sauces are only as limited as your imagination.

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients:

4 cups chicken stock or water
1/2 cup coarsely ground cornmeal
3 tablespoons butter, in 1/2-inch chunks
1/2 cup Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

Preparation:

In a large saucepan, bring the chicken stock to a boil. Slowly add the cornmeal, while stirring constantly. Continue stirring until the mixture thickens and begins to pull away from the sides. (Be careful not to burn yourself on the bubbling cornmeal.) 

Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, then the Gorgonzola. Spread the polenta on a parchment lined cookie sheet about 1/4-inch thick. Chill for an hour to overnight. Cut into two-inch squares.

Prepare the grill. Cook each piece for two minutes over direct heat then turn and cook for two minutes longer on the other side. The outside should be crisp and the inside soft and creamy. Top with the mushroom topping below, or make up your own. Pesto or roasted red pepper purée would work well.

Mushroom Topping for Gorgonzola Polenta

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon shallots, sliced thinly
1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, quartered
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon sherry

Preparation:

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook until soft. Add mushrooms and cook until soft. Stir in cream and sherry and heat through. Serve over the Gorgonzola polenta.

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Smoked Trout with Smoked Poblano Salsa and Chipotle Crema

One of my favorite things to smoke is trout and my favorite wood to smoke it on is applewood. Other fruitwoods or nut woods work nicely also. The trout is brined so that it does not dry out in the smoking process. Serve this with triangles of warmed flour tortillas and/or blue and yellow corn tortillas. It is also great on your favorite cracker.

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

4 trout, cleaned
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup salt
1 quart water
1 lemon, sliced thinly
a couple of handfuls of your favorite wood smoking chips, soaked for at least 20 minutes
1 red onion, sliced thinly, to garnish

Preparation:

Mix the sugar, salt and water to make brine. Put half the lemon slices in the cavity of the fish. Place the fish in a gallon-size recloseable plastic bag along with the brine. Refrigerate for two hours.

Prepare the smoker. When the coals are ready, put the soaked wood chips on the coals. Put the remaining lemon slices on the grill and put the trout on top of the lemon slices. 

Close the smoker and let the trout smoke for 1 1/2 hours (internal temperature should be 165 degrees). Remove from smoker and let cool on a rack, uncovered, for an hour. Serve, or wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

Poblano Salsa

Ingredients:

4 poblano chiles
1 pound tomatillos, peeled and washed
1 red onion
1 teaspoon oregano, (fresh is best but dry is fine as long as it's aromatic)
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt, to taste

Preparation:

Put the chiles and tomatillos in the smoker at the same time you put the trout in. Take them out after an hour. Remove the seeds from the poblanos. Put the poblanos, tomatillos, onion, oregano and olive oil in the workbowl of a food processor and pulse until the chiles, tomatillos and onion are coarsely chopped. Transfer to a bowl and season to taste with salt. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Chipotle Crema

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons chipotle from canned chipotle in adobo, finely chopped (this is available in the Mexican food aisle at most super markets)

Preparation:

Whip the cream. When it is stiff whip in the sour cream and the chipotle adobo.

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Tea Smoked Shrimp with Ginger Miso Sauce

This is a subtle, easy to prepare dish. It can feed four to six as an appetizer or two to three as a main course. If you don't have a stovetop smoker, a wok can easily be turned into a smoker. (See below). This recipe calls for 5 spice powder, a staple of Chinese cooking. It is available in the Asian foods section of your market. If you would like to make your own, the recipe is in my cookbook, Grilling and Smoking with The Home Chef, available at www.thehomechef.net or e-mail me at steve@thehomechef.net and I will send it to you.

How to turn your wok into a smoker:

Line the wok completely with foil with enough to overlap the sides. Place the smoking mixture on the bottom of the wok. Set a round rack into the sides of the wok so that it is a couple of inches over the smoking mixture. Proceed as below.

Ingredients:

1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tablespoon 5-spice powder

Smoking Mixture:

2 tablespoons Earl Gray tea
1 star anise seed

Preparation:

Put shrimp and 5-spice powder in a recloseable plastic bag and shake to coat the shrimp evenly. Put tea and anise seed in the center of a stovetop smoker. Put on the burner over medium heat. Put the shrimp on the rack and cover. Smoke for 15 minutes. Serve with the sauce.

Ginger Miso Sauce

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon yellow miso
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1 tablespoon walnut oil

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl; toss well. Let stand 30 minutes so the flavors can meld.