Thursday, April 05, 2007

Smoked salmon and mango in nut-n-cheese cup

These Parmesan cups are a party-pleaser, and can be done in a minute, which will be explained in the following recipe. To lighten the cheese taste, I added mango - the fruit that my husband used to care less; the flesh was too soft, too fiber-y, tasted way too fragrant and over-sweet. For fruit he always prefers something light in taste. But that time I used to buy mangoes imported from Thailand or Philippine, until I tried a type from Peru, he seems to like it better; it has much less fiber, flesh very firm even when it's fully ripe, taste is refreshing too. You can click on here to see what it looks like. With these extraordinary characteristics, this mango is now my first choice for cooking and garnishing.

These Parmesan cups I first saw on TV, a caterer was doing it at one of Giada's shows. I added in pistachio nuts in order to enhance the color contrast with the bright red salmon, to please the crowd :D Recipe: (yield 10 mini-cups)

  • 10 Tbps (or more) store-bought grate Parmesan cheese. I found it behave better than my own fresh grate in this recipe
  • A few tablespoonfuls coarsely ground pistachio. More nuts you add, color more green, but cup more fragile. Adjust the nut-n-cheese ratio according to your skill.
  • Half of mango, riped and firm, sliced
  • 10 slices smoke salmon
  • Some spices and herb of your choice

Direction:

  • Combine the grate cheese and nuts.
  • First to pre-heat (not too hot) a pan. And prepare an empty non-stick mini-tart tray next to you.
  • Spread a (heap) tablespoon of nut-n-cheese mixture on the pan, set the heat over medium/ or medium-low. If the cheese gets too brown will taste slightly bitter. In a minute you should see the cheese bubbling, lift this cheese "lace" off carefully but quickly, drop into the tart hole, the lace will harden in 30 seconds or so and form a "cup". Repeat the procedure to the rest of the mixture.
  • Only when you ready to serve, place some mango and smoked salmon, spice and herb to taste.

My dearest friends, Happy Easter !!!

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37 comments:

Deborah Dowd said...

These cups look incredible and I can think of millions of combinations to put inside- your combo of smoked salmon and mango sounds so light and delicious! A very Happy Easter(or Passover) to you and your readers!

Ruth Daniels said...

So beautiful and what a great idea to add the pistachio nuts.

Anh said...

Gattina, thanks for supporting me my dear. *hug* Now, the nut-cheese cup is a gerat idea. I love the addition of salmon and mango, too. And like your hubby, I prefer mango with firmer flesh and less sugary taste. So your creation is something I defenitely wanna try. :D

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

The pistachio cups are beautiful, and salmon and mango go so well together. What a lovely presentation!

Unknown said...

Beautiful beautiful cups Gattina. Happy Easter! Hope your Easter meal will turn out well, and you'll be a stress-free hostess :)

FH said...

I would like a cup please!!!!!I am begging here!:))

Looks absolutely delightful.

Mishmash ! said...

Dear, first it looked like a rose bud made with peeled tomato skin...only when I read the recipe, i realized its a salmon!! What a brillaint styling !!Cheese cups is a very clever idea...i liked that a lot..will try sometime.

Easter Greetings :)
Shn

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

I would think this would for sure be a crowd pleaser! I think I could be the crowd...please could I have a cup or two.
This sounds really wonderful!

Seema Bhat said...

Happy Easter to you too Gattina. I am a vegetarian but I must confess that the picture of smoked salmon looks mouth watering. You are an amazing photographer.

Callipygia said...

Oh Gattina, that made me laugh- "cheese to nut ratio according to skill"...Well my dear, clearly we can see how high your skill level is, since all I see are the nuts invisibly bound by cheese! These look delicious and Happy Easter to you and your family.

Anonymous said...

have a nice Easter weekend to you too...those pistachio cups sure look lovely and tasty!

Maneka Nirmal said...

nice picture and very nice recipe!!mango,salmon and pistachio ,yummmmmmm.. happy easter to u too gattina..

Anonymous said...

O.K. That's it! I am coming over...:) Your food is simply unbelievable!

Anonymous said...

Gattina Happy Easter to you and your family!

Brilynn said...

I love mango and salmon and pistachios... basically you've created the best possible appetizer ever!

bee said...

what a gorgeous recipe, gattina. i love your blog.

Anonymous said...

Hi Gattina, you always feature the most unique flavor combinations that can be imagined...yummmm!

Anonymous said...

These are amazing. What a fantastic and beautiful post!

Lis said...

The PERFECT sweet/salty nibble! You've done it again.. incredible =)

Happy Easter sweetie!
xoxo

Anonymous said...

Wonderful combination of flavours, I never would have thought to combine salmon and mango, or even to add pistachios to the parmesan cups! You are the master of adaptation!

Edith said...

Awesome!!! Happy Easter Dear!

Bong Mom said...

Dear Gattina
A very Happy Easter to you and the family

Thanks for discussing Mango because I too sometimes find the mangoes here fibrous whereas at times they are very good. So I should get the ones from Peru now

Your creation is as ususal awesome

Anonymous said...

More of my favorite ingredients! Delicious! Happy Easter!

Paz xxoo

Peabody said...

What a great looking appetizer.

Anonymous said...

This is a great idea...I'll have to save this for a special occasion. Thanks for the tip!

Warda said...

These parmesan cups look delicious. I love that you used salmon and mongo together. It sound so refreshing and so perfect for entertaining. About your previous post Gattina, I didn't find your black spaghetti in my area. There was only squid ink fettuccinni. It doesn't have the same texture.

Patricia Scarpin said...

Your fancy recipes always make me dream, Gattina!

Anonymous said...

oh gattina, I love anything with mangoes. And I do like the way you made the nut cheese cup. This is a great appetizer. I always thought Philippine mangoes were the best , I shall look for the ones from Peru.

Katie said...

What a wonderful idea! And lovely presentation.
These sound so much nicer than "bread' cups I have seen other TV chef's do!
Plus, anything with smoked salmon!

Pooja said...

Gattina,
seems like i missed many nice recipes around here since a month or so... thinking to look all of it, one by another now.
nut-n-cheese cup looks so delicious, you are really creative with cooking dear.
keep on sharing, i am back on blog now. :)
thanks
-Pooja

Anonymous said...

Cups that are pretty and yummy! The only edible cups around :p

Kalyn Denny said...

Another fabulous recipe. I think it sounds like a great combination of ingredients. And I didn't realize there were different types of mango, so I learned something too!

Freya said...

I love the little crumbly nut cups! So perfect!

Passionate Eater said...

Every time I go on to your website, I am always impressed. What a fantastic idea to add crusted pistachios! And they add such a wonderful green color to the lace cup! :) Thanks for this great post!

Anonymous said...

These are ingenius! And what a great combinations of flavors! You've always got a yummy surprise here when I visit :)

nini said...

Que c'est joli!!
Bella questa ricettina!

Helene said...

Hope you had a very happy Easter! These are gorgeous and I love the addition of the pistachios.