The Ultimate Party Appetizers (V2) | Sam The Cooking Guy

You've got holiday entertaining to do? Well I've got holiday appetizers to make that entertaining great. Three of them to be exact. This video is sponsored by the Beef Checkoff, funded by Beef Farmers and Ranchers. Beef, it's what's for dinner people. But today it's beef, it's what's for appetizer people. Listen to this lineup. It's what's for before dinner. It's what's for before dinner. That saved us, thank you. And dinner. And dinner. Listen to this lineup. And these are three of my all-time favorites that I make on a regular basis, or as the kids would say, on the reg. Right Chance? Yes, exactly. All 26 years of you. 26. I just remembered something I did when I was 26. I can't share it. Now you have to. I can't. Chance, please, we're working here. Beautiful little glazed hoisin meatballs. We're going to grind two types of beef, or because they'll be better. We're making a caramelized onion, mushroom, blue cheese, steak flatbread with skirt. Oh man, I love skirt steak. And, and the one thing that we always serve. In fact we have people coming over Friday night. I'll be making this. Little filet crostini things. Little horseradish deal and some stuff on top. Sound good? Yeah. It was a rhetorical question. I never know. Nobody ever knows with you. Let's start with the crostinis. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a beautiful center cut of a filet. You know the whole thing is about from your fingertips to your elbow long. This is the center. This is the prize part, aka the chateaubriand. It's beautiful. Tiny little bits of fat. You know the filet is notorious for not having much fat. My wife loves this. Her favorite cut. This is what we're dealing with today. We're going to cook this perfectly in the oven. We're going to reverse sear it. So here's what we need to do. Let's get a baking sheet with a rack. I like cooking on the rack because it elevates it. It's not sitting on the deck. The air can get all the way around it. We'll take our friend off like this. We're just going to give it two things. The first will just be a little oil. Use whatever you want. Don't use a flavored oil. That's a waste here. It's not necessary. We don't want that flavor here. And then we've got kosher salt, pepper and a little garlic powder in here. It will season nicely. You can be fairly aggressive. It's kind of thick. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Ends too. Don't forget the ends. Perfect. Just like this. It's time for the oven for this guy. It's going into a 275 degree oven and yes I know that sounds low and it is low-ish, but what it's going to do, it's going to cook it perfectly. So when you cut it open, it will be end-to-end, wall-to-wall, up-to-bottom, top-to-bottom, heel-to-toe. Perfect. No grayish ring around the outside. That would happen if you threw it in a 450 degree oven. We want it to come to temp slowly, okay. I go put my little friend in. When we come back, we prep the baguette slices and make our little horseradish sauce. Giddy up. Here's how we begin. With a bowl because making a sauce on this would be ridiculous and a man in my position can't be made to look ridiculous. What's that from? Somebody. I was gonna ask Chance. He's too young to know. Somebody. You didn't say Chance. I didn't get there yet. We begin with equal parts of mayo. Somebody. I meant Chance. And sour cream. Would you have known that Chance? No. Wait, it's from the godfather? It's from the godfather. But I have seen the godfather. Next up, prepared horseradish. That's not horseradish cream. That's prepared ground horseradish. Is this okay? Somebody tell me this is, shouldn't they at least make the width of the mouth capable of getting a regular spoon into it? So the horseradish prepared goes in here. And I'm telling you, you put in as much as you want, but you definitely want to hold for World War II or III, I suppose. All right, we get the point. You got a plane and you're proud of it. You want to use a little bit more than less because there's going to be bread involved, there's going to be steak involved, and you want to be able to taste it. That stuff could dumb it down and you don't want that. So more is better than less. Some parsley, chopped up. Nice little pinch of salt and pepper. And we mix. I can smell the horseradish. Oh, I love this. All right, this is perfect. We'll put it in the fridge till we need it. Let's cut some bread. That's a baguette. French sourdough, use what you like. I like sourdough. And now we have a decision to make how we're going to cut these. You want to go on a hard diagonal or do you want to go across? And I'm going to tell you something you need to know. If you want more than less, then cut across because they're smaller. Your guests aren't going to complain, but I'll give them a slight diagonal like this. And so what is that, a quarter of an inch? What you don't want is to make them huge. This is not about bread. This is about the fillet. So cut yourself a bunch of these. Now we do this. Take a little baking sheet, put these guys on like this. And then they're going to go in the oven under the broiler when we're almost ready for them. But I'll just prep them by giving them just a little bit of olive oil on one side. Okay, our little fillet is in the oven. Not so little. The sauce is made. The little baguette slices are ready to go in the oven under the broiler. Once the fillet comes out, rests a bit and starts to cool down. What's beautiful is you could cook the fillet today and serve tomorrow. Be fine. I wouldn't serve it ice cold. I would definitely take it out of the fridge an hour or so before. I like getting ready ahead of time. I don't want to be doing work at the last minute. Cooking that takes all the pressure away. Then you're just doing this. And make your sauce the day before. When you see me next, oh, we're building these. Our next one begins with one of my faves, skirt steak. Man, I love this cut. I cannot talk enough about it. And I know it looks little, but look at this. That's something to write home about. What a ridiculous expression that is. Something to write home about. This is going to be cooked hot and fast on the grill. Will not take more than, oh, I don't know, eight, nine, ten minutes total. Total. Probably less. So here's what we do. Give it a little split of oil, kosher salt, pepper, garlic powder. You don't need to flavor it. We want it to taste like steak, but also there's enough other stuff going in this that will be fine. This is this little flatbread number that you're going to dig. I say we throw this on, fellas. Yes? Only do this once. And we're on. Beautiful. That's what you want to hear, that little sizzle. If it's not sizzling, it's steaming, and that's not what you want. So we're going to give it a flip. Maybe once, probably not twice. Not really necessary. But in the meantime, in the interim, we can get our onions, our mushrooms, and our balsamic going. Okay, it's been about three minutes. Let's have a look. Look, those are nice marks. But we can have a little bit more. I mean, I didn't really set this up to make those perfect crosshatch marks. And it's not important in this case, because this is going to get sliced up thin to go on the flatbread. But if you wanted to, then start at an angle, then switch it to the opposite angle, and you'll end up with those beautiful marks. We'll give it a couple minutes here, and then we'll give it a flip onto its other, onto its back or its front. Its back. This would be its back. I've said this before. The first side that goes on the grill, the first side that goes in the pan would be your presentation side. If this was a whole steak that you were going to serve on a plate, the presentation side goes in the pan on the grill first, because that's one of the grills that is hottest and cleanest, and gives it the best cook, sear, grill, whatever it is. Everybody got that? Chance Lee, you got that? Got it. What did I say? Presentation side, going down on the grill. It's going to be the one that gets the best marks, the hottest. All right, you pass. I was trying to catch you. Ready for something gorgeous? That actually wasn't a rhetorical question. I wanted an answer to that. Look how beautiful that is. But you saw how that shrunk up, right? Shrinkage, Jerry, shrinkage. Once again, you could do this the day before. Oh man, I love a skirt steak. Are kids ready? Off we come. We let this rest. We start our onions and our mushrooms. Our mushrooms begin with some butter and some oil. And I know I repeat myself, but it's for your benefit, because if you don't know, the butter is for flavor and the oil is to keep the butter from burning. And when it's nicely melted, we go in with some thinly sliced red onions that I actually could have broken up a little better, but that's fine. They're going to get maybe five minutes to start to soften, and then we'll add the mushrooms. Wow, I am just flinging pieces all over the place. And while the onions are softening, we'll make a little glaze. And that will be some balsamic vinegar and a little brown sugar. What you're going to end up with is the mushrooms, the onions, the steak, crumble blue cheese, and then this slightly sweetened balsamic. And it will be fantastic. And all you need to do here then is let it simmer a bit, and it will start to slightly thicken. You can see this is now starting to bubble, simmer. Leave it. Let it do its thing. Now it's time for some mushrooms. And in they go. So these are creminis, baby portobello mushrooms. Now here's the deal. I buy them whole and I slice them because I want to regulate the thickness. I find that when you buy them already sliced, some are really thick and some are really thin. I don't like that at all. Bothers me. We're just letting these things soften, wilt. The onions will continue to cook, the mushrooms will soften. They'll give off a little liquid, it will get evaporated out, and we'll have amazingness left in here. Okay, so this is now going to be thickened up, and it will get a little thicker as it cools. So I take that off. Back to the mushrooms and the onions. They need one thing and one thing only, Max and Chance, and that's some salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Beautiful. These are done. Our steak's done. Let's make a little aioli, and we can build. This quick aioli begins with some mayo. And you need that much. Did you say cookie aioli? I did not. And now some garlic. And now some lemon juice. I don't want cookie aioli. It's not cookie. And now salt, pepper, garlic, and we mix. All right, this is ready. Let's get some flatbreads and see what we got. Remember this guy? Who remembers this guy? Get a load of this guy. It's beautiful, it's rested. Now, take note, the grain runs this way. We always talk about you have to cut against the grain. The problem is, you don't want pieces this long. So when it's a skirt steak situation for me, I make some smaller cuts, like this, like this. Think about how people are going to eat something, ladies and gentlemen. You can't have a giant piece of steak. By the way, cooked rather beautifully, I might add. So now I'm just going to do this. I'm going to cut thin. This is important. I think I'm being rude to my compatriots here. Boys, would you like to try a little bite? Yeah. Boys? Oh, yeah. Right? Skirt steak. If you've never had it, you got to get your hands on some. It is that, I mean, it is so just, it's perfect for this too. Let's build. Oh my God. That's a flatbread. Use whatever shape you want. You could buy those already made pizza crusts. I wouldn't. I like a flatbread shape, but get what you want. They even make the small ones. Make little ones if you want. It's all good. Listen, it's all you. I'm giving you the keys. How you drive the car is up to you. That was a stupid thing. So we start with some garlic aioli. Now, do you remember these? Who could forget them? Caramelized onion. Mushroom. Deliciousness. Perfect. Ready for steak? Steak. Caramelized onion. Oh my gosh. You don't need 100% coverage. You can have too much. Here come gardeners. Get ready. He's winding that thing up and we're off. And with the gardeners blasting away, we have to go to a voiceover. So we simply top the skirt steak with some crumbled blue cheese, followed by a little shredded mozzarella. Remember this guy? Remember this guy? It's all done. He's beautiful, but he could be more beautiful. So you have a couple of choices. You can throw him in a hot cast iron pan, give him a little sear, some color, a little texture. You could put it under the broiler. I don't know if I like the broiler. I feel like it might get away from you and you might overcook it. Or you can do this. So all we're trying to do is give the outside a little color. It's just more appealing. And this is one of Max's favorite toys. And the underside. Great. Let's cut him. Just like that. See the grain? This is easy. We're want this fairly thin. Look how juicy and perfect this is. 275, ladies and gentlemen. 275. Cooks it as promised. Top to bottom, side to side, end to end. Beautiful. So remember these guys, right? Little olive oil on top. Light toast under the broiler. Top and bottom. Just slightly on the bottom. But now, here's how this works. We've got our sauce. Put a little bit of this horseradish sauce on each one. And somebody's going to go, that's not a little, Sam. Well, you know what? Make it a little for whatever you're doing. This is what I like. So now we take these and we come in here and we do this. We want kind of like a decent bite of the steak. Oh, gosh. Look at these. Beautiful. One last thing. Look what I've bought. Micro arugula. Micro arugula. Just a little bit. You could just take regular arugula. I can't even say it. You could just take regular arugula. I can't say it. Not that it matters. Not that it matters because they can't hear me anyway. I'm telling you, these guys were just lying in wait. They're getting ready to shoot. Come on, boys. Amp up the equipment. Let's go. All right. So let's do this. Just take your little friends, place them beautifully, neatly on a little piece of slate. There we go. Hey, come on now. Look at that. And what's amazing is there's three left on here for us to eat, guys. How pretty. Well, the only thing left to do. Try one. It's one of the greatest things I've ever eaten. I say it every time I have one. You get that beautifully tender steak. I mean, come on. Tender loin. Hence the name. Horseradish. Resist the urge to get them too crunchy on that second side. The little baguette pieces. Top. Good. Second side. A little. Not a lot. Great stuff. And here we are. Look at him. Her. Them. It. It. Wow. It's beautiful. Beautiful. And I know you think I forgot the balsamic, but I didn't because here it is. Here's all I want to do is just give it a little bit of this. Just a little bit of sweetness, which is really good against the blue cheese, which is, you know, super savory. There you go. A little bit more for chance. Damn, you don't like blue cheese, buddy. Check that out. So now I need to cut it. Let's try like this. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. There's nothing but good here. Until you end up with a weird shape. How did I do that? I suppose I was never very good at math. I'm sure there's some. Was it geometry? Physics? What math that would have helped this? I don't know what it is. So, you know, the only hard part at this point is deciding which one you want. I might have this obtuse isosceles, whatever thing that is. I'm having this one. I like the way that I've got onion cheese almost all the way to the end. Oh, look, I'm leaking so badly right now. You just can't believe it. Let me tell you something. If this is the only one you make of what we're doing today, you're going to be the hit of your holiday party. Oh, my God. Everybody loves a little flatbread. Everybody. You walk around the party, a little tray of these, cut them into twos and isosceles, whatever triangles you want. I'm having another bite, but we're making little glazy, gorgeous hoisin meatball and we're grinding. Our meatballs begin with brisket and chuck sirloin. Use whatever you want, but be sure there's brisket involved because it's going to give you excellent flavor. Got a half pound of each and we grind. And I've left the fat on because I want that fat content for flavor. And we're done. Excellent. And we add the following. A splash of soy. By the way, recipes below don't have to write anything down. Hoisin sauce, one of my all-time faves. Some fresh chopped ginger. Garlic. Squeezable garlic, please. A little shot of sriracha. More or less to your liking. Some green onions. Panko breadcrumbs. One egg. Shell. No shell, please. Salt and pepper. And we can mix. Try not to mash too much because if you keep it fairly loose, they'll be much more tender. I think we're good. It's meatball time. Here we go. We're making meatballs. If you wet your hands just ever so slightly, it'll keep them from sticking. And then think about the size, but for me, this is quite nice. Just the way you go. And there you have it. These are going in my oven at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes until they're gorgeous and cooked through. And while the meatballs bake, I make a sauce. That's hoisin. Again, this is honey. This is a little splash of sesame oil. Remember, a little's good. A little too much is bad. And a tiny bit of soy. And this we just want to mix, warm up a bit. This is going to be really nice. So you can just keep warm now. Two seconds. We'll bring it back and we'll paint when we're at the end. And there they are. They look quite nice. Little one biters. Ah, two biters, maybe. But here's how we're going to deal with them now. I've got my little glaze here. Just gave it a quick little warm up. We're going to take a little paintbrush and we're going to paint these guys. Aren't they pretty? I know you want me painting with my left hand. I can't. I just can't. Remember I promised. Glazy. Shiny little balls. And it's best to do them while they're still on the parchment or you'll make your serving plate a mess. So then here's what they get. You get a little coating of seeds. Sesame seeds. Pretty, pretty cute, I'd say. Then they get some green onion and you can just do this because it'll drop off. It'll stick. It's all good. We take them and we want to be gentle with them. That's something a little anal, but you know what? Presentation is important. Do you want another one on there? No. Why? How am I going to do it? I know, but now what do I do? Oh, look at. Now look what you've made me do. Now I got, I don't have paper towel. You thought I should go that way? Give me my paper towel quickly. No, you should have planned it out in advance. You know I'm no good with obtuse triangles. I swear to God, Max, if this one drops on the way in, now they're all jacked up. I'm leaving it. I'm leaving it. But now, because you don't want your guests doing that, sticking their fingers in there, then they get these guys or, you know, whatever you've got. I'm not a fan of toothpicks though. I will tell you that. There you go. I love that. I love them. And that's it. I mean, look at. I think I promised glazed and that's what you've got. Not sure I said pretty, but for God's sakes, could they be any prettier? Rhetorical question. Thank you for not answering, gentlemen. And now I just need to eat one. Imagine you're standing at a cocktail party. Somebody walks around with these. Would you like one? Well, what are they? Those are gorgeous little works of art, you say? Someone says they're glazed hoisin meatballs with brisket and chuck. Brisket and chuck? Are you kidding? That's fantastic. I love hoisin. It's like Chinese barbecue sauce, really. One biter. So, Chancey and I ate one a couple minutes ago. We both said the same thing. They are so tender. But I'm telling you, it's from not over handling the ground beef, the brisket and the chuck. Not over handling. We kept it light. We kept it sort of loose. It makes for a much better meatball. I'm getting a little heat coming through right now from the sriracha, the sweetness from the hoisin and the honey together. Oh my God, they're so good. If you can't pull off some entertaining this holiday season with the gifts we have given you today, are they gifts? They are gifts. They're truly gifts. Okay, guys, that's it. Have a great holiday season. Make these things. Check out the recipes. You'll be so glad you did. You don't have to be as anal as I was about getting all set up on the plate. But, you know, your people are going to like these because my people here like these. And I would love to give one of these to somebody watching right now, but I can't. I can't get it through the thing. But I can give away a Sam the Cooking Guy 7-inch Nikiri knife. And today's knife goes to either Marilyn Crow or Mary Ellen Crow. And we hope there's not two people out there, but we do have your email and we will reach out. Mary Ellen Merrill and get you a, not these, why don't you put these away, and we'll send you your Sam the Cooking Guy 7-inch Nikiri. And Mary Ellen got it because she's a, oh, maxing time. The word that's going to pop into your head is tender. Amazing. Fantastic. The kid's so happy back there. And the reason Mary Ellen got this is because she's A, a subscriber and B, went to shopSDCG.com and signed up for SMS and email. It's that simple. Happy hauling.