Holiday appetizers with Dockside at Duke's

Tis the season. It's about time to plan that menu for all of your holiday gatherings this year and here to show us how to prep really a delicious and amazing holiday appetizer. We have the catering executive chef at Dockside at Duke's Amanda Herrera. Good morning, Amanda. We're so glad you're the first in this new space. I know. It's very exciting. Welcome. Yes, thank you. Okay, the holidays. I mean, people want to show off their homes oftentimes and you do that with maybe a tasty little meal people can enjoy. Boy, as they're moving around, what are we making today? Today we're making a pomegranate and pistachio relish on top of some herb goat cheese on toasted focaccia. I love that combination of flavors. Walk me through how we start. Absolutely. So one of the first things you're going to do is actually get yourself some goat cheese and get that softening on the counter so that when we go to make the herb goat cheese, it's easier to mix. So we'll come back to that. Good tip. Yes, but first things first. For you, you're actually going to be making the relish, and it's actually quite easy to assemble. Just a little bit of prep in terms of cutting all the herbs. But let's start with the pomegranate seeds. Right here. Now, you can, you know, de-seed these yourself, or you can always buy them already done in the store. And if you can't find them in the fresh section, the freezer section actually is a good spot to get them. And they thaw perfectly. Great idea. Do you want me to dump the whole thing? All right, here we go. Oh, and I didn't know they came de-seeded. Oh, yeah. That's so great. So convenient. Yes, okay. And then we're going to add the pistachios next. These are just roasted and chopped. And who doesn't love pistachios? I mean, it's a great flavor. And then next we have some herbs. We have parsley on the far side. This is just chopped. And you can use Italian parsley or curly parsley. Whichever you prefer. And then we have mint. Oh, hey. Fresh mint. That'll brighten it up right there. And you can see the color scheme we're kind of going for here. It screams the holidays. Yes, it does. And then why don't we go with the lemon juice in that container there. And I think you're also showing us a really great way to avoid chaos in the kitchen. You have everything kind of separated out. Of course, that is the easiest way to make things simpler. This is pomegranate molasses. Oh, I've never heard of this before. It's an ingredient that could be a little trickier to find, but you should be able to. If not, you know, you can order it online. But it adds a nice sweetness to it. And then last two items, or three items, actually, is some fresh lemon zest. Oh, fun. So, obviously, zest your lemon before you juice your lemon, and basically... Otherwise, it'll be a little complicated. And then we got some fresh chopped garlic. Wonderful. And then to finish it off, we got some extra virgin olive oil. And make sure you use extra virgin olive oil, because you really are going to taste it in this dish. It makes a difference? Yeah. Okay, wonderful. And then we give her a good mix. Good mix, and then I'm just going to throw a little bit of salt in there, too. Perfect, perfect. And while you're finishing mixing that, I'm just going to throw together some goat cheese. So we have some softened goat cheese here. And then this, I just have about a half cup of fresh herbs. You can choose whatever you like. I did chives and parsley today. It's like a good flavor, but mild enough to complement everything else. Exactly. You don't want anything too strong. You're kind of just making it, again, a festive-looking color. Now, if you want to save yourself a step, too, you could always just buy an herb goat cheese from the store. You know, sometimes we need the tricks at home to make it simpler. Throwing a party is enough work, and planning a menu that, you know, frees you up to actually enjoy your party is also, I think, an important thing. I love that you're giving us, as a professional, permission to do stuff like that so we can enjoy our parties. You know, I think another big tip is really choose a menu that you can almost have done ahead of time so you're not stuck in the kitchen the whole time. The whole time, yeah. That's the trick right there. That is amazing. And as we're prepping this right now, I know that you guys are having a really fun sale at the restaurant right now. Tell me about that. We're doing frozen chowder to go. And it's a great way that we like to participate kind of in the holiday season in terms of helping you with your meal prep. Speaking of having things ready to go, that's one way to do it. So you can buy any. From any of our restaurants, they'll have it for you. And you just walk on in and say, I'm here to buy some frozen chowder. Excellent. Yeah. All right. All right. So I just spread some goat cheese on some crostini. Again, you could do baguette, toasted baguette, or anything else you want. And then you're just going to spoon some right on top. Okay. And I have to share with our viewers at home that this smells so, so good. Perfect. Just in the bowl. It smells so, like, zesty and fresh and bright. And the other, you know, good thing about this relish right here is that you could just spread some of the whipped goat cheese down on a platter and then top it with that and just put the crackers on the side and let people do it themselves like a dip. I like that, too. And this is also really good kind of sauce on grilled lamb or roasted pork or something along those lines. That's really amazing. If you're going to make a big batch of this, which, I mean, you guys saw, we just did it on live TV. It was nice and quick to put together. You're able to use it on several more items. Okay, do you want to do a little cheers with me? Oh, my goodness. Cheers to the holidays. Oh, my goodness. Oh, wow. I'm going to eat the rest of that during the break. This is absolutely amazing. A really fun and easy way to elevate your holiday parties. And, of course. As you said, you can always go to Dockside at Duke's and order that frozen chowder, which is always a huge hit. Of course it is. Thank you so much for hanging out with us today. Good to be back. We're going to make sure that we have this recipe for you online as well. This has been a really fun start to the morning. For now, I'll send it back to the studio.