SC - Rellenos with beef?

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> 
> Adamantius answered me with:
> > What I ended up doing, after several different permutations, was to roll
> > a ball of the cheese filling into a 1-inch wide strip of the roasted,
> > skinned, seeded poblano. These were able to be gently pressed into a
> > uniform shape looking a bit like chunk of norimaki sushi, which held
> > their shape pretty well when chilled a bit. I think I stuck little
> > cilantro sprigs in each, and sat them on top of a puddle of pureed
> > chipotles in adobo, which had been beaten up with a little olive oil to
> > kill some of the heat.
> 
> This sounds like some Chilli Rellenos I've had. Slices of pepper wrapped
> around soft cheese and then battered and fried. But yours were smaller and
> you didn't batter yours, correct?
> 
> > > And I imagine it is post 1600, but what exactly does "hors d'ouvre"
> > > really mean? Besides tiny and expensive? :-)
> >
> > Literally, outside of the work. Although hors d'oeuvre can function as
> > an appetizer, they often (and did, originally, prolly in the early
> > nineteenth century) are eaten with drinks before a dinner or other meal.
> > Consequently they show up a lot at cocktail parties, and normally aren't
> > technically part of the meal, which will have a separate first course.
> 
> Ok, yours and the definition Ras gave are pretty close. What is the
> definition of "appetizer" then? What you describe is what I thought
> an appetizer was. So are appetizer and hors d'oeure just different
> terms for the same thing? Appetizer sounds a lot more precise. Sounds
> like someone just wanted to create a "high falutin' term" to make
> things sound fancier.

It depends on usage. Hors d'oeuvre are not strictly part of a meal, per
se, while appetizers are. Often hors d'oeuvre are served in a separate
room, some kind of salon or parlor, after which there may or may not be
a dinner, with or without an appetizer or other first course, in the
dining room. 

One important characteristic, though, is that hors d'oeuvre are always
small, a bite or two, which not only makes them, theoretically, a light
food, but is also a practical measure when people are standing around at
a cocktail party with a glass in one hand. Not an easy stance for
dealing with plates and forks and such. As a result, many foods often
relegated to first courses of meals, often known as appetizers, don't
make good hors d'oeuvre, simply because they're too hard to eat under
those conditions. For example, how about a nice chilled artichoke with a
vinaigrette dip, to be eaten with one hand, standing up?

Now it's both a challenge, and a fun one, at that, to adapt a first
course for hors d'oeuvre use. I know I had a good time making the tiny
little rellenos (no, this was, regrettably, not a fried food kind of
crowd, but that was probably lucky for me).

Conversely, many hors d'oeuvre can be used quite effectively as an
appetizer, but my own preference is for a first course that can be
presented nicely on a plate -- otherwise it's kind of like having a
waiter cut up your meat for you -- harder to come up with a nice presentation.
 
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com