Mealtime Magic: Asian-Inspired Amuse-Bouches

If you’re looking to add a sophisticated spark to your Mother’s Day meal, there’s help.
With a little creativity and imagination, you can easily make delicious Asian-influenced amuse-bouches, (bite-size hors d’oeurves) that will leave your guests asking for your secret recipe. Kontos Foods consulted Yongsuk Cha, its Asian Interpreter and Food Consultant, to come up with these gorgeous appetizers. Fluent in Korean and Japanese, Cha is a Japanese-based food stylist and chef, assisting Kontos with its Far East  usiness expansion. Her cooking style is unique in that it melds Asian with global influences, such as Spanish tapas. Cha likes to use Kontos Mini Cocktail Flatbreads as a launching pad for her creations, many of which incorporate readily available ingredients from her pantry and refrigerator. For instance, one amuse-bouche is flatbread covered with mashed potatoes, and then decorated with sliced carrot, cucumber and a hard-boiled egg. A simple leaf tops it off with an elegant flourish; she says any herb will do.

Her “summer roll,” which is a very popular Vietnamese appetizer, is a cut piece of shrimp on a piece of Kontos cocktail flatbread, garnished with cilantro. Another amuse-bouche uses Italian prosciutto sprinkled with sliced onions and drizzled with French dressing and then topped with salmon roe; sushi-style.


What inspires Cha’s creations? “The idea of the food decoration is a very similar to selection of clothes,” she says. “Waking up in the morning, you will select the different clothes from your closet every day.  One day, you choose casual clothes, the other day you may pick up very fancy dress; it all depends on the day or/and the situations. For me, selecting food is a same. While looking in the refrigerator, I combine the food, thinking about taste and color compatibilities.”

Food assembling is also important to her, and she often opts for bamboo skewers to securely pin the finger foods together and make them easy to grab. “This item is useful tool to make the food more fashionable,” she says, “Even small hamburgers or sliders, take on a sophisticated look with bamboo stakes arranged in them.”

Asian-Inspired Amuse-Bouches

Ingredients:

Potato:
Kontos Mini Cocktail Flatbreads
Mashed potatoes
Any chopped vegetables, such as carrots or cucumber
Hard-boiled eggs (quail eggs if available)
Fresh herbs for garnish


Summer Roll:
Kontos Mini Cocktail Flatbreads
Base layer of mayonnaise or cream cheese
Cooked shrimp cut into bite-sized pieces
Cilantro to garnish

Prosciutto:
Kontos Mini Cocktail Flatbreads
Base layer of mayonnaise or cream cheese
Carrot, sliced thinly
Cucumber, sliced thinly
Italian prosciutto
Onions, sliced thinly
French dressing
Salmon roe

Instructions: Serves 6
First lightly toast the flatbread. Then add ingredients in the order they are listed, ending with a delicate garnish layer. User bamboo skewers to securely pin layers together if necessary or desired.


“Asian-inspired Amuse Bouches are perfect for a Mother’s Day brunch or to kick off a dinner,” said Steve Kontos, vice president and owner of Kontos Foods. “The best part is that with the Mini Cocktail Flatbreads, the appetizers come together so fast, and looks great on the plate. Your guests will think you spent hours in the kitchen preparing them.”

Kontos sells its products to retailers and foodservice establishments across North America and around the world. Find Kontos Foods on Twitter @KontosFoods, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Kontosfoods and on Pinterest at https://www.pinterest.com/kontosfoods/.

About Kontos Foods
Founded in 1987, Kontos Foods, Inc. is a Paterson, New Jersey-based provider of traditional Mediterranean foods for restaurants, hotels, food service, retail specialty stores and supermarkets worldwide. The family-owned company specializes in hand-stretched flatbreads, including the Kontos Pocket-Less Pita®, Fillo dough, pastries, olives, gyro meats, and Greek yogurts, as well as nearly 50 varieties of multi-ethnic flatbreads. Kontos, which has over 225 employees and was founded by Evripides (Evris) Kontos with his son Steve, together bring over 100 years’ experience in the premium food industry. The company’s bread and Fillo products are made in the USA. Visit www.kontos.com or call (973) 278-2800.
She builds her creations by first toasting the flatbread to bring out the flavor. Then depending on your taste, she suggests covering the flatbread with a base spread. “Probably American people like to eat more salty or spicy, so mayonnaise, cream cheese or your favorite salad dressing is suitable to adjust the taste,” she says. “I prepare those foods in very short period of time.”