Amuse-Bouche

by Megg

As I’ve been stuck at home with a back injury, I’ve been looking for things to occupy my time.  Today, I decided to design an amuse bouche!



For those who don’t know, an amuse-bouche is a tiny, bite-sized hors d’œuvre meant to “amuse” your taste buds.  I’ve only had a few… all at nicer restaurants and all at the beginning of the meal.  I thought it would be fun to come up with one on my own!


I was working on a meal with Italian cuisine, so I wanted to make sure some classic Italian flavors were in the amuse.  I also wanted it to be stylish, and a bit creative.  After lots of thinking, list-making, sketch-drawing and so forth, I finally decided upon my components:  tomato cream, basil gelée, shaved parmigiano-reggiano, and basil leaf.  Here’s a photo of the end result:



Pretty swanky, no?  Haha.. actually, coming up with what I wanted to do was a lot harder than making the actual dish.  I took rich, red tomatoes and blended them with heavy whipping cream and a touch of seasoning for the tomato cream, which I poured carefully into a Chinese soup spoon.  I made the basil gelée with blanched fresh basil and agar-agar jelly, with a touch of dry vermouth.  Once it was set, I used a melon-baller to make the little globe and gently placed it on the cream (it was cool and smooth, and the texture resembled a grape!).  I simply arranged a shaving of parmigiano-reggiano cheese and the smallest basil leaf on top of the gelée and my piece was complete!  


Have you ever tried making an amuse-bouche?  Or do you have a favorite that you’ve tried in a restaurant?



  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/09902686521346596358 OhayoBento

    Wow, that looks fantastic! Very swanky :) It's perfect, it looks straight out of a gourmet book!

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/17219875290791522802 Megg

    Aww.. thanks so much, OhayoBento!

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/03814360396897839625 Lisa

    That looks so great. I can totally see something like that in a four-star restaurant.

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/12412734634457510531 Marisa

    Very classy looking amuse bouche! I normally don't frequent the super fancy restaurants that serve them and I've certainly never attempted it at home but it kinda looks like fun.

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/17219875290791522802 Megg

    How flattering, Lisa.. thanks!!

    And Marisa, you should try it! It really was fun more than anything else.. Although I did spend WAY too much time thinking about such a small simple thing before I made it. ^_^

  • http://myboyfriendcooksforme.blogspot.com my boyfriend cooks for me

    What a timely post! My boyfriend and I **finally** got around to using our new amuse bouche spoons a couple of nights ago…although we weren't nearly as fancy (each spoon had a gnocchi with a different sauce), it was such a fun way to get ready for dinner.

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/17219875290791522802 Megg

    Sounds cool! It really is fun, isn't it? Great minds… ^_^

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/03608484496354584828 Bentobird

    Elegant and gorgeous, edible art! Keep up the inspiring creative projects, they are awesome!

  • http://souperior.wordpress.com/ souperior

    What a fantastic idea! Sounds yummy :)

  • Felicity Ficca

    What would you call this?

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