Steemit Culinary Challenge #22 : Mediterranean Hors d'Oeuvres.

I started this post by taking a trip to a Water Buffalo farm to buy fresh ingredients that are Italian- inspired.

The name of the operation is the Ontario Water Buffalo company. They are located just outside of Stirling, Ontario Canada and are situated on 450 acres. This company sells products that are derived directly from their herd of 350+ Water Buffaloes.

If you missed that post, you can check it out here:

/@rebeccaryan/buffing-it-up-a-trip-to-visit-a-herd-of-working-girls-1-stud

So, I gathered the ingredients and here they are:

As I am preparing a selection of appetizers inspired from France, Spain, Italy and Greece, there are a lot of ingredients. The good thing is that you will only need a small amount of each thing. However if you are planning to serve these at a party and it's the only thing you will be serving, plan on making at least 3 pieces of each item for each guest attending. You will have more ingredients prepared, then you see in my pictures. The idea is that you can make more appetizers up in advance or on the fly, to keep replenishing your serving platters as your guests enjoy them.

The tools needed are:

1. a high power blender;
2. a vegetable peeler;
3. a sharp butcher's knife;
4. and  a paring knife.

Start by pouring yourself a glass of your favourite red wine, because we will be doing a lot of cutting, chopping and dicing.

Here's the ingredients list:

1. a cantaloupe;
2. 7 Campari tomatoes
3. 6 strawberries;
4. 1 cup of 14% sour cream (or the highest fat you can find);
5. 6 pieces of prosciutto (cured ham);
6. 3 slices of Water Buffalo summer sausage;
7. 2 slices of Water Buffalo pepperettes;
8. 1 tbsp of feta cheese, crumbled;
9. 1 tbsp of shredded smoked caciocavallo (smoked mozzarella cheese made with Water Buffalo milk);
10. 6 green olives from Italy;
11. 8 green olives from Spain;
12. 8 Kalamata olives from Greece;
13. 1 cup freshly chopped dill;
14. 1/8th of a cup of freshly chopped oregano;
15. 1/8th of a cup of freshly chopped basil; 
16. 1/8th of a cup of red onion diced;  
17. 1 cucumber, peeled and sliced;
18. 1/4 of an orange pepper;
19. 1/4 of a yellow pepper;
20. 1 tsp of lemon juice;
21. and Balsamic vinegar and pink Himalayan salt to taste. 

Directions:

• Roughly chop the dill and add it, along with 250 ml of sour cream, and 1 tsp of lemon juice to the jar of your blender. Blend to combine into a thick dip/sauce.

This is what the blended dill dip/sauce will look like:

(Refrigerate this dip/sauce for 30 minutes. This will firm back up and give the dill flavour time to intensify.)

• Peel the cucumber and slice it into rounds.
• Dice the peppers and onions.
• Then, slice the strawberries and finely chop the fresh oregano and the basil.

• Cut the cantaloupe into cubes and tear the prosciutto into small bands that will wrap around the cubes of cantaloupe.

• Wrap the prosciutto around the cantaloupe and display on serving platter.

•  Cut the tomatoes in half and scoop all the seeds and liquid jelly out of them. This will leave tomato shells, and we will be using them as little bowls. Turn them upside down on a paper towel, to let any extra juice drain out.  

• Place the tomato shells on their serving platters and start filling them.

In the first 7 shells, put 2 small diced pieces of cucumber, 1 small piece of orange and yellow pepper, 1 small piece of olive and onion and 3 small pieces of shredded oregano. Top with a small amount of crumbled feta cheese.

• In the 2nd set of 7 tomato shells, add 1 small piece of Water Buffalo pepperette, some finely grated caciocavallo cheese and 2-3 tiny pieces of chopped fresh basil.

• Sprinkle a pinch of pink Himalayan salt over all the filled tomato shells.

• Spread each cucumber round with the sour cream dill sauce/dip.
• Place a small square of Water Buffalo summer sausage on top of the dill sauce.
• Place a small slice of strawberry on top of the summer sausage and finish by adding a drop of Balsamic vinegar on top of the strawberry.

• Place a selections of olives on a serving platter. In this photo, the Italian olives are the larger green ones at the top, the Kalamata olives are from Greece and they are the black ones. Lastly, the smaller green olives are from Spain.

Salute! Ole! Opa! Bon Appetit!

A big thank you is extended to Lori Smith and Martin Littkemann who were kind enough to take me on a tour of their Water Buffalo farm and for helping me to select just the right Water Buffalo cheeses and meats for these Italian inspired hor d'oeuvres.

I also want to thank our guest judge: @surfermarly and our host @woman-onthe-wing.

As well as: @oaldamster, @vegascomic, @smooth and @sirwinchester.

I welcome your comments and invite you to join me at my table...there is always room for one more. ;)

~ Rebecca Ryan