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Ham and Cheese Puffs

This is my cross-cultural take on a frequently served Swedish snack. If you’re making the North African mantecaos specifically for this dish, you might omit the cumin, but I think they’re more interesting with it. You can also make these with standard biscuits, in which case they’re pretty simple.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    makes 4 servings

Ingredients

2

tablespoons butter or neutral oil, like corn or grapeseed

5

shallots, sliced

2

cups diced cooked ham, pork, or slab bacon

1

/2 cup sour cream

1

egg

1

/4 cup chopped fresh parsley or dill leaves

Black pepper to taste

Cheese Mantecaos (page 35), cooled and sliced in half horizontally

Need to make a substitution?

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook until soft and golden, about 3 minutes. Lower the heat and add the meat; cook, stirring occasionally, until hot, about 5 minutes.

    Step 2

    Meanwhile, whisk together the sour cream, egg, and herbs. Add to the meat mixture and cook until just heated through. Season with pepper and spoon into the Cheese Mantecaos, making little sandwiches. Serve immediately.

The Best Recipes in the World by Mark Bittman. © 2005 by Mark Bittman. Published by Broadway Books. All Rights Reserved. MARK BITTMAN is the author of the blockbuster The Best Recipes in the World (Broadway, 2005) and the classic bestseller How to Cook Everything, which has sold more than one million copies. He is also the coauthor, with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, of Simple to Spectacular and Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef. Mr. Bittman is a prolific writer, makes frequent appearances on radio and television, and is the host of The Best Recipes in the World, a 13-part series on public television. He lives in New York and Connecticut.
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