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Appetizers, hot or cold, don’t often get air time in our house. I will occasionally set out some baby carrots with ranch dressing when we delay lunch for an early holiday dinner as the main meal of the day. Every so often I will pick up a veggie tray when the gathering for the holiday is particularly large. I rarely, however, actually cook anything more impressive than Mexico Chaquita knock-off cheese dip. So tonight we had appetizers for dinner so I could knock this one off the list.
There are several things I like about this dish. Puff pastry is always a good start to desserts, main dishes, or appetizers. I have this on my bucket list to make and need to carve out the time to do it. A Friday night for a dinner dish is not that time. The flaky layers are a bit messy to eat but very tasty so this recipe gets an A for getting off to an excellent start.
The green component, spinach, is straightforward and uncomplicated. It is lightly seasoned so is not a distraction or overpowering. And the use of the Dijon mustard adds just a touch of spice. So a solid B on the accompanying flavors.
That leaves us with the main attractions to this dish: ham and cheese. How can you go wrong with ham and cheese as your main flavors? Well, for starters, the thin sliced ham edges dry out and become a bit leathery in the time needed to bake the pastry if any is exposed. And second, the gruyere cheese gets a bit oily when baked like this so you get a greasy sheen on your fingers if eating it as intended. Licking your fingers is frowned on in polite company so keep the paper towels handy.
I made the full recipe on this one but did some variations to test out flavor combinations. Six were made strictly according to the recipe and that’s what I graded. Six I made using mayo instead of Dijon. Meh. They were okay but not as good. For the last 6 I used plain yellow mustard and cheddar cheese – they were good but not as good as the recipe version.
So now you know: the recipe is good as-is with the recommendation to use enough cheese to completely cover the ham.
