BLUE CHEESE, PEAR & WALNUT BALLS (SPREAD) - KUGLICE (NAMAZ) OD PLAVOG SIRA, KRUSKE I ORAHA

Place of origin: Our recipe

For this year's Halloween (Autumn) party I was thinking about making something simple as an appetizer but it had to contain at least one "autumn" ingredient. The first thing that came in mind was a pear. Then I though about combining it with some sort of cheese or with walnuts. And all that contemplating resulted in combining all three in these interesting little balls. And, as I've had some extra that I didn't make into balls, I realized the next day that it's also great as a spread over a toasted bread. :-)

INGREDIENTS

100 g blue cheese

50 g pear puree

app 60 g ground or very finely chopped walnuts

finely chopped walnuts for coating

1. in a bowl mash blue cheese with a fork till you have a cheese paste.
2. add pear puree and mix with a fork till well combined (I've pureed the pear using very small food processor - we call it chopper in Croatia - but you can also use stick blender or even fork, normal sized blender is too big for one small pear).
3. add walnuts, mix well.
4. make small balls and roll them in chopped walnuts, put in fridge till serving.
5. serve with toasted baguette or similar.

HINTS:

• if the blue cheese taste is too strong for you, you can substitute 50 g of blue cheese with some other soft cheese like feta (I think cream cheese wouldn't be good as the mixture would be too soft and sticky, but if you're planning on making spread and not balls, cream cheese is a good option).
• if you're making spread and will not make balls, you can add some more pear puree - the mixture will be softer and easier to spread.
• adjust the amount of walnuts according to juiciness of the pear. If the pear is very juicy, you will need a little bit more walnuts otherwise the mixture will be too sticky.

KUGLICE OD PLAVOG SIRA, KRUŠKE I ORAHA

Za ovogodišnji Halloween (jesenski) party sam htjela napraviti neko jednostavno predjelo (jer sam već imala gotov plan "samoubojstva kuhanjem i pečenjem" ostalog dijela večere i kolača), no uvjet je bio da sadrži bar jedan "jesenski" sastojak. Prvo što mi je palo na pamet je bila kruška. Onda sam pomislila na kombinaciju kruške i nekog sira ili pak oraha. I svo to razmišljanje je rezultiralo kombinacijom ta tri sastojka u ovim zanimljivim lopticama. I na kraju, kako je ostalo smjese, sljedeći dan smo konstatirali kako je super i kao namaz na tostiranom kruhu. :-)

SASTOJCI

100 g plavog sira

50 g pirea kruške

oko 60 g mljevenih ili fino sjeckanih oraha

fino sjeckani orasi za uvaljati kuglice

1. u zdjelici, pomoću vilice, pretvorite sir u kremastu smjesu.
2. dodajte pire kruške i promiješajte vilicom dok smjesa ne postane jednolična (krušku sam pretvorila u pire u sjeckalici, a možete ga napraviti i pomoću štapnog miksera ili pak vilice).
3. dodajte orahe i dobro promiješajte.
4. oblikujte loptice i uvaljajte ih u sjeckane orahe te stavite u frižider do posluživanja.
5. poslužite uz tostirani baguette ili sl.

SAVJETI:

• ako vam je okus plavog sira prejak, možete zamijeniti 50 g plavog sira s nekim drugim mekšim sirom poput fete (mislim da svježi, kremasti sirevi ne bi bili dobra zamjena jer bi smjesa bila premekana i preljepljiva - no krem sir možete upotrijebiti ako ćete raditi namaz, a ne kuglice).
• ako radite namaz, a ne kuglice, možete dodati i više pirea kruške - smjesa će biti mekša i lakše će se mazati.
• prilagodite količinu oraha ovisno o tome koliko je kruška sočna. Ako u voćki ima puno soka, trebat će vam nešto više oraha kako smjesa ne bi bila premekana i ljepljiva.

 Recipe by Linda