Plate Rim Garnishes, Wide Rim Bowls

TIP OF THE DAY: Plate Rim Garnishes, Plus Dipping Waffles For National Waffle Day

August 25, 2020 at 7:43 am · Filed under Breakfast & Brunch, Entertaining, Food Fun, Food Holidays, Recipes, The Nibble, Tip Of The Day

This article is ostensibly about rim garnishes for bowls or plates with enough of a rim to garnish. But in honor of International Waffle Day on March 25th, and National Waffle Day on August 24th, we’re featuring a mini dipping waffle along with the more logical rim candidates. There’s no need to wait for a waffle holiday or even for brunch: You can make this dipping waffles recipe work (photo #4) any day of the year, in either a savory or sweet preparation.

The mini waffles recipe below. (photo #4).

RIM GARNISHES

We’d long wanted a set of wide-rim bowls (photo #1) that the better restaurants we patronize use to serve pasta, soup, and other foods.

The presentation never ceases to delight—especially when garnishes or decorations are set atop the wide rim.

We listened to all the reasons why these bowls were not a wise purchase: no more storage space in our small apartment, questionable number of uses per year, etc.

To those who questioned our judgment in buying a set of wide rim bowls (you know who you are!):

WHAT TO PUT ON THE RIM

We use our wide-rim bowls largely for entertaining, as opposed to daily use; but there’s no reason why you can’t do both.

No matter what’s in the bowl (cereal, chili, fish en brodo, grain bowls, green salads, ice cream, pasta and pasta salad, pudding, salad, soup, etc.), you can plate other foods on the rim.

Go wherever your imagination takes you, but here are some ways in which we “rim garnish” conventional foods:

Breakfast/Brunch: berries or sliced fruits, dots of yogurt, granola crumbles/clusters, toast points or toasted baguette slices, etc.

Lunch: crostini, crudités, homemade croutons mixed with microgreens, sprinkle of minced herbs with red bell pepper, etc.

Dinner: dots of sauce, homemade breadcrumbs mixed with microgreens, sprinkle of minced herbs with red bell pepper, undressed salad (photo #1—use colorful ingredients like halved cherry tomatoes, slices of radish and basil leaves), etc.

Dessert: candied/chopped nuts, chopped/grated chocolate, crumbles (cake, cookies, pie crust crumbs—we like to crumble colored meringues), diced fruits, dots or squiggles of sauce, flowers, mini macarons and other cookies, shredded coconut, streusel, whipped cream dollops

Whatever garnish you might have put on a plate, place it on the rim and add some other compatible garnishes.

Truly, we have so much fun with this!

MAKING THE MINI WAFFLES

For August 24th, National Waffle Day, we copied this idea for mini waffles with two dipping sauces.

While in theory a breakfast dish, it was a great lunch!

In this recipe (photo #4), the ingredients have reversed places: The main food is plated on the rim, and the garnishes are in the bowl.

We didn’t have a mini waffle maker, so we made regular-size waffles and cut them into four smaller squares.

As for the dip, we used strawberry and vanilla yogurt; and garnished everything with blueberries and raspberries.

There are other waffle applications, too; for example:

Chicken and waffles with chicken in the bowl and mini waffles on the rim.

Ice cream with mini waffles on the rim.

[1] Soup with a rim garnish of halved cherry tomatoes, herb sprigs, and for a touch of luxury, lump crabmeat (photo © Seviche Restaurant | Louisville).