I like December for many reasons – seeing family and friends, the general festive spirit in the office, sparkly stuff everywhere – but hands down, the best bit is all the party food. I love it so much that if every meal could be made up of bowls of crisps, dry roasted nuts and tiny versions of my favourite dishes, year round, then come what may, I’d feel my life was a neverending shindig. When you have the task of preparing said tiny food, though, the temptation is to be a bit lazy and head to the shops. This week, our readers have eliminated the excuses, and proved that you can whip up your own crowd-pleasing canapes from simple ingredients, even if you only have a few moments to spare.
For a no-cook option, you’ll struggle to find something as simple and effective as Lauren Kisby’s dates stuffed with chorizo and goat’s cheese. Taking all of 10 minutes to make, they will also sit happily for a while; perfect to put out and sate appetites if you are stuck in the kitchen cooking another course. Kate Hardie’s wild mushroom toasts are a brilliant way to give a thought to the gluten-intolerant. The toasts, if kept in an airtight container, can be made a day or so ahead, too; I found that a seeded bread worked really well for added interest. And MizPepperpot’s katsu bites are quite simply a stroke of genius, especially if you buy a katsu kit with everything in it – you can buy breadcrumbed chicken and fish if you like, but there’s nothing quite like the crispness of panko, fresh from the fryer. DetoutcoeurLimousin’s pastry bites are a fancy way to make something of what you can find in the cupboard and fridge; there are no hard and fast rules with the spices, so just use what you have, and yoghurt will do just as well if labneh isn’t available. And if your guests are types that prefer liquid sustenance, then Bobby Ananta’s mango and pomegranate shot packs a serious punch.
But my favourite canapes ticked every box – classic enough to please a varied crowd, quick enough to require almost no instruction, pretty enough to be proud of, and, most importantly, interesting enough in taste and texture to keep everyone going back for more. Just try not to eat all 24 as a snack all to yourself, like I did.
The winning recipe: smoked trout and smoked salmon canapes
This is a favourite of mine – easy to prepare, and always appreciated. You will need 24 tart/canape cases.
John Platt, Essex
Makes 24
For the smoked trout filling
150g smoked trout fillets
200g cream cheese
Juice of ∫ lemon
Salt and black pepper
For the smoked salmon filling
200g smoked salmon slices
24 pickled cucumber slices
Dill, chives or fish roe/caviar, to serve
1 Break up the smoked trout into pieces. Blend with the cream cheese until smooth in a processor. Stop and scrape down the sides as necessary.
2 Add the juice of up to half a lemon and blend. Taste and add more lemon juice/salt and pepper to taste (you won’t need much more). Transfer to the fridge to firm up while you are preparing the smoked salmon and cucumber tartlets.
3 Separate the pickled cucumber slices and dry them carefully on a paper towel. Lay out the smoked salmon and cucumber slices on a chopping board. Using a pastry cutter small enough to cut discs to fit in the cases, stamp out 24 discs of smoked salmon and 24 circles of pickled cucumber. Line the tartlet shells first with the smoked salmon discs then the pickled cucumber. Fill up the shells with the smoked trout filling. Top with a decoration of your choice to serve.
Wild mushroom tarts
I use a variety of wild mushrooms, but you can adapt this to whatever you have in your fridge. I make it using gluten-free bread to suit my coeliac son, but regular wholemeal or white bread works equally well.
Kate Hardie, via GuardianWitness
Makes 6
3 slices of bread
2 tbsp olive oil
125g wild mushrooms, sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 level tbsp creme fraiche
Salt and black pepper
1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Remove the crusts from the bread and put a piece of clingfilm over each slice. Roll out to about 2-3mm thick, then cut them diagonally in half.
2 Press each triangle into either a muffin tray or dome mould, if you have one, then sprinkle with 1 tbsp olive oil. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp.
3 Meanwhile, heat the rest of the oil in a frying pan. Add the mushrooms and cook until softened, then add the garlic and continue to cook for a further 5 minutes. Stir in the creme fraiche to coat the mushrooms. Season to taste.
4 Remove the toasts from the oven, put on a serving plate then put a generous spoonful of the mushroom mixture on to each toast. Garnish with the parsley and serve warm.
Dates with cheese and chorizo
This is the most delicious canape I’ve ever eaten.
Lauren Kisby, via GuardianWitness
Makes 24
24 dried dates
75-100g chorizo, sliced into 24 pieces
75-100g semi-firm goat’s cheese, chopped into 24 pieces
1 Carefully slice down the middle of the dates, removing the stones, to create a pocket in the middle. Remove the rind from the chorizo slices, then stuff into the dates, followed by the goat’s cheese, then serve.
Spicy mango shot
This recipe will offer a punchy accompaniment to the other canapes.
Bobby Ananta, Leicester
Makes 12-15 shots
1 large mango, peeled and roughly chopped
1 birds eye chilli, thinly sliced
2cm ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
4-6 shots of mango or marmalade vodka, to taste
120ml cloudy apple juice
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
Juice of 1 lime
¼ tsp black pepper
A pinch of salt, to taste
Pomegranate seeds, to serve
1 Place the mango, chilli, ginger, vodka, apple juice, pomegranate molasses and lime juice in the blender, and blitz until smooth. Transfer into a jug and leave it in the fridge to chill.
2 Add salt and pepper to taste, then stir before serving, topping each glass with pomegranate seeds. Kerpow!
Katsu bites
Curry in any form is always a winner with my crowd, and the Japanese version, katsu, which often uses a curry paste, couldn’t be quicker and simpler. Even from scratch, coating your own meat and vegetables in egg and panko breadcrumbs, then frying, takes less than half an hour.
MizPepperpot, via GuardianWitness
Makes about 30
1 packet shop-bought katsu curry sauce
Oil, for frying
1 egg, beaten
1 chicken breast, cubed
8 king prawns, shelled
4 chestnut mushrooms, halved
8 stalks tenderstem broccoli, halved
100g panko breadcrumbs
Pickled ginger, to serve
1 Make up one serving of the curry sauce according to the packet instructions, then keep it warm. This usually involves simply stirring into hot water and leaving to simmer.
2 Heat enough vegetable oil in a wok or fryer to deep-fry the meat and vegetables. To test if the oil is hot enough drop in a small piece of bread. It should sizzle and begin to colour in about 30 seconds.
3 Dip the pieces of chicken, prawns and vegetables first in the egg, then in the breadcrumbs. Fry until crisp, golden and the meat is cooked through – about 3-4 minutes. The chicken will take a little longer than the vegetables, and you might have to do this in batches: keep the rest warm in a low oven if you do.
4 Skewer a piece of pickled ginger on to a cocktail stick, followed by a piece of chicken, prawn or vegetable. Serve immediately with the hot curry sauce to dip them in.
Hot smoked paprika, fennel and labneh pastries
A great way of using up odds and ends of pastry, and you can play around with different seeds and spices too. They would also be delicious with a sprinkling of za’atar or ras el hanout.
detoutcoeurLimousin, via GuardianWitness
Makes 20-30
1 sheet ready-rolled puff pastry
2-3 tbsp labneh or thick Greek yoghurt
1 tbsp hot smoked paprika
1 tbsp fennel seeds
Zest of 1 lemon
1 Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Lay the pastry sheet out and spread the labneh or yoghurt evenly over it. Sprinkle with the hot smoked paprika, fennel seeds and lemon zest.
2 Cut the pastry into 5cm strips lengthways and cut into rough shapes at different angles.
3 Bake for about 7-10 minutes or until crisp and golden. Serve hot or cold.
