Party Canapes should be among the most exciting foods to prepare - and, indeed, to eat. I well remember staying one festive season with a food writer friend who had the marvellous knack of being able to conjure up delightful little canapes at about six o'clock every evening, whether there were four people in the house or 24. Indeed, what I remember about that season isn't the more formal meals we enjoyed, but those flavoursome little bites being handed around the room as everyone toasted the Hogmanay.
The elegance of a good canape, its feisty delight of flavour in a single bite, its ability to match an infinite number of wines, is a treasure, so don't feel you have to tumble back on the old smoked-salmon-on-buttered-brown-bread syndrome.
Nor do you have to work very hard. Here is a selection of unusual bases and suggested toppings, all of which you should keep in your store cupboard as the party season heats up.
Base Ideas
Vegetable bases
Oven-dried tomatoes
Cut tomatoes in half lengthways. Place on a baking tray and drizzle with a little olive oil, some salt and pepper and fine slivers of garlic (optional). Place in an oven preheated to 275F/140C/gas 1 for about two to three hours depending on the size of the tomato. You could leave them in the oven all day, they'll just keep getting dryer.
Topping suggestions for roasted tomato: crisped pancetta, or a sliver of anchovy, some chopped chives or a thin sliver of red onion - keep it simple, and do note that, if you dry baby tomatoes, you can use them as a topping as well as a base. Use with mozzarella cheese and basil on crostini; or use chopped up large oven-dried tomatoes, with slivers of olive and/or anchovy for a topping for the pitta crisps (see below).
Chicory or lettuce
Another clever vegetable base can be made from a simple baby chicory leaf, or any crispy lettuce heart. Top with a light fromage frais salad, or a scoop of Thai crab salad. Baked potato skins and root vegetables also make good bases if baked or oven-dried.
Filo bases
Frozen filo pastry defrosts instantly and can be adapted into cute little tartlet cases. Brush three sheets of pastry with butter and cut into 5cm squares. Take a standard, 12cup muffin tin and press in a square of filo into each cup. Place a second square at a slightly different angle, and finish with a third buttered square, again at a slight turn. Bake for six minutes in a 180C/350F/gas 4 oven, until golden brown. The tartlet cases can be stored in an airtight case, if you want to make them in advance.
Tortilla bases
A toasted tortilla becomes a tostadita, a fried tortilla becomes a tortilla chip or nacho. Nachos can be bought in bags and topped with the salmon recipe below, or with a home-made guacamole.
To make tostaditas here is a recipe from Canapes by Eric Treuille and Victoria Blashford-Snell. This is a splendid book, and well worth anyone's money.
Tostaditas (makes 24)
3 15cm (6in) flour tortillas
1/2 teaspoon sunflower oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 200C/400F/gas 6. Brush tortillas on one side with oil. Cut each tortilla into eight even-sized wedges with a pizza slice or knife. Arrange oiled side up in a single layer on an oiled baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt. Bake until crisp, (fiveseven minutes). Cool on a wire rack. When ready to serve, top with a salsa, a ceviche, guacamole or the salmon topping below.
Polenta bases
Make a polenta according to your usual recipe. Pour the finished polenta into a baking tin. When it is set, unmold, slice thinly, brush with olive oil and grill until just crisp (about five minutes) before topping with perhaps an onion confit, basil with chopped oven-roasted tomato (see above).
Egg bases
Fritatta's are simple, flat omelettes, and when you make them with freshly flavoured, zappy companions such as roasted peppers and goat's cheese, the fullness of the eggs is countered by the sharp flavours. Frying them in olive oil also keeps them light. Carry a tray of these scrummy morsels into a room and just watch them being demolished. This recipe was inspired by watching a demonstration given by Colleen Bennet of Holywood's Fontana restaurant, at the recent Belfast Festival of Food and Drink.
Frittata with Roasted Red Pepper, Goat's Cheese and Chives
For each two-egg frittata, cooked in an eight-inch pan, use one roasted and peeled red pepper, a crumbled slice of goat's cheese (chevre-style) and a snipping of garlic chives. Brush the pepper with oil and roast in a hot oven until the skin is blackened - remove to a bowl and cover with cling film. When cool, peel off the skin, then slice the pepper into slices and then cut into pieces, not too small. Beat the eggs in a bowl, season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, and stir in the chopped pepper, the crumbled goat's cheese and the snipped chives. Heat a film of olive oil in an eight-inch pan and toss in the mixture. As the egg catches, turn down the heat and cook until the edges are just setting - about two minutes.
Now, place the pan under a heated grill for another couple of minutes - because the frittata is not too thick, it doesn't need much cooking time. Cook until it is set, then remove to a plate to cool. When it is cool, slice into triangles and serve.
Poppadom bases
Cook mini-poppadoms according to the instructions on the packet and use as a base for tandoori and tikka flavoured toppings.
Pitta Crisps
Grate over a little hard cheese - it could be a hard goat's cheese, a parmesan or a sheep's cheese - and sprinkle the strips with dried or fresh thyme leaves, a tiny amount of finely minced garlic, and some olive oil and bake in a hot oven until brown and crisp (about five-eight minutes). Use as a base, with a dip, or simply on their own.
Topping Ideas
Peperonata
This is Denis Cotter's recipe, from the outstanding Cafe Paradiso Cookbook. He serves his peperonata with ciabatta which has been grilled with tapenade.
1 onion
6 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
100mls olive oil
6 red and/or yellow peppers
1 small chilli, finely chopped
3 tomatoes, sliced in half rounds
10 black olives, stoned salt
Slice the onion into thin quarter rounds, put it in a heavy pan with the garlic and the olive oil and slowly bring the heat up to a very low heat. Chop the peppers into thickish strips, about 15mm, and add them to the pan with the chilli. Bring the heat back up to a low simmer and cover the pan. Check occasionally to make sure that the contents are not just sitting there, but stewing away gently.
When the peppers are just tender, stir in the sliced tomatoes and the olives, and cook on until the peppers are beginning to soften and the tomatoes to break down. Add salt and turn off the heat, but leave the lid on - like a lot of rich Mediterranean food, the peperonata will benefit from sitting quietly for a while and cooling down a few degrees
Bean Mashes
Most people know hummous, the chick pea puree which you now often see combined with a puree of vegetables - red pepper puree or the wonderful Jerusalem artichoke puree. But any bean, and indeed any tin of beans, can be made into a smooth puree. My favourite bean puree is made from fava beans grown in the garden - but that's a summer treat.
In winter, cans of cannellini beans make a sumptuous mash. This is based on a Peter Gordon recipe from his new book, but we've used sage, rather than his basil. This topping would be especially good with the pitta bases, and the chicory leaf base or baked root vegetables, or spread on crostini. Always drizzle with some of your best olive oil just before serving.
White Bean and Sage Mash
100g leeks, trimmed, washed and finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
20ml extra-virgin olive oil
1 tin cannellini beans, drained and rinsed well half teaspoon salt
half teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
5 sage leaves, shredded
Saute the leek and garlic in the oil until the leek turns golden, stirring occasionally. Add the beans, barely cover them with water, bring to the boil and put a lid on the pan. Cook for five minutes on a rapid simmer, then remove the lid, add the salt and pepper and cook uncovered until all the water has evaporated. Take it off the heat and leave it to cool. Stir in the sage and mash everything together with the back of a fork to produce a chunky paste.
Smoked Salmon with Boom-Boom Sauce
We made this sauce/dressing to partner smoked salmon, in order to take the smoked salmon canape a million miles away from brown bread and butter. The name has no meaning whatsoever, as you suspected.
Juice of half a lemon and half a lime
1 large red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
1 thumb fresh ginger, grated
1 small red onion, finely chopped
splash olive oil
splash sesame oil
splash light soy sauce
splash fish sauce
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
pinch sugar
In a bowl, dissolve the sugar and salt with the lemon and lime juices, then add in the grated ginger, sliced chilli and chopped onion. Splash in the olive oil, then add the soy, fish sauce and sesame oil to bring the flavours together - do this bit by bit, tasting as you go, then season with the black pepper. The sauce should have a sharp attack of chilli, ginger and citrus.
Lay a slice of smoked salmon of your tostadita or a toasted pitta, then spoon a small amount of Boom Boom sauce on top.
Canapes by Eric Treuille and Victoria Blashford-Snell is published by Dorling Kindersley, price £14.99 in the UK