I’ve had a desperate plea over on the Food Matters page for some Quick Canapés to serve with Champagne – if you haven’t read it, here it is:
Dear Foodalltheway,
In the coming days I am to be visited upon by a combined delegation consisting of my mother and her sister (my aunt). Some of your readers may sympathise with an inspection of this magnitude and will, I am sure, be waiting pen-in-hand to jot down your thoughts on rescuing themselves from a similarly nasty predicament. This bloodline retinue are afflicted by standards so high that men of less steady nerve would stoop to “surfing the net” to track down a London bistro that might be a match for the task. However, as the aunt in question comes from our sadly now lost American colonies, this show of weak will would reflect a thoroughly unBritish resolve to step up to the wicket and meet the job head on. For this reason, I am bravely coming to you for advice.
Stoically hedging my bets, I am offering a pre-supper champagne and canapés spread to act as starter to a later meal in a (I admit it) restaurant. However my lifestyle precludes endless preparation. I have the evening before to prepare what I can, leaving the final stages to a last minute flap between when I come home at around half-six and when they arrive which may well be before me. Dragging the contents of my cupboards onto the floor in a panic I find of potential use: x1 tin of pate de fois gras; some brioche slices; some miniature blinis and of course a well stocked champagne cellar. My time allows for a single visit to the shops. Perhaps you can salvage the situation.
Yours as ever,
Anxious of Bloomsbury, WC1
Gone are the days when bits of tinned pineapple and a cube of cheddar on a cocktail stick alongside a plate of little sausage rolls and pickled onions would have suffised. These days, Canapés have to have a certain waw factor to them – often they are more impressive than the meal they precede!
So, Anxious of Bloomsbury, it sounds like you’ve got some of it sorted – thin slivers of foie gras on toasted brioche. My only worry about serving this is that Americans are notoriously against the idea of foie gras – you can make that call, but don’t waste a good tin of foie gras!
If you’ve got left over brioche toasts, or you decide not to serve the foie gras, you could spread a little Roasted Aubergine and pine nut dip (available at the supermarket near you) on them, topped with chopped fresh parsley and mint.
For your blinis, I would buy some smoked salmon, crème fraîche and black caviar and put a little of each on the blinis (in the order listed) – very tasty and pretty too.
Buy some ready-rolled puff pastry to make some puffy bites: cut pastry into bite sized shapes (squares, circles, stars – anything that tickles your fancy, but make sure they’re the same size) brush with beaten egg and then sprinkle some of them generously with parmesan, others with a pinch of dried herbs, others with a pinch of curry powder and others with anything else you think might work. Cook in the oven for 10 – 15 minutes.
Other things that spring to mind are olives, slices of good quality dried saucisson or chorizo, hard-boiled quails eggs and Provençal black olives on a stick… sorry, I’m getting carried away, that last suggestion is very tasty but too fiddly to be done quickly.
Hope the above quickanapé ideas help, anybody else got any suggestions? Enjoy and let me know what you decide to serve up – take a photo so I can add it to this post.