February 14, 2012
Canapes can be a great way to start a great meal, or even just something served at cocktail hour. Although small, they make a big impact if done right. They can be a little salty, even spicy. The choices are limitless and not difficult really.
If you have an idea what your guests might like to taste in some kind of combination, then you’ve got it. A canape can be as simple as a cracker, or a piece of stale bread toasted, with a slice of savory meat on it, or cheese, caviar, relish, purees, or even foie gras. That's the traditional combination.
And although I don't usually follow the traditional, what I like to do can be just as simple. I don’t mean to suggest treating this lightly, though. Canapes are the opening act to the meal you will be serving so they should be fabulous.
My advice is to use your creative side to pull in complimenting flavors and maybe even contrasting colors to make your canapes more enticing.
Good food is just sustenance; great food is a joy for the diner. Canapes aren't meant to be sustenance. They are supposed to excite the appetite, not satisfy it. That's done with the following courses.
So make your canapes a joy the best way you can. If you can get your guests excited about the meal they are about to eat, then you've put them on the road to a heck of a dining experience.
I like to keep my canapes about the size of the distance between the tip of my thumb and the first knuckle. That way they won't mess up a woman's lipstick when she eats them.
I'm not above serving simple things such as tasty melon balls with a strip of prosciutto wrapped around them. But you can easily top it with a smear of English Stilton to give it a bang.
Another morsel I like to make is a cucumber spring role. Start by hollowing out a small section of a small cucumber. Keep in mind that size thing I told you about. Insert a few matchstick pieces of carrot, julienned white radish and fresh chives. Cream it up with goat cheese and then add some fresh squeezed lemon juice onto it.
Now you have color for the eye, a little bite to the taste buds, and an overall satisfying experience that leaves the diner wanting more.Here's a variation on the pinwheel. Start by layering over phyllo dough some spinach. Slice on some brie, then a thin slice of smoked salmon or lox, and add small bits of red and green bell pepper. Then simply roll it up and then cut it into pinwheels.
Make your roll long enough so each guest has a couple of servings when it's sliced into the pinwheels. I cut them to one-quarter-inch thicknesses. So you have to do a little math.
Mostly, I like to give my diners a different experience, so I do like to incorporate different savory meats such as duck or venison, for example.
There's really a lot to choose from if you're bold enough and your guests are up to something new. It's not wrong to be a culinary inventor and even a bit of a performer with your canapes.
Like I said, they are your opening act. And first impressions stick.
For Mary Beth's recipe for goat cheese timbals, click here.
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