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CANAPE ONE: SPINACH AND FETA BITES
Your guests might turn their noses up if you serve them some pureed spinach smeared all over the counter… So, we’ve taken some creative license with this first canapé and are presenting Matilda’s blitzed spinach as the main character, not the whole show.
These canapés can be made a day ahead, refrigerated and then reheated before serving. Alternatively, make on the day and serve cooled at room temp. But please, don’t eat them straight from the fridge as all they will be good for is smearing all over the counter and writing your name in them.
INGREDIENTS (makes 12)
3 sheets of Filo Pastry (½ a standard pack)
200g Spinach
100g Feta cheese
½ onion, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 egg
1 tbsp olive oil (extra for greasing)
Pinch of nutmeg
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp chilli flakes
Black pepper (to taste)
METHOD
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C / 160°C fan.
Wilt the spinach in a large saucepan on a low heat, then drain. Squeeze out all the water- it’s a tough job, Popeye earned his stripes.
Add the spinach to a food processor, with the onion, minced garlic and 1 tbsp of olive oil and blitz until finely chopped.
Add the feta and the egg to the food processor along with the seasonings: chilli flakes, salt, nutmeg and pepper and blitz until smooth. Transfer to a piping bag.
Grease the baking tray. For perfect bite size morsels use a Canape Tray. Stack the three filo sheets on top of each other and cut into 12 pieces (four cuts along the longest edge and 3 along the shortest). The pieces should be approx 10 cm squares.
Take one square of filo and brush with oil, then layer over another sheet at an angle to create jagged edges. Brush again with oil and lay over a third and final sheet. Place the layered filo onto the greased tray and push down to create a cup, like a little muffin case. Repeat until you have 12 little filo cups.
Pipe the spinach mixture into the filo cups. The mixture will expand slightly so don’t over fill. Use approx a tablespoon of mixture per cup.
Cover with foil and bake covered at 160°C fan for 20-25 mins. Remove the foil and bake uncovered for a further 5 mins. Check they’re ready by lifting out a canapé to ensure the bottoms are lightly browned before removing from the oven. The tops will brown before the bottoms are cooked and we don’t want no soggy bottoms here…
Remove from the tray and cool fully on a wire rack before serving.
CANAPE TWO: TOMATO SOUP
This is a great one for prepping ahead as all the components can be made a couple of days before the big night and just be heated and plated right before serving. I recommend serving the soup in shot glasses as it makes for a perfect canapé size, and the soup can be drunk straight from the glass. We’ve included some topping suggestions to fancy things up but you could serve the soup straight up, or with a simple drizzle of cream on top.
INGREDIENTS
500g tomatoes
1 small onion
1 carrot
1 stick of celery
A whole bulb of garlic (no smooching at this party)
500 ml vegetable stock
1.5 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp sugar
METHOD
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C / 160°C fan.
First, prep the veggies. Cut the onion, celery and carrot into small chunks, all roughly the same size. Halve and core the tomatoes.
Place all the veg on a baking tray. Drizzle the vegetables with olive oil , season generously with salt and pepper and toss to coat.
Slice the top of the garlic bulb to expose the cloves. Drizzle with oil, wrap securely in silver foil, and add to the baking tray. nb: It sounds like a dramatic quantity of garlic but the flavour will mellow during roasting. Don’t panic.
Place your veggies in the oven for 45- 50 mins until the vegetables are softened, cooked through and slightly caramelised.
Take the tray out of the the oven and remove the garlic in foil using tongs. Return the garlic to the oven for a further 15 mins. Allow the vegetables to cool whilst the garlic continues cooking.
After 15 minutes, remove the garlic from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before handling. Then, squeeze the softened garlic cloves out of the skins and add in with the other veg, discarding the garlic peel.
Prepare your stock and add a tablespoon and a half of tomato puree to the hot stock, stirring to combine.
Place your vegetables in a large pot with half the stock and blend with an immersion blender. nb: If you are using a stand blender with a lid instead, avoid an explosion by making sure the vegetables and stock are fully cooled before blending or your kitchen will look like a scene from Dexter.
Add the sugar and the remaining stock and blitz until smooth. Taste and season accordingly. You may need to add additional sugar if your tomatoes are quite acidic.
Pass the soup through a sieve to ensure it’s silky smooth.
TO SERVE
Reheat the soup and pour into shot glasses.
Drizzle with basil oil and a sprinkle with croutons (recipes below).
SOUP TOPPINGS: BASIL OIL AND CROUTONS
If you wanna jazz up the presentation of your soup, a drizzle of basil oil and a sprinkle of croutons provide a wonderful pop of colour and crunch. You can make both of these toppings a few days ahead to lighten the load on the big day.
BASIL OIL INGREDIENTS
Small bunch of basil
100ml olive oil
Salt, to taste
BASIL OIL METHOD
Pick the basil leaves and discard the stems
Add the olive oil, a pinch of salt and blend until smooth. It is best to use a light olive oil that isn’t super deep and peppery!
Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve or ideally a cheesecloth if you have one.
Can be made in advance and stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a few days.
CROUTONS INGREDIENTS
Slice of bread
Drizzle of oil
Salt, to taste
CROUTONS METHOD
Pre-heat the oven to 210°C / 190°C fan.
Dice a slice of bread into small cubes a few millimetres in diameter, and toss in olive oil, Season with salt and spread onto a baking tray.
Bake for 5-8 mins until golden brown. Keep a watchful eye on them as they are so small they will catch very quickly.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
nb: Can be stored in an airtight container for up to a few days. Make sure the croutons are fully cooled before you imprison them or they will sweat and go soggy. No. Soggy. Bottoms.
TO SERVE
Serve the soup in shot glasses with a drizzle of basil oil and a sprinkling of croutons. Plate right before serving to avoid the croutons going soggy.
CANAPE THREE: BITESIZE SHORT STACK
We all know and love the sensational breakfast scene when Matilda knocks up a syrupy pile of pancakes at the beginning of the film. The music, the vibes, the fluffy stack that makes you want to reach through the screen and take a bite. Iconic. I am quite sure therefore that many of you will be disappointed with the lack of accuracy you are about to experience but… I’m sorry… sweet brekkie pancakes are not the way to start a dinner party in my book. Or any book.
With that in mind, take a breath and sing saybibbilium (you can’t convince me those aren’t the lyrics) because here, we’re throwing authenticity to the wind. In this bitesize canapé version, we are paying homage to the pancakes of syrup past and celebrating the short stack in a savoury way. Completing our trio of canapés with these cute blinis piled with smoked salmon and horseradish creme fraiche.
This recipe makes far more pancakes than you need but unless you want to start dividing an egg into thirds, make the lot and freeze the unused blinis for a later date. Who says you can’t have Pancake Day multiple times a year (except the Vatican, obvs).
INGREDIENTS
100 g self raising flour
1 medium egg
30 g melted butter
150 ml milk
Tbsp of chives (chopped)
Tbsp of dill (chopped)
Additional butter for cooking
TOPPINGS
100g Creme fraiche
1 tsp Horseradish cream
⅛ tsp kosher salt
Squeeze of lemon
50g Smoked salmon
Sprinkle of chopped chives and dill
METHOD
To make the batter, add the flour to a mixing bowl.
Separate the egg and beat together the egg yolk, milk and melted butter.
Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the flour whilst mixing. Adding the wet ingredients this way will prevent lumps from forming. Mix until combined.
Whisk the egg white until almost at stiff peaks and fold the whites into the batter.
Fold in the chopped chives and dill.
Place a frying pan on a medium heat with a knob of butter.
Once melted, spoon the batter into the pan, leaving space between each pancake as they will spread a little. About a teaspoon of batter per blini should do it.
Cook for 1-2 mins until small bubbles appear. Flip and cook for 30-60 secs on the other side.
If like me, you’re anal and need them to be perfect, use a small cookie cutter to shape a flawless circle.
NOTES ON BLINI METHOD
Keep an eye on the colour of the blinis as you may have to reduce the heat to prevent them from browning too much.
It’s a good idea to wipe down the pan with kitchen roll between batches to remove any burnt butter or batter. This will prevent over browning or flecks of burnt residue getting stuck to your pretty little pancakes.
Ensure you allow the blinis to cool at room temperature before assembling as they will melt the creme fraiche if they are warm.
You can make the blinis earlier in the day and assemble just before serving, or at a push, make them the day before.
Avoid storing the blinis in the fridge as the cold temperature affects the texture and they then just taste like store bought (bit of a waste of time then…)
TO SERVE
Add the horseradish and salt to the creme fraiche and mix to combine- you can make this ahead of time and store in the fridge until assembly
Chop the chives finely and remove the thicker steams from the dill.
Slice the smoked salmon into thin strips (about 5mm thick and 3 cm long).
Place a small dollop of creme fraiche onto a blini, then top with another pancake and repeat. Three blinis makes the perfect little short stack.
Top the triple decker stack with a final dollop of horseradish creme fraiche and a slice of the smoked salmon.
Sprinkle with chives and top with a sprig of dill.
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