Cracking Canapés

Lord knows I love a good party and at my house we tend to find any excuse to entertain. This time I was put in charge of canapés and I came up with four simple but delicious little morsels for everyone to enjoy. So if you're throwing a party, having friends round or maybe you just like eating small food why not give these easy peasy canapés a whirl?

Spanish Men
Makes 30

30 small spanish olives, stoned
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 tsp smoked paprika
100g Serrano ham, thinly sliced into 30 small pieces
30 cubes of pineapple
150g Manchego cheese, cut into 30 cubes
cocktail sticks/toothpicks

Marinate the olives in the oil, vinegar and paprika for an hour or so

Roll up the ham as tightly as possible and chill in the fridge

Assemble the men by threading the components onto a cocktail stick/toothpick in the following order: olive, pineapple, ham, Manchego

"Chevre croutes"  - Goat's cheese bruschetta

Makes 10

1/2 baguette, cut into 10 1cm thick slices

2 tbsp pesto
1 log-shaped goat's cheese, cut into 8 slices
olive oil
black pepper

Toast the bread under a hot grill on one side. Lightly spread the untoasted sides of the baguetter with the pesto.

Place the goat's cheese on top of the pesto and toast under the grill for 3 minutes or until the cheese begins to soften.

Lightly drizzle olive oil and grind black pepper over the top of the croutes . Return to the grill for a further 3 minutes or until the cheese begins to bubble and is tinged just brown. 

Serve straightaway or just as good cold!

Mushroom Pate Bites

Makes 10

1/2 baguette, cut into 10 1cm thick slices

3 tbsp Mushroom pate

5 cherry tomatoes, halved

Olive oil

Drizzle the olive oil on one side of the bread and toast under a hot grill. Flip over and do the same on the other side.

Generously spread a teaspoon of pate onto each slice of bread and top with half a cherry tomato.

Smoked Salmon Blinis

Makes about 20

125g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

large pinch of salt

1 egg

150-200ml milk

sunflower oil

200g smoked salmon

1 tbsp sour cream and chive dip

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Break the egg into the bowl and gradually pour in the milk, mixing all the time with a ballon whisk. You may not need to add all the milk - the batter should be smooth and thick.

Preheat a large frying pan over a medium heat. Pour a oil in the pan and swirl to coat the base of the pan evenly. Leave it to heat up.

Drop a heaped teaspoon of batter into the hot pan for each pancake - you will probably be able to cook about 4 pancakes at a time. Cook for about 1 minute on each side, or until bubble start to appear on the surface. Flip the pancakes over using a fish slice or a palette knife, and cook the other side until golden.

Repeat this process with the remaining batter adding a bit more oil each batch.

To serve, snip the smoked salmon into pices. Dollop half a teaspoon of the sour cream and chive dip onto each pancakes and top with salmon.