Entertaining can be stressful when faced with large bills for food and drink. These tasty bites make substantial finger food enough to be the main part of the catering for a drinks party or informal gathering.
The bases can be made in advance and stored in a air tight containers for a couple of days which is a good idea when catering for large numbers. Adjust quantities according to how many bites will be needed.
Depending on the length of the baguette, one loaf can yield up to 30 slices. The topping recipes are enough for one long baguette or french stick.
Despite being cheap to make compared to the prepared party snacks on offer in supermarkets and food halls, these taste anything but low budget. In fact nobody will know.
To Make the Bites:
- 1 x Baguette
- Olive oil
- Pre heat the oven to a low heat of about 150 degrees; Thinly slice the baguette into 5mm slices.
- Place the olive oil in a saucer and dip each slice in the oil, placing them oil side up on a baking sheet. Depending on the size of the oven, quantity of baguettes and number of baking sheets, this might have to be done in batches.
- Place the baguette slices in the oven to toast. The idea is that they dry out quickly becoming like slightly oily crackers.
- Keep an eye on the oven whilst these are toasting as they can burn very quickly. They are done when they are golden, toasted and crunchy.
Garlic cloves can be rubbed in to these whilst they are warm and will melt in giving a wonderful flavor. However this will overpower anything substantial that is placed on top. Keep the garlic version for dipping or serving piled with fresh herbs and a little more olive oil. Similarly, flavor by sprinkling with sea salt, rosemary, black pepper or chili flakes before baking.
Budget Smoked Salmon Mousse
Smoked salmon is expensive but it is possible to buy trimmings even in many supermarkets. These are the pieces left over from when the big slices were cut and sometimes the meat can be a little darker or the pieces cut more roughly.
- 150g smoked salmon trimmings
- 250ml whipping cream
- 250g cream cheese
- 1 lemon
- 50ml dry sherry
- Salt and fresh black pepper
- Slice one of the lemons finely and then cut each round slice in to three or four sections, making miniature lemon wedges.
- Whip the cream to form stiff peaks and set aside.
- Use a blender or hand blender to mix the salmon trimmings and the juice from the lemon into a paste.
- Mix the cream cheese, sherry, salmon and a little zest from the lemon together.
- Carefully fold in the whipped cream with salt and pepper, checking the seasoning.
- Cover the mousse with cling film and refrigerate until needed.
- When ready to serve, heap the toasted bites with the mousse and place a mini lemon wedge on each.
- 8 onions, sliced as finely as possible
- 250g brown sugar
- 100g butter
- Pinch of salt
- A splash of water
- Sherry if there is any left over from the mousse or if not 50ml of apple cider or balsamic vinegar
- Pinch of chili flakes
- 2 small Camembert; look our for budget supermarket French Camembert if money is tight as the cheese will be cooked so need not be the very ripest if money prohibits this
- Small packet of shelled walnut halves
- To make the onion jam place the onion, sugar, butter, salt, water, sherry and chili in a large pan or ideally a wok. Heat gently until the butter has melted and the sugar is starting to draw liquid out of the onions. Eventually the onions will soften a little and the sugar will melt in to the liquid.
- Simmer this mixture until it becomes sticky and the onions are cooked through and caramelized. This can take up to 20 minutes of even boiling at a low to medium heat. It is important to stir the onions during this time and make sure that they do not burn.
- Once cooked, the onion jam can be cooled and refrigerated until needed. It will set very firm in a refrigerator so will need to be removed a little before making up the toppings.
- To make the bites, pre heat the oven to gas mark 6 or about 200 - 220 degrees.
- Cut the Camembert in to small wedges. Each round should yield 20 of these.
- Pile onion jam on the croutes, add a wedge of cheese followed by a piece of walnut and bake in a the oven until the cheese is melted and bubbling in to the jam, and the walnuts toasted. This takes about 10 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
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