Canapes
The quickest canapés are those made with foods that need no more
preparation than being cut into bits and put on squares of toast. A few suggestions are: cheese, cured ham, chorizo sausage, smoked trout, smoked eel, smoked salmon, canned sardines, and rolled or flat fillets of canned anchovy. To decorate, use chopped cured ham, chopped or sliced black or green olives, chopped hard-boiled egg, minced parsley, bits of tomato or canned pimento, capers, and truffles. A dab of sauce such as All-i-oli or Romesco will transform cold meat canapés. Canape spreads can be made rapidly from canned or precooked foods as in the following:
Canape of Pureed Sardine
Remove bones from canned sardine, mash fish in mortar, spread on toast, and decorate with chopped hard-boiled egg.
Canape of Pureed Tuna
Mash tuna in mortar with yolks of hard boiled egg and mix with mayonnaise until it spreads easily on toast.
Canape of Pureed Chicken
Crush leftover chicken meat in a mortar with a few toasted almonds, season with salt and white pepper, and add sherry until the paste has the desired consistency. Serve on toast.
Canape of Pureed Hake
Use leftover cooked hake or simmer a slice of fresh fish until cooked through (5-10 minutes). Any white fish may be substituted for hake. When fish is cool, mash with a fork, mix with a little mayonnaise, season with salt and pepper to taste, and spread on toast. Sprinkle with chopped hard-boil egg. Whole fillets of small fish make delicious canapés. Any small, flat fish, such as young flounder, may be substituted for sole in the following recipe.
Canape of Baby Sole
Wash cleaned soles, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. Reduce flame and let fish simmer until cooked through (a very few minutes). When fish has cooled, carefully cut out the fillets, put them on strips of toast, and decorate with capers.
I know. It's not the usual recipe for gourmet cookies, but sometimes you have to switch it up a little bit!
For more dinner recipes, try some of the following:



