Canape Party and more recipes!

My friends Glen and Luke have this amazing warehouse flat in London, it's such a great space for parties, and this year they asked me to do the food. I met with them a few weeks ago to go through what kind of things they wanted and we decided on the following menu:

Mini hamburgers with tomato chutney and cheddar
Honey Roast Sausages
Salmon blinis
Tortilla squares
Ardennes pate, red onion marmalade, crostini
Red pepper filo parcels
Sundried tomato and mozarella arancini
Lime and mango chicken
crudites and dips
Mini chocolate cupcakes with gold frosting
Salted caramel and chocolate shortbread


I've included some of the basic recipes below, and some photos of the platters :)

Chocolate cupcakes. The colour doesn't come through all that well in the photo but these were topped with chocolate fudge frosting and then sprayed gold. My piping bag split in half when I tried to pipe the first one so I had to  spoon it on and shape each one.

These are very easy to assemble, you can buy crostini from most supermarkets. The red onion marmalade is easy too, just put 2 finely chopped red onions, 1 tbsp olive oil, 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar and 2 tbsp sugar in a saucepan and slowly heat through until the sugar dissolves and the onions are soft.

Totally cheated on these, they're just shop bought puff pastry cut into squares and topped with slow cooked peppers in a tomato sauce

Again, very simple, make a marinade from 1 tin of mangoes and tbsp curry paste and blend until smooth. Stir into 1kg diced chicken breast and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Pour into a greased oven proof dish and cook for 30 mins on 200C.

The blinis are a basic pancake mix thickened with a little more flour and some baking powder to give them a fluffier texture. They are then topped with cream cheese, salmon and dill, then garnished with lemon twists (for that ultra 70s look)

Omelettes and tortillas are really hard to make in a frying pan, especially if you want them to come out in one piece. Sidestep all this by making it in a greaseproof paper lined roasting tin. It will take about 30-40 mins in the oven to set. Basically it's a quiche without the pastry.

A selection of dips for crudites and crisps, mostly Asian flavour inspired, garlic ginge and star anise, chilli salsa, thai green curry and soy and chilli

Again, a very simple recipe. If you've ever made risotto you'll know how easily it goes solid once it's cold. That's what you're trying to achieve here. The risotto was made with 2 mozzarella balls, half a bag of risotto rice, and half a jar of sundried tomatoes. Once it's cooled, you roll them into little balls and bake them at 220C for about 20 mins until slightly browned.

These little burgers or sliders are made with the smaller versions of the dinner rolls from the last post. The burgers are 750g minced beef mixed with one egg and 1 finely grated onion. These were served with tiny slices of cheddar and tomato chutney.