One of the most popular appetizers on the festive table is canapés. They are often made with expensive ingredients, but even the most common and affordable ingredients make delicious little sandwiches.
What are canapes?
The term "canapes" itself came to us from the French language. Initially, this word means a piece of furniture, namely a soft sofa. It is not known for certain why this word was used for mini-sandwiches, but there is a theory that the toasted crust of bread with crumb inside reminded the creators of the recipe this particular piece of furniture, from which this name of the dish came to the people.
The basis of classic canapé sandwiches is a slice of bread that is slightly dried or toasted (in a toaster or in a pan). It can be of any shape, but most often it is a circle or a square. The dried crust is necessary so that the bread does not soften or lose its shape when in contact with other foods, especially if they have a sufficiently moist consistency. It is extremely rare to replace toast with vegetable or fruit layers. But the most important characteristic of the base is its size - it must be small enough to fit whole in your mouth, but also large enough to accommodate several ingredients on it. It is the size of the slice of bread that determines the amount and location of all other ingredients.
The next necessary component of a canapé is the filling, which can be, in principle, absolutely any product. Most often, these are expensive varieties of meat delicacies, caviar and fish, since the small size of the dish allows you to use these ingredients sparingly. However, for canapes, you can use the most common foods that can be found in every refrigerator: cheeses, herbs, vegetables. Less often, natural meat, pates are used in their preparation, and sometimes canapes can be found even with fruits. Products are most often combined, arranged in layers and held together with a special stick.
Finally, one of the most important parts of canapé sandwiches is the skewer. Canape is created as a buffet dish, which means that you can take it from the table on the go and eat it without getting your fingers and mouth dirty. So skewers perform not so much a decorative function as a functional one - without them it is impossible to achieve such convenience when eating a dish. Nowadays, you can find all kinds of skewers made from bamboo, plastic, and even metal. In color and shape, they are also very different for each other. You can find options for colorful children's parties, or you can find options for strict official receptions. Many supermarkets offer a decent assortment of this product, so there is almost always plenty to choose from.
The secondary ingredient is sauces. Most often they are not used at all in a dish, but if you need to tie several foods together or add juiciness, you can use mayonnaise, sour cream, or some homemade sauces. The main thing is that they do not interrupt, but complement the taste of the main ingredients.
Another important fact about canapés is that they should always be kept in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before the holiday. Thus, the products will be able to maximize the saturation of each other's smells and tastes, which will allow for maximum harmonization and softness of taste. Sandwiches are served even before the guests have seated at the table, since their main function is a snack bar, buffet table, as a snack before main dishes.
This article presents a variant of canapes of the most affordable and expensive products. It does not include meat and fish. Following the instructions step by step, you can easily prepare this buffet dish. For convenience, the step-by-step description is accompanied by photographs.
Ingredients
For 8 canapes (2-3 servings) you will need:
- Hard cheese (Russian is suitable) - 150 grams;
- Processed cream cheese - 100 grams;
- Large cherry tomatoes (or plum tomatoes) - 4 pieces;
- Bulgarian red pepper - 1 piece;
- Garlic - 1 clove;
- Bread - 4 slices
- Parsley to taste.
How to cook
1. First, prepare all the necessary ingredients: wash and dry the herbs and vegetables, peel the garlic from the husk, measure out the required amount of processed and hard cheese. The number of slices of bread depends on the size of the canapé mold and the size of the bread itself. In this case, two round tins were placed on one slice of bread.
2. Cut the cheese into slices in the same shape you plan to cut the bread slices. The clippings will be needed in the next step, so they should not be removed too far.
3. In the bowl of the food processor, add the hard cheese trimmings, processed cheese, garlic, salt and herbs. Grind food until thick, almost homogeneous.
4. Then you can start cutting vegetables. Cut the tomatoes into thin slices. Try to select the size of the tomatoes that match the diameter of the chosen mold.
5. Cut the bell pepper. You can cut it into squares, or you can use the mold chosen for the bread and other ingredients again.
6. Cut circles out of the bread and dry them in a preheated oven for a few minutes.
7. Place sliced hard cheese on each slice of toasted bread.
8. The next layer is chopped tomatoes.
9. With wet hands, shape into balls of cheese and garlic filling. Place each ball on top of the tomato slices.
10. Bell pepper is a hard product, and the cheese filling in this recipe is very soft. So with a skewer, you first need to pierce the pepper separately, and only then insert it into the canapé.
11. Collect all the sandwiches in a similar way, put them in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. Delicious cheese-garlic-vegetable canapes are ready to serve. Bon Appetit!
