Traditionally, in any culture, the festive table is bursting with all kinds of dishes. And snacks play an important role in it. But, properly selected, they may well become the basis of the menu for a solemn occasion. Moreover, buffet tables are now popular. You can prepare and set such a table with a small amount of money and no solid culinary experience.
When coming up with a menu for a buffet table, one must remember the need for a variety of snacks. There may be vegetarians and fasting people, fish and meat lovers at the holiday. Someone may come after work, here you need hearty snacks. Of course, no one forces you to adapt to all guests. But usually for the holidays, close and loved ones are invited, whom you want to please.
All snacks that are easy to prepare can be roughly divided into several types: vegetable, cheese, meat, fish, fruit, combined. They can be served in different ways. It can be slices, canapes, tartlets, rolls, sandwiches. Dishes, colorful skewers and paper fruits and umbrellas will make the table bright and festive.
What exactly can be prepared for the celebration?
Slicing
Slicing is the easiest way to serve dishes for a buffet table. Usually, several versions of the same type of food are laid out on plates. For a vegetable plate, you need to wash tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers of different colors, lettuce and herbs. Place lettuce leaves on a large flat plate. Cut tomatoes with cucumbers into slices 0.5-0.7 cm thick. Tomatoes should be taken of a small diameter with dense pulp. Then, when slicing, they will not emit a lot of juice, they will retain their shape and will be convenient to eat. Cut the bell pepper in half, remove the seeds and cut into strips. Place prepared vegetables beautifully on lettuce leaves. It is best to do this "in a fan", alternating tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. Garnish the vegetables with parsley, cilantro, and dill. But vegetables should not be salted before serving. Otherwise, they will release a lot of juice and quickly lose their beautiful appearance. It is best to put the salt shaker on the table. Then every guest will be able to use it.
For cold cuts, you need to buy two types of sausages, baked pork, smoked brisket, any meat delicacies of your choice. Peel everything, cut into thin slices, arrange on a plate, alternating. The slices should be small, 2-3 bites. Skewers should be provided for guests, with which you can take food from a common plate to a personal one, and white and black bread, cut into small pieces and served on a separate plate.
The design principle of cheese and fish plates is similar to the design of cold cuts. It should be several types of food, cut into small pieces, nicely placed on a wide flat dish. It is better to cut the cheese for the buffet into small cubes.
All cuts can be decorated with herbs, olives and olives, capers. Lemon works well as a garnish for sliced fish.
For fruit slices, wash apples, pears, orange, kiwi, peaches, grapes. Cut apples, pears and peaches into slices. Orange together with peel - circles. But the kiwi needs to be peeled and cut into slices. Separate the grapes from the main branch, forming tassels of 3-5 berries. It's good if it is pitted.
When buying products for the fruit table, remember that the use of dishes should be aesthetic and not create problems for guests. That is why fruits and berries with seeds are rarely used at buffets: cherries, plums, small nectarines, cherry plums. When using them, there is a problem not only with the bones, but also with the current juice.
Sandwiches
As an appetizer for the festive table, prepare small, 2-3 bites, sandwiches. They can be made on the basis of black and white bread. Spread butter or curd cheese on the base as per the recipe. You can put sausage, fish or cheese slices on the sandwiches. But the festive table also requires special sandwiches.
Hot bread and bacon sandwiches
Ingredients:
- White bread;
- bacon;
- cottage cheese;
- feathers of green onions.
Hot bread and bacon sandwiches look a little unusual. And the taste of crispy baked bread and aromatic smoked bacon will leave few people indifferent.
For sandwiches, cut the crust off the white bread slices. Cut each piece of bread into 4 pieces. Wash green onions and chop finely. Then spread one slice of bread with cottage cheese, sprinkle with onions, cover with a second slice of bread, press it lightly.
Wrap a strip of bacon over each pair of bread slices. Put sandwiches on a deep baking sheet, previously greased with vegetable oil. At a temperature of 180 ° C, bake the sandwiches until a golden hue of bacon appears.
Hot saury sandwiches
Ingredients:
- 1 baguette;
- 1 can of canned saury;
- 2 boiled eggs;
- 100 g of hard cheese;
- 50 ml 33% cream;
- salt.
In a deep bowl, grind boiled eggs and saury until a homogeneous mass is obtained. The liquid from the canned food should be drained.
In a separate bowl, mix the cream with a pinch of salt.
Cut the baguette into thin slices (about 1 cm thick). Grease each piece with cream and put in the egg-fish mass with a teaspoon. Sprinkle the grated cheese on the sandwiches.
Place the sandwiches in an oven preheated to 180 ° C and bake until the cheese starts to melt. This usually takes about 15 minutes.
Salted lard sandwiches
Despite their simplicity, black bread sandwiches and a slice of salted lard are loved by everyone. They will be especially appropriate if strong alcoholic drinks are supposed to be served at the holiday. You can sprinkle some of the sandwiches on top with chopped green onions.
Canapes
Canape is a kind of sandwich, a small snack. Ideally, it can be eaten in one bite. The bottom layer of canapes is most often black or white bread without a crust, crackers, pieces of puff pastry. The ingredients are cut into pieces of the same shape, fastened together with a skewer. The stores sell special molds for curly cutting products for canapes.
Canapes with cheese and vegetables
Ingredients:
- 10 pitted olives;
- 200 g feta cheese;
- 5 cherry tomatoes;
- 1 cucumber;
- 3 lettuce leaves.
Wash the tomatoes and cucumber. Cut the tomatoes in half, the cucumber - in half rings, the feta cheese - in cubes.
On a skewer, string an olive, a strip of lettuce 1.5 cm wide, folded in half, a tomato, feta cheese, and a cucumber. Canapes can be served on the table by fanning them out on a plate. Or cut a cucumber in half lengthwise, put it on a plate with a cut down, stick in skewers with canapés.
Canapes with cheese salad and red caviar
Ingredients:
- 0, 5 baguettes;
- 50 g red caviar;
- 50 g of hard cheese;
- 1 boiled egg;
- 1 tbsp mayonnaise;
- parsley;
- salt;
- ground black pepper.
Cut the baguette into 0.5 cm thick slices, cut off the crusts. In a dry skillet, quickly fry the pieces of baguette on both sides until golden brown. You do not need to fry it very much!
Grate cheese and egg, salt and pepper, add mayonnaise, mix.
Put cheese salad on a baguette in a layer of about 7-10 mm, level it with a knife. Put 0.5 tsp in the center of each canapé. red caviar.
Put washed and dried parsley in a thin layer on a flat dish. It can be replaced with lettuce, dill, cilantro. Put canapes on top in one layer. Delicious bright appetizer is ready!
Canapes with boiled pork
Ingredients:
- 250 g rye bread;
- 250 g boiled pork;
- 1 fresh cucumber or tomato;
- olives and pitted olives;
- parsley or dill;
- mayonnaise.
Cut the bread and boiled pork into equal sized squares. Wash the cucumber, cut into thin circles.
Spread the bread with a thin layer of mayonnaise, put a cucumber, a slice of boiled pork, a leaf of parsley or a small sprig of dill on it. Put olives on one part of the canapes, and olives on the other. Fasten everything with a toothpick, put on a tray.
Fruit canapes
It is prepared quickly and easily. Pieces of different fruits of the same size are strung on a skewer or toothpick. These can be apples, pears, seedless grapes, pineapple, peeled kiwi. Before preparing the canapes, the fruit must be washed. If desired, fruit canapes can be supplemented with slices of cheese of different types.
Tartlets
Tartlets are another way to quickly prepare a snack for the holiday table. They are sold in the bakery or pastry departments of stores. The tartlets can be sweet or not. This is indicated on the packaging. You need to choose them depending on the planned filling.
Usually, tartlets are stuffed with ready-made salad and garnished with herbs. Olivier are well suited for this purpose; chicken, mushroom and cheese salad; rice salad with crab sticks. You can use any of your favorite salads as a filling. The main thing is that it has a bright taste, because the tartlets are fairly neutral in taste.
Rolls
Rolls are another option for preparing a snack for a holiday. They can be made from thin pita bread using various fillings. To do this, spread the pita bread on the table, grease the entire surface with a thin layer of mayonnaise or curd cheese. Finely chop the ingredients for making the filling and mix. Place the filling along the narrow side of the pita bread, occupying about half of the surface. Roll it up tightly, place it seam side down on a cutting board and leave to soak for 2-3 hours. Then cut the roll diagonally into slices of equal thickness and put them on a plate.
Filling options:
- 300 g cheese, 2 cloves of garlic, mayonnaise;
- 400 g of crab sticks, 3 boiled eggs, 150 g of soft cheese, 150 g of mayonnaise, salt, parsley and dill;
- 250 g of lightly salted salmon, 250 g of cottage cheese, 3 sprigs of dill;
- 1 can of sardines in oil, 2 boiled eggs, 2 processed cheese, mayonnaise, dill;
- 300 g ham, 200 g cheese, 2 cloves of garlic, a bunch of lettuce, mayonnaise.
Vegetable rolls
Ingredients:
- 1 zucchini;
- 1 eggplant;
- vegetable oil for frying;
- salt;
- flour;
- 100 g mayonnaise;
- 1 clove of garlic;
- 2 tomatoes.
Wash the eggplant and zucchini. For the rolls, choose young, long fruits about 8 cm in diameter. Peel the zucchini, cut lengthwise into plates about 5 cm thick. Cut the eggplant in the same way, soak in salted water for 1 hour, squeeze.
Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan. Pour flour on a flat plate, mix it with a pinch of salt. Dip eggplant and zucchini slices in flour mixture, fry on both sides until golden brown. Remove the fried vegetables on paper towels to remove excess fat.
Mix mayonnaise with grated garlic, let it brew. Wash the tomatoes and cut into slices.
Grease a slice of zucchini or eggplant with mayonnaise, put a slice of tomato on the wide edge, roll it up. Place the rolls in a slide on a plate and serve.
