Smoked Mackerel or Salmon Canapes
Making your own canapes doesn’t have to be a faff and incredibly time consuming. Try these – a fraction of the cost of bought ones and much bigger on flavour.
Makes 60 smoked mackerel or smoked salmon
Ingredients
For the filling
Smoked mackerel
300g Smoked mackerel skin removed
150g Soured cream
3 tsp freshly grated horseradish
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper
Smoked salmon:
200g smoked salmon
300ml Double cream
100ml Soured Cream
3-4 tbsp Creamy Horseradish sauce
tsp Lemon juice, salt and pepper
For the croustades
15 slices medium sliced wholemeal bread
100g Butter melted
3 tsp fennel seeds ground to a powder in a coffee grinder or use a tsp powdered garlic and a tsp paprika or simply a tsp black pepper
For decoration
Finely cut lemon wedge or thinly sliced black olives
Parsley, dill or chives
Pinch paprika
Pomegranate seeds or slices of fresh mild red chilli for colour
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees c (fan)Use a rolling pin to roll the slices of bread flat then use a 5cm cutter to cut four rounds from each slice. I used a 24 hole mini muffin tin and using a pastry brush coated the insides of each cup with melted butter. Line each cup with a bread circle, press down with the end of a mini rolling pin then brush over more butter. Sift over then a dusting of fennel powder.
Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until the shells are baked, crispy and dark golden brown.
Remove to a cooling rack.
Smoked Mackerel - To make the filling simply place the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and blitz until you have a smooth paste. Load into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and fill leach croustade. Decorate with the tiniest lemon wedge, a sprig of green and a pinch of paprika.
Smoked Salmon - Whisk the double cream to soft peaks then fold in the soured cream, horseradish sauce, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Load into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and fill each croustade. Decorate with a mini roll of smoked salmon, thinly sliced black olive, parsley or dill sprig and a pomegranate seed.
Once baked the croustades will keep (unfilled) up to two weeks in a tin.
Once filled these canapes will stay fresh and crunchy for 2-3 hours