Tag: nibbles

Gougères

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This year I introduced a new snack with the New Year’s Eve champagne – these lovely cheese puffs.

They’re made using a regular choux pastry with the addition of grated mature cheese. I made mine two days in advance and heated them up in the oven just before serving to make them crispy again. So either follow my lead or serve them straight away as they do lose the crispiness quite quickly.

The recipe is courtesy of Simon Hopkinsons and it was easy to work with. I made a few adjustments; mainly piping mine out instead of spooning the mixture onto the tray. If piping do use a large nozzle to avoid the grated cheese getting stuck (alternatively grate the cheese very finely). I also made mine smaller so the recipe probably yielded 50 smaller ones (as compared to Simon’s 30 large ones).

Gougères, makes 50

250 ml water

80g butter

1tsp sea salt

100g plain flour, sifted

4 eggs

150 g grated Gruyère

1/3 nutmeg, grated

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Boil together the water, butter and salt in a roomy pan. Remove from the heat and tip in the flour all in one go.

Whisk together until fully blended and the mixture almost coming away from the sides of the pan in a ball. Leave the mixture for 3-4 minutes to cool just a little, then add the first egg and whisk it in thoroughly.

Add the remaining three eggs one by one, repeating the process (you may not need the fourth egg if the mixture is pipe-able). Tip in the cheese, nutmeg and pepper and, once again, whisk to blend; the cheese may not fully become smooth, but this is just fine.

Line a flat baking tray with baking parchment. Pipe the mixture onto the baking tray about an inch apart. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until they are golden and verging on light brown, well puffed and light to the touch when lifted from the tray; undercooked, they will deflate on cooling. Lift the gougères onto a cooling rack, then repeat with the remaining mixture

Truffled mushroom crostini

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Twice in December I made these truffled mushroom crostinis for my friends. Above with chantarelles and chestnut mushrooms and below with only chestnut mushrooms as I was feeding lots of people and fresh chantarelles aren’t exactly cheap. What’s great about the recipe is that it can feed anyone. It’s vegan and works for people sensitive to dairy, and if you make glutenfree crostinis this works for coeliacs as well.

When using the chantarelle mushrooms I added a bit of cream for added creaminess, so feel free to do that if you like, but plenty of oil (or use butter) is enough moisture for me.

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Truffled mushroom crostini (vegan), makes quite a few

1 large baguette

mild olive oil

400 g mixed mushrooms

oil for frying

1 garlic clove, pressed

2 tbsp porcini mushroom and truffle paste (I used this one)

salt, black pepper

chopped parsley for serving

Slice the baguette, place the slices on a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil. Bake in 180C oven until golden brown and crisp, about 10 minutes. Leave to cool. 

Slice the mushrooms. Fry until golden in oil on medium heat (preferably in batches). Add the garlic and fry for another minute or so. Add the truffle paste, salt and pepper. Divide between the crostini and topped with chopped parsley. 

Pre-Christmas drinks (and nibbles)

Published on by Hanna1 Comment

IMG_9132The month of December was busy to say the least. So much so that I didn’t have time to update you on the blog on what I was up to.

One Sunday I had a bunch of friends over for drinks and canapés, some Christmas themed, some not. Some of my friends have dietary requirements that I catered for and it was a bit of a challenge to cater for a vegan, a coeliac and pregnant ladies all at the same time, but I seemed to pull it off!

We started with prosecco (and alcohol free alternatives) and savoury canapés. One one table I had made a little blini buffet that my guests could help themselves to whenever they liked. That way I wasn’t too stressed sending out trays of canapés. At the blini station I had proper homemade blinis, glutenfree pancakes and vegan pancakes as well as lots of toppings (cured salmon, creme fraiche, caviar (not the fancy stuff), chopped onions, aubergine ‘caviar’ and marinated beetroot).

IMG_9141The first savoury canapé was these rolls with cream cheese, sunblush tomatoes and basil. So easy to make ahead of time.

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Next up was baked aubergine with saffron yoghurt and pomegranate seeds.

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Vegan truffled mushrooms on crostinis – recipe to follow later.

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And lastly, warming pots with Jansson’s temptation, a classic Swedish Christmas dish consisting of grated potatoes and onions, anchovies, cream and breadcrumbs on top. I love that all mu non-Swedish friends adore this. Most of my guests had two each!

IMG_9163In the transition from savoury to sweet I replaced the blini station with gingerbread (regular, vegan and gluten free ones) with Stilton, sweets, chewy chocolate cake (including a vegan and gluten free one that didn’t turn out very well). Jenny brought some vegan mince pies with filo pastry that were put out too, they were delicious! And of course, we had some homemade glögg (sweet mulled wine) with the gingerbread.

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Lastly I brought out rice pudding the way we eat it on Christmas Eve; cold and mixed with whipped cream. I served it with defrosted berries mixed with some icing sugar.

I had so much fun at this gathering, and I hope my friends did too! Preparing most of it ahead of time meant I could mingle and drink prosecco like every body else.

My bruschetta

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When I fed the troops (well at least 17 people…) I thought it best to serve platters with nibbles instead of a sit down starter so people could still carry on playing football or swimming in the pool.

Apart from my (new and improved) recipe on bruschetta that I will share with you I also made some salmon rolls with horseradish that went down a treat and puff pastry sticks with blue cheese, walnuts and honey.

When it comes to bruschetta (and pan con tomato) I find it very disappointing when the bread is too wet and soggy. I know some people prefer this but I prefer my bread a bit crispier which is why my bruschetta is like a tomato-topped crostini. I don’t cook the tomato mixture either as I think nothing can beat fresh sweet tomatoes with a hint of garlic, olive oil and salt and fragrant basil.

Hanna’s bruschetta, serves 6-8 as nibbles or a starter

1 baguette

olive oil

1 garlic clove

4-5 vine tomatoes (get the best tomatoes you can find)

1 handful fresh basil

sea salt, black pepper

Slice the baguette thinly a bit on the diagonal. Place on a baking tray covered with parchment paper. Drizzle with olive oil. Cut the garlic clove in half and rub with the cut side down on all the bread slices infusing them with a mild garlic flavour. Bake on 200C oven until golden and crispy, approx 10 min.

Chop the tomatoes and place in a sieve on top of a bowl. Once all the liquid has disappeared transfer to a clean bowl and add the other half of the garlic clove, pressed. Chop the basil and add that too as well as some olive oil. Add sea salt and a little black pepper. Top the bread slices with the mixture once cool. Serve immediately. 

Two types of crostini to start a dinner party

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Last Friday a few of my girl friends came over for dinner and while waiting for everyone to arrive we had some bubbly, this sparkling wine from Loire, and crisps. When most people had arrived I brought out two types of crostini, still casually sitting on the sofas.

One of the toppings were suppose to be the same as on Toast Öjeby, a mixture of crayfish, sharp cheese, dill, cumin and honey, but as Waitrose and Sainsbury’s both failed to deliver crayfish, I made the same mixture with coldwater prawns instead. And parsley instead of dill as I hadn’t bought enough (yep, it was one of those weeks). Substituting the crayfish with prawns worked well flavour wise but it didn’t look as pretty. As one of my friends is not that keen on shellfish I also served a bunch of crostini topped with homemade gravadlax (cured salmon) and dill cream cheese.

Crostini with gravadlax crostini and dill cream cheese, makes 30

500 g salmon fillet

2 tbsp sea salt

1 tbsp caster sugar

2 tbsp chopped dill

1 large baguette

olive oil

150 g cream cheese

1 handful dill, finely chopped

1 tsp dijon mustard

a dash of honey

salt and pepper

Start 48 hours before serving. Remove the skin from the salmon. Mix sugar, salt and dill and pat it onto the fish. Place in a small dish and cover with cling. Refrigerate for 48 hours. 

Before serving, make the crostini by slicing the baguette thinly, placing the slices on parchment paper on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and bake in 200C oven until crisp and golden, approx 10-15 minutes. Leave to cool.

Pat the salmon dry with kitchen towel and slice thinly. Mix cream cheese with dill, honey and mustard. Season. Divide the salmon slices on the crostini, place a teaspoon sized dollop of dilly cream cheese on top, season and serve. 

Marinated feta

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This, my friends, was super tasty. I love serving (and eating!) nibbles and when Maria, Daniel and Otto came over for dinner when they were in town we had this wonderful feta with jamon from Mallorca (thank you vacuum packaging), buttery olives (also from Mallorca) and some nice olive oil to dip the bread in. Apart from a delicious start to the meal, as we were all starving, it was also quite easy to simultaneously eat this and play run after Otto, the toddler.

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Marinated feta

1 whole proper feta (made form sheep’s milk) 

2-3 tbsp extra virgin olivolja

a few sprigs, rosemary

a few sprigs thyme

1/2 lemon, zest only, either use a grater or zester 

1/2-1 tsp chilli flakes pr Aleppo pepper

salt, black pepper

Place the feta in a shallow dish with edges. Add herbs, chilli, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Drizzle the olive oil on top. Turn the feta so both sides are in contact with the aromatic oil. Leave for a few minutes for the flavours to develop before serving. 

 

Broadbean dip with dill and persillade

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My childhood friend Carina came to visit this weekend. Living in warm Vietnam at the moment she was very unimpressed with the weather, but we still had a great time. She arrived fairly late on Friday so I had prepared some nibbles and we had some wine once she arrived. We hadn’t seen each other for ages and ended up chatting until 3am although we were both very tired. It was probably the food that kept us going.

We had some serrano rolls with lemon crème, plain serrano ham, parmesan biscuits, Ossau-Iraty cheese (which I love) with truffle honey and crostini with broadbean dip.

I think crostini is a great way of serving up different dips or chicken liver mousse. It is a relaxed way of offering nibbles and always so good. This broadbean dip feels quite summery with the simple flavourings of dill oil, lemon juice and persillade and turned out delicious! This time I used tinned beans but I can’t wait for summer so I can use fresh ones.

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Broadbean dip with dill and persillade, serves four with crostini

1 tin (300 g) tinned broadbeans in water

1/2 lemon, juice only

2 tbsp mild olive oil

1/2-1 tbsp dill oil

1/2 tsp persillade

a pinch of salt

black pepper

Rinse the beans and drain. Pour them into a mixing jug and add all ingredients apart from salt and pepper. Mix with a stick blender until a fairly smooth paste. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 

Parmesan biscuits, with or without chilli

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Yesterday I was in the mood to bake and tried another one (yes, I’m going through a phase) of Simon Hopkinson’s recipe. This time it was his Parmesan biscuits that were as scrumptious as I expected. I will definitely make them again to have as nibbles at dinner parties or drinks parties, but they would go well on a cheeseboard too and would make a nice hostess gift.

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They are incredibly easy to make too; the ingredients are few and the dough is easy to handle. Just like Simon Hopkinson I put some sliced some green chilli on a few of them.

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Parmesan biscuits, makes 25-30

Adapted from Simon Hopkinson’s recipe.

100 g  cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks

100 g plain flour

a pinch salt

a pinch cayenne pepper

1 heaped tsp mustard powder

50 g mature cheddar, grated

50 g Parmesan, finely grated

1 egg, beaten

some more grated Parmesan

1 green chilli, sliced

Preheat the oven to 180C. Place the butter and flour into the bowl of a food processor with the salt, cayenne, mustard powder and cheeses. Process together to begin with, and then finely pulse the mixture in short spurts as you notice the mixture coming together – it will eventually bind without the need for egg or water. Wrap in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Lightly flour a work surface and gently roll out the pastry to about the thickness of two pound coins. Cut out the biscuits to the size and shape you wish. Lay them out on a greased baking tray with a little space in between. It may take two lots of baking to use up the entire mixture.

Carefully brush the surface of each biscuit with the egg and sprinkle over a little finely grated Parmesan. Bake for 10 minutes, or until they are a gorgeous golden-brown colour.

Carefully lift the biscuits off the tray using a palette knife and place on a rack to cool. Although the biscuits will keep well in a sealed container for a few days. 

Baked brie with cloudberry jam

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Baked camembert is more or less a staple party food in this country, and this nibble is not far off, but it has a Scandi twist and that is why I served it at my glögg party earlier this year.

The cloudberriy is a berry that grows in the Northern hemisphere. It looks similar to a raspberry and also grows on bushes but is a little bit bigger than the raspberry and has a more sourer taste. It works really well with cheese and is commonly served with breaded and deep-fried camembert in Sweden. This is not a step very far from that, but it feels a bit fresher.

How to: 

Place a whole ripe brie in an ovenproof dish and spread a layer of cloudberry jam on top. Pour more jam into a ramekin and place in the tray. Place it in a 180C oven for about 20 minutes. Serve with crackers such as Finncrisp. 

Christmas meatballs with thyme and lemon dip

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Scandinavia is hotter than ever in the UK, and my friends are readier than ever to try Swedish treats.

When I had some friends over for glögg (our version of mulled wine) I served meatballs as a nibble with a thyme and lemon dip and they were a huge hit. This version of meatballs we refer to in my family as the Christmas version because of the addition of allspice.

Meatballs can vary in size and if I have them for supper I usually make them around 3 cm in diameter, but for Christmas or as nibbles (or in this case both) I tend to make them smaller, around 1.5 cm in diameter.

Christmas meatballs, makes about 35

750 g pork mince

1 egg

3 tbsp water

75-100 ml breadcrumbs 

1.5 tsp sea salt

black pepper

3/4 tsp allspice

Mix egg and water in a large mixing bowl. Add the breadcrumbs and spices and let it sweel for a few minutes. Incorporate the mince using a wooden fork or your hands. Mix throughly and shape into small hands, dipping your hands in water in between rolling to make it easier to shape the meat. Place the meatballs on a greased roasting tray and place in a 180C oven for 15 minutes. Then fry in butter in a frying pan for a golden crust. 

Lemon and thyme dip

200 ml creme fraiche

3 tsp dried thyme

grated zest from 1/2 lemon

1/2 tbsp nice oil

salt, pepper

Mix all the ingredients, leave for 15 minutes for the flavours to develop. Keep chilled until serving.