Juliet Sear’s New Year's Eve canapés
She’s back in the kitchen to help make your new year’s celebrations a success, using shop bought ingredients Juliet’s helping us all cheat our way to canapé heaven!
Crispy brie pastry cup bites
Serves: 24
Ingredients
A can of shop bought croissant dough/ shop bought puff pastry
Cooking oil spray
Flour
200g wedge of brie
1 sprig of rosemary
A selection of accompaniments (caramelised onion marmalade, fresh chilli jam and cranberry sauce)
Salt and black pepper
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180c fan. Lightly grease or spray a mini muffin tin.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the croissant dough and pinch together the seams and then cut into equal 24 squares and pop these into the tin.
3. Cut the brie into 24 small pieces and place into each dough cup, then spoon over a little of the jam/cranberry or chutney, top with a couple of pieces of rosemary and season.
4. Bake for around 15 mins until dark golden and crunchy. Serve while warm.
Roasted gnocchi, olive and manchego canapés
Serves: 10
Ingredients
½ of a 500g pack of fresh gnocchi
3 tbsp olive oil
25 pitted olives
150g slow roasted tomatoes
Two teaspoons fresh thyme
1 clove of garlic, crushed
Black pepper
200g manchego cheese, cut into cubes
Method
1. Heat oven to 200 degrees c. (fan).
2. Place the gnocchi in a roasting tin and pour over olive oil, shake to coat. Roast for 20 mins, shake once halfway through.
3. After 20 minutes scatter over with thyme and garlic and roast for a further 5-10 minutes until it’s gorgeous, crunchy and golden.
4. Thread the roasted gnocchi onto cocktail sticks, add a strip of tomato, an olive and lastly top with a cube of cheese. Plate and serve while the gnocchi is still warm.
Pizza stuffed garlic mushrooms
Serves: 12
Ingredients
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Dried oregano
100ml pizza sauce
about 12 mini portobello mushrooms, or large regular mushrooms, cleaned and stems removed
150g grated mozzarella cheese
A few tsp of grated Parmesan (optional)
A few olives (or add any flavours you wish, eg pepperoni, ham etc)
Freshly ground black pepper
A couple of fresh basil leaves, torn
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200c fan. Drizzle a roasting tray with olive oil.
2. Stir some fresh garlic and dried oregano into the pizza sauce.
3. Fill each mushroom with about 1 - 2 tsp of pizza sauce.
4. Top each mushroom with 1 to 2 tbsp mozzarella cheese and a sprinkling of Parmesan if using. (Add olives or any topping you fancy)
5. Bake for about 15 mins until starting to bubble and soften then transfer to a wire rack set above the tray to allow to dry off a little and crisp up for a further 5 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and golden.
6. Season with freshly ground black pepper, garnish with basil and serve warm.