canapé – My Whisk and I

Crispy Potato Cakes with Smoked Chicken and Grapes

January 21, 2024January 20, 2024by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment

500g potatoes, peeled, cooked and mashed
60g butter, melted
1 egg yolk

Topping:
15ml horseradish
60ml mayonnaise
60ml sour cream
5ml finely grated lemon rind
300g smoked chicken, sliced
1 small bunch of chives, chopped
red grapes, halved
cucumber strips

Preheat your oven to 180℃ and line a baking sheet with aluminium foil. Spray the foil with cooking spray and set aside.
Add the mashed potato, butter and egg yolk to a mixing bowl and stir together.
Season with salt and pepper and mix again.
Divide the mixture into 8 equal portions.
Roll each portion into a ball and flatten it to a 7cm diameter disc.
Place the potato cakes on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake in the oven for 17 minutes, very gently flip them over and bake for another 17 minutes until golden.
Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

Topping:
Add the horseradish, mayo, sour cream, lemon rind, chopped chives and a pinch of salt to a bowl and mix together.

Place the potato cakes on a serving platter.
Scoop some of the topping on the cakes and add some of the sliced chicken.
Add some more of the horseradish mixture and top with grapes and cucumber strips.

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Mini Caprese Tomatoes

October 1, 2023September 9, 2023by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment

12 cocktail tomatoes, about 3,5cm in diameter
150g tub of small bocconcini cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper
12 basil leaves

Trim a sliver off the base of each tomato so that it can sit on a plate.
Slice about 0,3 cm off the top of the tomato and scoop the pulp out with a teaspoon or back of a teaspoon.
Season the inside of the tomato with salt and pepper.
Slice the bocconcini in quarters and stuff a piece in each tomato.
Drizzle with olive oil and season again with salt and pepper.
Place a basil leaf on top of each tomato and serve.

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Cheese Biscuits

September 28, 2023September 7, 2023by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment

The recipe yields about 30 biscuits and they disappear very quickly!! If you want to make an extra batch I would recommend that you prepare the dough twice. If you simply double up on the ingredients, it will probably be to dry to bring together as a rollable dough.

125g butter, cubed (salted butter adds most flavour)
140g flour
120g hard cheese, finely grated (your choice of cheese, I love Gruyere)

Add the butter to a mixing bowl and sift the flour into the bowl.
Rub the butter and flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Reserve 30ml of the grated cheese and add the rest to the flour mixture.
Knead or rather push the dough together into a disc, wrap in plastic and chill in the refrigerator for one hour.

Preheat your oven to 200℃ and line a large baking sheet with baking paper.
Place the dough on a sheet of baking paper and roll it out to a 0,5cm thickness.
Cut out rounds of 4cm in diameter with a cookie cutter.
Space the biscuits evenly apart on the prepared baking sheet and sprinkle the reserved cheese on top.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
Cool the cheese biscuits on the baking sheet and store in a glass container.

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Baked Burrata

August 18, 2023August 2, 2023by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment

250ml passata sauce, store bought
200g pickled sweet peppers, in olive oil
2 burrata cheese

Preheat your oven to 200℃.
Pour the passata sauce and peppers into a small ovenproof dish.
Place the cheese in the sauce and pour over the olive oil from the sweet peppers.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
Serve the burrata and sauce with crostini or fresh, crusty bread as a delicious warm starter.

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Biltong and Fig Camembert Ring

August 12, 2023July 29, 2023by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment

125g cream cheese, room temperature
2 preserved green figs, finely chopped
45ml syrup from the preserved figs
1 x 400g roll of puffed pastry
200g thinly sliced biltong
250g camembert cheese, top rind removed
egg wash: 1 egg yolk and 15ml water whisked together

Preheat your oven to 180℃ and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Add the cream cheese, chopped figs and the syrup to a bowl and mix to distribute the fig evenly.
Lay the pastry flat on a work surface and halve it in its length – you want to shorter pieces.
Divide the cream cheese mixture between the pastry and spread it out evenly.
Now arrange the biltong on top of the cream cheese.
Cut each piece of pastry into 8 even strips.
Twist each strip like you would when making cheese straws.
Place a saucer/heatproof bowl, more or less the size of the camembert, on the lined baking sheet.
Arrange the twisted pastry around the saucer until you have an entire ring of pastry around it.
Brush the pastry with the egg wash and bake for 15 minutes.
Take the baking sheet from the oven, remove the saucer and replace it with the camembert. (the top with its rind removed, should face up)
Return the baking sheet to the oven and bake for another 8 minutes or so – the cheese should be melted and runny.
Serve warm with fresh herbs scattered over.

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Biltong Borrelbrood

June 20, 2023June 16, 2023by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment

1 sourdough bread
200g cheese spread
100g butter
4 cloves of garlic, minced
80ml parsley, chopped
200g biltong, sliced

Preheat your oven to 180℃.
Place the bread on a wooden board and place a wooden spoon on either side of it, in its length.
Slice the bread on the diagonal, into 1,5cm thick slices WITHOUT slicing through – the wooden spoons should prevent this.
Now turn the bread and slice again so that you are left with squares that are attached at the bottom.
Place the sliced bread on a large piece of aluminium foil and then onto a baking sheet. Set aside.
Add the cheese spread, butter and garlic to a small saucepan and set it over a medium-low heat.
Stir every now and then until the mixture has melted and is amalgamated.
Remove from the heat and stir in the parsley.
Spoon generous amounts of the cheese mixture in between the sliced bread.
Push the biltong slices between the bread squares and cover with the aluminium foil.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
Serve immediately as a casual starter.

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Pap and Wors Canapés

June 17, 2023June 11, 2023by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment

1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
100g mature cheddar, grated
15ml salt
120g maize meal
30g butter
200g panko breadcrumbs
1 egg
vegetable oil for frying
cooked boerewors, sliced into 3 cm lengths

Place a frying pan on medium-high heat, add a splash of oil and cook the onion and garlic until soft. Set aside.
Pour 750ml water into a saucepan and add the salt. Wait for the water to come to a boil.
Add the maize meal slowly while whisking. Keep whisking until smooth.
Turn down the heat and cook until you have a stiff consistency.
Add the onion, garlic, grated cheddar and butter to the pap and stir through.
Cover with a lid and set aside to cool.
Add the breadcrumbs to a shallow dish.
Add the egg to another shallow dish and beat.
Scoop 15ml of the pap mixture into your hands and roll it into a ball. Keep going until you have no pap mixture left.
Roll each ball in the breadcrumbs, then dip into the egg and roll in the breadcrumbs again.
Heat the vegetable oil and fry the pap balls until golden.
Skewer a pap ball, then a piece of boerewors and another pap ball onto a wooden cocktail skewer.
Serve the pap and wors skewers with a chakalaka sauce on the side.

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Jan’s Balsamic Toffee Tomatoes

May 7, 2023April 28, 2023by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment

This recipe is not mine to give out as it belongs to the South African chef Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen BUT you should make these for your next drinks party …. delicious just got so much better!

These tomatoes are incredibly tasty and the balsamic toffee perfectly balances with the toasty sesame brittle on which it sits. Easy and quick to make EXCEPT on a rainy day! The moisture in the air prevents the toffee from “sitting” on the tomato…

You can find this recipe in Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen’s book The French Affair (Struik; 2013) (p. 19).

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Honey Roasted Figs

February 24, 2023February 22, 2023by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment

about 16 ripe, fresh figs
1 large burrata cheese
100g prosciutto
45ml honey
thyme leaves, chopped

Preheat your oven to 200℃.
Cut off the stem at the top of each fig, stand it upright and cut a cross in the top of each one, but don’t cut through to the base.
Slice the Burrata into slices with a serrated knife ….. as best you can ..
Put about half a slice of cheese into the cross you have cut – you can piece it together as it will melt.
Now lay the prosciutto flat and half each slice in its length.
Thread the ham through and around the fig and place in an ovenproof dish.
Drizzle the honey over once all the figs are done and scatter over the thyme.
Roast the figs for 8-10 minutes until the cheese has melted.
Serve immediately as a canapé or an indulgent treat.

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Mini Cordon Bleu Fingers

November 20, 2022by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment

10 sheets rice paper
10 slices ham
200g mozzarella cheese, cut into 1cm logs that are about 6cm long
250ml panko bread crumbs
2 eggs
vegetable oil for frying

Lay the rice sheets in water for one minute to soften.
Place a rice paper sheet on a work surface and top with a slice of ham.
Place the cheese on the ham and fold the rice paper over. Roll up into a cylinder.
Whisk the egg together in a shallow dish and add the bread crumbs to another shallow dish.
Dip the rice paper rolls into the egg and cover with the bread crumbs.
Place a saucepan on medium-high heat and add 1cm oil.
Fry the rolls until golden and crisp.
Serve with a dipping sauce.