Mushroom and goat's cheese tartlet
It's that wonderful time of year again, when you start to think about Christmas functions and long summer evenings entertaining friends.
What better way to impress than to put together a couple of fantastic canapes for when people arrive.
These recipes come from Artisan Catering Co, based in Queenstown.
Owners Debbie and John Pickens spent time catering for superyachts before returning to New Zealand and settling in Queenstown.
John has prepared these simple, yet stunning recipes for you to try at home.
You can use your favourite mushrooms for this dish, any combination will do.
Here I've used some readily available types with the addition of porcini powder for a fungi punch.
You can find this at your specialty supermarket, or dry your own in a low oven and blitz in a spice grinder.
This is an easy canape, great for a crowd and can be prepared in advance.
Any extra puff pastry discs keep well in an airtight container.
You'll need a 2cm-3cm pastry cutter and at least two baking trays.
A disposable piping bag is also useful.
Serves 10
Ingredients
2 puff pastry sheets
150g button mushrooms
150g Portabello mushrooms onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, smashed
4 fresh thyme sprigsolive oilsea salt cracked pepper
100g goat's cheeseporcini powder
100g mascarponeparmesan cheese
Method
Preheat oven to 180degC.
Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Place the puff pastry on a chopping board and stamp out rounds, transfer to a baking sheet, and sprinkle lightly with salt.
Lay another piece of baking paper on top of the pastry then a second baking sheet on top.
This acts as a weight and will stop the pastry rising too much.
Bake for about 12 minutes or until golden and cooked through.
Quarter the mushrooms and place in a bowl with the onion, garlic and thyme, add some salt and crack in some pepper, add a generous glug of olive oil and toss together well.
Line a baking sheet with baking paper, spread out the mix and bake for 20-25 minutes.
Once the mushrooms are cooled, place in a food processor after removing the thyme and discarding.
Add the goat's cheese and porcini powder and blitz till smooth.
Remove to a bowl.
Fold through the mascarpone and check the seasoning.
Place in a piping bag and snip open a hole of about 2cm.
Picking up your pastry discs, squeeze out the mushroom mix on to them and place on a platter.
Once you have them all laid out, grate a little parmesan over the top and add a little garnish.
I like to use whatever is flowering in my garden at the time.
Rosemary and chive flowers are going for it now and baby basil works really nicely too.
Saku tuna, wasabi creme and miso foam
This is an elegant canape that works well for an amuse-bouche too.
We use yellowfin saku tuna belly, but if you can't find this, other tuna will do fine.
You can find interesting spoons around catering stores and markets these days or simply serve straight on a platter.
The addition of soy lecithin helps stabilise the foam.
You can find this powder at health food stores.
You'll also need a stick blender to make the foam.
Take extra care when searing the tuna as it can quickly cook through: you want a medium to high heat.
If you don't have togarashi you could use sesame seeds with ground chilli or pepper.
Serves 10
Ingredients
400g saku tuna belly
1 Tbsp togarashi spice
2 Tbsp black and white sesame seedssea salt
spray cooking oil
wasabi paste to taste
100g creme fraiche
2 Tbsp miso paste
500ml water
1 tsp soy lecithin
micro rocket
Method
Cut the tuna into strips about 2.5cm by 2.5cm.
Mix some togarashi with the sesame seeds and place in a small tray.
Gently roll the tuna in this and transfer to another tray.
Heat a pan and spray with cooking oil.
Once the pan is just smoking carefully sear each side for about 10 seconds.
Once cooled slice into 1.5cm pieces.
Next whisk the wasabi with the creme fraiche in a small bowl, check seasoning then place in a piping bag.
Heat the water with the miso paste, add the soy lecithin.
Blitz with a hand blender for a few seconds to just incorporate. Set aside.
To make the canape, place the tuna in the spoons, squeeze a small dot of wasabi creme on top.
To make the foam, carefully blitz the miso on low speed for about 20 seconds.
If you haven't tried this before you might want to do it in the sink.
Collect the foam with a teaspoon and add to the front of the spoon. Finish with micro rocket.
