Some more food.

Canapés, Camembert topped apple & smoked salmon parcels.

So onto the canapés, inspired after dining out the other week in a particularly good French bistro in the village where Mr ordered Camembert and apple on toast, which to his disgust came topped on a dinner plate piled full of salad vert, highly amusing as he thinks lettuce is the devils food!!! (Although, Mr fussy pants has been eating rocket every week due to my force-feeding!!!)

So anyway, I though a lightly roasted apple slice with Camembert gently melted on top would be a good appetiser. I sliced an eating apple, lightly roasted with a spray of oil until just starting to soften (10-15mins), then popped on the cheese and put back in the oven to melt. Yum! You could melt the cheese onto toasted bread first and top with an apple slice for something more substantial for a starter.

Smoked salmon parcels, easy peasy. Just take some garlic and herb flavoured soft cheese (Boursin works well), maybe add a little fresh parsley or basil a squirt of lemon juice to taste and a sprinkle of lemon zest, mix all together and spoon into the middle of a slice of smoked salmon, wrap into a parcel and serve. You could use plain soft cheese and add paprika and chilli for a change.

Starter, mixed mushroom tart.

Now I live by the cooking rule that if it’s good enough for Gordon then it’s fine by me. I especially adhere to this rule when it comes to pastry, especially puff pastry. In many of Gordon Ramsay’s recipes (and Jamie’s for that matter) he recommends buying the pastry, so that makes it officially ok. I can make ‘normal’ pastry but have never attempted to make puff pastry and at 43 cents for a roll in the supermarket, it’s not bloody worth buying all the stuff to attempt such a thing! 

This mushroom tart is super easy again but full of flavour. Start off by chopping & slicing a mixture of mushrooms, pan fry in some butter, once softened add some crushed garlic, seasoning, lemon zest and parsley then remove from the heat.

Cut your pastry into squares, run a knife gently around the edges (roughly 1cm) to create an edge, be careful not to cut all the way through and brush the edges with egg wash. Once the mushrooms are cool pile in to the middle of the pastry top with grated Parmesan and bake in the oven till golden.  Gruyere cheese also goes well with mushrooms and would be a little milder than the Parmesan.

If you have a veggie phobe then you could use goat’s cheese topped with bacon lardons (they do have some uses!!) or they could start eating properly!!