Paper Palate

December’s Olive offered a slew of inventive canapé recipes and I decided to test them out by trying a couple of differing complexity, but similar advertised time requirements. I seldom follow recipes, but for this I stuck religiously to the instructions – here are the results, taste-test reactions and my conclusions on the first recipe:

Prosciutto & Cranberry Stuffing Balls
40 min + chilling time

shallots 3, finely chopped
garlic 2 cloves, finely chopped
butter
sausage meat, good quality 250g
fresh white breadcrumbs, 100g
walnuts 2 tsp, lightly crushed
cranberry sauce, 1 Tb
lemon ½, zest finely grated
rindless streaky bacon 200g
sage 6 stems, leaves only, plus extra leaves for decoration
thyme 3 sprigs
Parma ham 10 big slices, each cut crossways into 4

Fry the shallots and garlic in a knob of butter until softened but not browned. Tip into a bowl and mix in the sausage meat, breadcrumbs, walnuts, cranberry sauce and zest. Pulse the bacon, sage (reserving all the small leaves for serving) and thyme leaves in the processor. Mix this into the sausage meat and season.
Shape the mixture into balls the size of walnuts, wrap each one in a piece of Parma ham, arrange them on an oiled baking sheet, cover with Clingfilm and chill to firm up – overnight, or for as long as suits you.
Heat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C/gas 7. Brush the balls with a little oil and roast for 20 – 25 minutes until crisped. Skewer with cocktail sticks, adding a sage leaf.
Makes 40.

This was the more complex and time-consuming recipe. I’m usually of the opinion that any canapé requiring more than five or six ingredients to make is being needlessly elaborate, and this recipe failed to change that opinion. For a start: 40 minutes? That, my friends, is a base canard and I’m not talking ducks here.

When they say “Parma ham - 10 big slices”, they’re not kidding. Visit your delicatessen, because the Parma ham you get in pre-packed slices from the cooler just isn’t going to be big enough. My ‘walnut-sized’ balls definitely didn’t make that grade. They did come out very well however, looking and smelling lovely and holding their shape.

Overall this is a nice, if not overly memorable, canapé recipe. Enjoyable, but I found the sage flavour too strong, even for a stuffing. My housemate Tanya (who has a higher sage tolerance than me) agreed. I’d cut the quantity in half. Leftovers the day after also developed a very salty taste, so these aren’t keepers.

A good idea would be the next time you have excess stuffing from a roast to chuck it in the freezer until the next time you have a party or expect guests, and use it to make this recipe. Extra bits – seasonal or otherwise - could be added to the stuffing base before baking. Otherwise, unless you have loads of time and feel in a cooking mood, creating this recipe from scratch isn’t something I’d bother with. Put these in the “Buy not Bake” category.

Cost: Approximately £11.50 [$18] (shallots 50p, garlic 20p, butter 10p, organic sausages £2, bread 30p, walnuts 20p, cranberry sauce 20p, lemon 30p, organic bacon £1.80, sage 80p, thyme 30p, Parma ham £4.80).
I wouldn’t consider this to be a cost-effective recipe considering the results received.