A wise chef once said that the greatest social media platform for sharing wasn’t digital at all; it was food. That certainly is the case this holiday season, where gatherings at home over a meal bring you back to what life is all about. This doesn’t mean that you need to slave all day; we have 6 easy canapé recipes for your holiday season.

Essentials to Store in Your Fridge

During the holidays, or really any time of the year, I like to have essentials stocked in my fridge and freezer for last minute gatherings. It is always good to have items that can create a little hospitality on the fly. It makes you look like a super hero, when in reality you’re just organized. At any given point in time, I can generally whip up the following for friends who drop by:

• Smoked salmon and blini
• Caviar, potato chips and creme fraiche
• Herbed nuts, olives and chips
• Yogurt dip and crudite
• Cheese and crackers
• Mushroom arancini

Groceries to Keep Stocked

A number of the easy canapé recipes in this article can be put together with the items I like to keep stocked in my fridge, freezer and pantry as follows:

Refrigerator 
Daniel Boulud Whisky Smoked Salmon
Black River Caviar
Petrossian blinis
Tete de Moine Cheese
Siggi’s Icelandic Style Non-Fat Plain Yogurt
Homemade jam or Bon Maman Preserves
Butter
Parmesan cheese
Pears and grapes

Freezer
Dufour puff pastry
The Perfect Bite Co. Mushroom Arancini

Pantry
Honey
Green olives
Risotto
Gold Emblem Criss Cut Potato Chips
Pistachios
Walnuts
Pecans
Favorite crackers

Now that your pantry is stocked, these are six easy canapé recipes that you can put together in 5-10 minutes per recipe.

Smoked Salmon Rosettes on Blini

Ingredients

1 package Daniel Boulud Whisky Smoked Salmon
12 Petrossian blinis
Creme fraiche
Chives

Directions

Cut the smoked salmon into 1 1/2 to 2 inch squares. Create a rosette by folding the bottom of the salmon up about 1/3 of the way, and then roll it until you have a rose. Place each rosette in the middle of a blini. Dab with a small amount of creme fraiche and a few chives and serve.

Caviar on Potato Chips

Ingredients

50 Grams Black River Royal Oscietra Caviar or
100 Grams if you’re feeling flush
1 6 oz bag Gold Emblem Sea Salt Kettle Cooked Waffle chips 
Creme fraiche
Chives
1 Finely chopped shallot
2 hard boiled eggs, yolk and white separated and finely chopped

Directions

I love this recipe because it makes a statement that you have good taste, but know how to go high-low. What I mean by that is the caviar is obviously the high, and the low, though brilliantly low brow, are the potato chips from CVS. Yes, you read that correctly; some of the best potato chips are the CVS Gold Emblem brand. They are not always easy to come by, but I do my rounds of the CVSs until I find these chips. They’re sturdy thick chips, but they also taste amazing.

This is one of the easy canapé recipes that is all about presentation and quick assembly. Artfully arrange your chives, egg white and egg yolk either in separate small dishes or on a pretty plate. Place the creme fraiche in a separate small bowl. Next open your bag of chips and empty into a nice dish. Lastly, in a caviar server, place your tin of Black River over ice with a mother of pearl spoon.

Pigs in a Blanket

No matter how fancy you make these easy canapé recipes, the crowd pleaser is always pigs in a blanket.

Ingredients

• 1 package Dufour Puff Pastry, thawed
• 12 cocktail sausages
• 1 Egg beaten
• Poppy seed and sesame seed
• Fancy mustard and ketchup for dipping

Directions

Preheat your oven to 375°F

Unroll the puff pastry until thin and with a pastry cutter or knife, cut the dough into 3 inch squares. Then cut each square into a triangle and poke holes in the dough with a fork. Place each sausage at the wide end of a crescent triangle and roll it up towards the point. Make sure to wrap the dough snugly around the sausage, leaving the ends open. Place the wrapped sausages on an ungreased baking sheet with the loose end of the dough facing down to prevent it from unraveling during baking. Leave a little space between each pig in a blanket. Brush each pig in a  blanket with the egg wash and sprinkle the poppy and sesame seed on top. Bake in the preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes or until the dough is golden brown. Serve the pigs in a blanket with mustard and ketchup for dipping.

Figs in a Blanket

For all the vegetarians out there, we didn’t forget you this holiday season. We also didn’t want you to miss out on the fun of the pigs in a blanket, so these figs are for you. And yes, these are easy canapé recipes like the others on the list. Essentially you’re just subbing the figs and goat cheese for the sausage in the original recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 package Dufour Puff Pastry, thawed
• 12 fresh Figs
• 4 ounces blue cheese crumbled
• 1 Egg beaten

Directions

Preheat your oven to 375°F

Unroll the puff pastry until thin and with a pastry cutter or knife, cut the dough into 3 inch squares. Then cut each square into a triangle and poke holes in the dough with a fork.

Cut each fig in half and place at the wide end of a crescent triangle. Spread the cheese evenly over each fig and puff pastry. Roll the figs in a blanket towards the point. Make sure to wrap the dough snugly around the fig, leaving the ends open. Place the wrapped figs on an ungreased baking sheet with the loose end of the dough facing down to prevent it from unraveling during baking. Leave a little space between each pig in a blanket.

Brush each pig in a  blanket with the egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes or until the dough is golden brown. Serve immediately.

King Crab Dip & Crudités

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs. fresh king crab taken out of shell
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 Meyer lemon
3 shallots, depending upon taste, finely chopped
1 package Neufchatel cream cheese
1/2 container low-fat sour cream
Paprika
Cayenne pepper
Fleur de sel
10 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
Chives
2 tablespoons butter
4–6 tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs
Carrots, zucchini and endive

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350˚F. In a bowl, place your king crab and make sure there’s no excess water. Squeeze a quarter of the Meyer lemon on the crab. Next, in a medium-deep skillet, sauté the shallots in olive oil over medium heat for 3-4 minutes until just translucent. With a spatula add the Neufchatel cheese and mix well with the shallots, then add the sour cream, and continue to stir.

Now it’s time to season with the paprika and cayenne pepper to taste. Add a light  sprinkle of the fleur de sel to the cream mixture. Fold in the crab and parmesan cheese until well integrated. Squeeze the rest of the Meyer lemon (or the amount up to your preference of taste) into the crab mixture. You may also need to adjust the paprika and cayenne seasoning. Snip about 4 tablespoons of chive directly into the crab mixture.

Transfer the dip to an oven-proof, slightly greased flat dish. Spread the dip evenly throughout the dish. In a skillet, melt the butter, add the breadcrumbs, and stir until slightly toasted. Add in the remainder of the Parmesan cheese. Spread the breadcrumb mixture evenly over the top of the dip. The crab dip may be refrigerated overnight if you want to prepare the dish beforehand.

Heat the crab dip in the oven for 20–25 minutes if refrigerated overnight or 10 minutes if cooking immediately. Switch the oven to broil and allow the top to brown for 3–4 minutes. Serve immediately.

Raw Bar

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 dozen Chilled shrimp cocktail
3 6 ounce lobster tails split in half
6 ounces lump crab
1/2 Avocado
1/2 Jalapeno finely diced
2 Meyer lemons, split in half horizontally
2 Limes, split in half horizontally

Cocktail sauce
Mustard sauce
Ubah Hot sauce 

Directions

This is another quick assembly project, where presentation is everything. Take a beautiful silver dish and pack it with crushed ice. Separately finely chop the avocado, and mix in with the lump crab. Add in the jalapeño to taste. Give the crab avocado mixture a little squeeze of lime and place in a clear small bowl in the middle of the silver dish. Artfully arrange the lobster tails and shrimp on the silver dish over ice. Serve immediately with the cocktail, mustard and hot sauces on the side.

Note: This recipe assumes that you are able to buy the seafood already steamed. Check out our tutorial on the Court Bouillon Method if you plan to steam the seafood yourself. This easy method will be life-changing for anything you steam, especially seafood.

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