Yellow Pepper Party Canapé

This is a really simple combination and can be made with any paté you like and any coloured pepper. I used bell peppers, but you could also use sweet peppers for a different flavour. We utilised the bright yellow of the pepper for our canapé rainbow.

Ingredients
Oat cakes
Paté (I used a smooth Ardennes paté)
1 bell pepper
Oil (for cooking)

How to

1) Heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Cut your pepper into strips and place them on a baking tray with a little oil and pop them in the oven for about 15 mins. Keep checking them - you don't want them too crisped.

2) Spread some of your chosen paté onto each oat cake (mini oatcakes are better, but we couldn't find any of them - the curse of tiny London supermarkets).

3) Once you've got your peppers out of the oven, leave them to cool for a couple of minutes so you don't burn your fingers. Once they're ok to touch, place a couple on top of each oat cake, forming a cross.

You'd ideally eat them when they're still warm, but they're still delicious when they've been left to stand for a bit!

Smoked Salmon Rye Bread Canapé

These classic canapés formed the 'orange' layer of our rainbow of canapés at our recent party. Although smoked salmon is really quite pinky, against the orange background they looked the perfect colour! These are a staple party food in my household (it's not really a party without some smoked salmon, in my opinion!)

Ingredients
Smoked salmon (a fairly small packet will do)
Cream cheese (preferably with cracked black pepper in it)
Thinly sliced rye bread
1 lemon
Black pepper
[optional] caviar, dill

How to

1) Take a slice of rye bread - many brands sell it in big rectangular slice which are ideal. Cover it generously with cream cheese. If there isn't already pepper in it, sprinkle some on.

2) Arrange a layer of salmon over the cream cheese.

3) Squeeze over some lemon juice and add some freshly milled black pepper.

4) Cut your rectangle into bite-sized pieces - most slices can be cut into 6 or 8 canapés. Top with some lemon zest curls, a dot of caviar or some fresh dill. Serve!

Mini Italian Tomato Salad Canapés

These little bites will remind you of a classic Italian mozzarella, tomato and basil salad - very refreshing and super simple to make! These formed the 'red' layer of our canapé rainbow - see it here.

Ingredients:
Cherry tomatoes - ideally nice ripe ones
Mozzarella
Handful of fresh basil leaves or a living basil plant
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Black pepper

How to:

1) Cut your cherry tomatoes in half (horizontally rather than vertically - this way they will stand upright). Place them on a plate and drizzle over some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, followed by a sprinkling of freshly milled black pepper.

2) Snip off some bite-sized bits of mozzarella with a pair of scissors.

3) Use a cocktail stick to skewer together your tomato, mozzarella and a basil leaf before arranging them on your favourite platter.

DIY Rainbow Party Ideas (for grown ups!)

We recently hosted a rainbow-themed party to celebrate a flatmate's birthday. We created an array of rainbow decorations, foods and features - have a look at what we came up with!

1. RAINBOW OF CANAPÉS

This was really the idea around which we based the whole party, and it worked out better than any of us could have dreamt!

First we cut a rainbow shape out of card, then used a pencil on a string like a compass to mark out six (approximately even) bands. We stuck on coloured paper to make it look like a rainbow and covered the whole thing in cling film so that it wouldn't get soggy with all the food.

We then made canapés in the appropriate colours:

Red - mini tomato mozzarella salad - recipe here
Orange - smoked salmon bites - recipe here
           - carrot sticks (don't think you need the recipe for them!)
Yellow - yellow peppers on paté - recipe here
Green - pea and mint paté - recipe here
Blue - earl grey shortbread with lavender icing - recipe here
Violet - beetroot and goat's cheese crackers - recipe here

We also made hummus, which was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, whilst we had mini meringues for clouds!

Have a look at the recipes - I'm particularly proud of the earl grey shortbreads and the pea and mint paté!

2. BALLOON CHANDELIER

It isn't really a party without balloons, is it? Our balloon chandelier was inspired by the glass chandelier in the entrance of the Victoria and Albert museum.

We blew up a packet of pearlescent multi coloured balloons, dropping a small coin into each one - this weighs them down slightly and makes them hang in place, rather than floating around with the breeze. We then tied them together in threes and hung them over the central light fitting. Better keep the light off when you have these up, otherwise they might heat up too much and pop.

3. BUNTING

There was way more bunting than this, but the other pictures didn't turn out so well. You can make your own bunting, but to be honest it's so cheap you might as well buy it and then personalise it, like I did. To make the 'happy birthday' one, I just cut out letters from coloured paper and stuck them onto pre-bought paper bunting.

We used some to make a beautiful and colourful entrance to the party in the corridor - it's all in the details!

4. FAIRY LIGHTS

These colourful lanterns were attached with blue tack to a shelf in the hall - they're battery-powered so they could go anywhere. We also had some multi-coloured christmas tree lights spilling out of a large glass vase in an alcove, which created a beautiful effect.

If you're wondering about the bottles, my boyfriend brewed a special beer for the party and made his own labels - it's called 'Rainbrew'!

5. 6 LAYERED RAINBOW CAKE

This was a bit of a masterpiece, if I do say so myself. I made this with my sister and it took at least 2.5 hours! We also had a complete nightmare with food colouring (and actually these photos don't show up the colours as they really were). N.B. always use gel food colouring!

It involved making the biggest sponge mix I've ever seen, separating it out into 6 bowls and dying them different colours, before cooking the layers 2 at a time. We then made a butter and marscapone icing and embedded it with skittles and m&ms!

Recipe to come!

Recipe - easy Tuscan biscotti / cantuccini

Yesterday I was trying to think of a dessert to make for a dinner party for 9. I wanted something I could make in advance because the oven was going to be full of casserole. Plus two courses and several glasses of wine in, cooking doesn't seem like such a good idea. So I scoured a few blogs and came across this recipe from Bread and Companatico (my FAVOURITE recipe blog).

I love biscotti and they're perfect at dessert because you can dip them in your dessert wine or your coffee. Also, they last for up to a month so you could make a big batch and bring a few out every time you have people over for dinner. They'd also be delicious with glazed baked pears or peaches.

Ingredients: 
500g plain flour
350g caster sugar
250g unpeeled almonds (I used ready-sliced because I couldn't find whole ones)
Grated rind of 1 lemon
1.5 tsp baking powder
4 eggs + 1 for brushing
30 ml milk (a splash)
Icing sugar to serve (optional)

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Combine your dry ingredients in a mixing bowl (flour, sugar, lemon rind, almonds, baking powder).

Step 2: Mix in your eggs and milk. You might have to stir for quite a while before the mixture starts to resemble a dough. Add a splash more milk if it won't stick together at all, but be patient, it'll get there.

Step 3: Split the dough in two and form a rectangular slab on two baking trays covered with greaseproof paper. Brush the rectangles with the extra egg mixed with a little water.

Step 4: Bake for c.25 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn it down to 140 degrees. Transfer the rectangles, baking paper and all, to a chopping board and cut horizontally into biscuit-shaped slices. If the mixture is still too runny to cut cleanly, put it back in for a few more minutes.

Step 5: Put back in the oven and bake for another 25-30 minutes, until the biscotti are turning golden brown and they stop looking soggy. Leave to cool, sprinkle with icing sugar and serve!

Biscotti means "twice-baked", which is what gives them their delicious crunchiness. However, remember that biscuits keep cooking after you take them out of the oven, so it's easy to overcook them. They will harden up as they cool down; ideally you should end up with biscotti which have a hard crunch on the outside and a slightly chewier inside.

Homemade Pasta - a surprisingly easy recipe

The other day I was scanning through one of my favourite blogs, Bread & Companatico, when I came across a recipe for buckwheat orecchiette. It was around lunchtime and I was starting to get pretty hungry and these "little ears" of homemade pasta caught my eye. They were especially perfect as we had almost nothing to eat in the house except for some cupboard ingredients and a jar of passata.

I decided to give them a go. I didn't have soy or buckwheat flour so I tried them with normal plain (all-purpose) flour, but I'd love to try it with a more exciting gluten-free flour one day. I imagine this is one of those recipes which gets better every time you make it. The joy is that it's so simple.

I changed the quantities around a bit from the original recipe (which you can find here) since I was only making it for myself. However, the quantity of dough definitely makes enough pasta for two people.

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour (or other flour of your choice)
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1/2 teaspoon marine salt
A sauce of your choice

Step 1. Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl to form a dough. Mine was definitely a bit watery and I had to faff around adding bits of flour later, so if it looks really sticky add in a bit more flour; you should be able to handle it without getting bits of dough all over your fingers.

Step 2. Roll into a ball, cover and leave to stand for half an hour.

Step 3. With a rolling pin or your hands, stretch it out on a floured surface until it's nice and thin. If you make the bits too thick they won't cook evenly. Chop into your desired shapes either using your fingers, a knife or scissors.

Step 4. Put a bit of salt and olive oil into a pan of boiling water. Drop in your pasta pieces and boil for around 10 mins.

Step 5. Strain and serve with your favourite sauce. In the pictures I've served it with passata and stirred through some spinach and rocket.

Enjoy! This pasta is very filling (like all fresh pasta) so you really don't need that much! Most Italian fresh pasta is made with egg, so in the future I'm definitely going to try replacing the water with egg and seeing what happens.

Thanks so much to Bread & Companatico, whose recipes I use all the time.