Fast & fab
When your visitors walk through your door early, or completely unannounced, you need to have a few tricks in the kitchen up your sleeve.
Putting together a deliciously enchanting plate of food in just a few moments sounds daunting, but it can be easy, and can utilise the fruit and vegetables of the season. Cucumbers, in abundance at this time of year, together with some other pantry staples, make the perfect solution. Start with a base, before choosing your pick of garnish, or testing them all, of Metropol’s cucumber bites.
INGREDIENTS
- 2-4 cucumbers, depending on number of mouths
Optional
- Blue cheese
- Caviar
- Cherry tomatoes
- Cocktail picks
- Cracked pepper
- Cream cheese
- Fennel
- Fresh salmon
- Hummus of choice
- Parsley
- Peanut butter
BASE METHOD
- Slice two cucumbers into bite sized morsels, and place on a serving plate.
- Completely peel the outside of the leftover cucumbers. Dispose of the exterior peel, before peeling the rest of the cucumber downwards to make long, slightly transparent slivers.
- Fold and thread your cucumber peels onto cocktail picks to form a Christmas tree and put aside.
Simple fancy: Pipe a small amount of cream cheese onto each base, and garnish with a sprig of fennel or a caper.
Classic: Cover your cucumber base with cream cheese and a piece of fresh salmon. Garnish with cracked pepper or caviar.
Chickpea delight: Spread onto the base some plain or infused hummus. Top with chargrilled or fresh cherry tomatoes, and parsley.
Easy, cheesy: Pop a piece of fresh salmon onto the base, and cover in blue cheese to your heart’s delight.
For the young ones: Spread peanut butter to each base, and pair together to create a cucumber ‘Oreo.’
To finish
Finish by piercing through the earlier assembled cocktail pick Christmas trees into each base. Make it extra festive by cutting some triangle or star carrots to top each tree.
