Brown - Party Food

Party Food With delicious small bites, every party becomes a success, and creative finger food ideas are a must for buffets and party tables. No wonder, as they provide the right culinary setting for (almost) every occasion: from casual and rustic to elegant and festive small appetisers always have a big impact. Forget your knife and fork, and enjoy our handy ideas for things to chew, dip, skewer and snack on! Party Food Naumann & Gbel Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
a subsidiary of VEMAG Verlags- und Medien Aktiengesellschaft
Emil-Hoffmann-Strae 1, 50996 Cologne (Germany)
www.vemag-medien.de
Recipe photographs: TLC Fotostudio
Cover photograph: StockFood/S. Cato-Symonds
Translation from German: Andrew Brown, in association with First Edition Translations Ltd, Cambridge
Complete production: Naumann & Gbel Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-3-8155-8767-6 Top recipes for your party Parties where appetisers are served are very fashionable, and finger food is an integral part of buffets and party tables. No wonder, as it provides the right culinary framework for just about every occasion: from casual and rustic to elegant and festive small bites always make a big impact. Finger food looks good, feels good and tastes good: those little skewers, rolls, canaps and tartlets are very moreish.

The visual impact of many of these delicious snacks is a sensual delight. Attractively garnished with mayonnaise toppings, cherry tomatoes, olive slices or fresh herbs, they invite you to reach out and enjoy them. Forget about fat pork roast with savoury dumplings; spicy vol-au-vents, crunchy vegetable batons with dips and aromatic fine canaps with salmon are low in calories, delicious, and in small quantities they wont have you piling on the pounds. Served in appetising and appealing ways, finger food looks gorgeous, and is soon on its way to the stomach to provide further sensual delights. As well as looking attractive, its also fun. The old rule, time-honoured in our societies, that you must not touch food with your hands, has long been obsolete.

Sandwiches, kebabs, meatballs, small pies and tartlets, mini-quiches and puffs or stuffed vegetables, all fall into the category of finger food and can therefore be eaten with your fingers. Its official! Snacks popular all over the world Small snacks have a long history all around the world. Long before the finger food fashion swept from the USA to Europe, Italians were eating antipasti, Spaniards tapas and Arabs mezze. Even Japanese ate sushi with their fingers. Typical and well-known international finger food includes Italian bruschetta or crostini, tasty toasted bread with various spreads. Crispy grissini bread sticks invite you to nibble and dip.

From Spain come pinchos, small delicious servings of olives wrapped in bacon or tortilla on skewers, with fine delicacies of fish and shellfish that are often consumed with a glass of wine. In other countries of the Mediterranean, eating with your fingers is also common: sheeps and goats cheese, brek and falafel. The people of India have long appreciated fine vegetable fritters or pakoras what the Japanese know as tempura. From Turkey, Morocco and Lebanon come dishes such as hummus, tahini, aubergine and baked delicious halloumi, a semi-hard cheese made from cows and/or sheeps milk.

In this book we have gathered recipes from different countries and to suit every taste. So you can impress your guests with a variety of international delicacies, and your food is sure of an enthusiastic reception at your next party.

Enjoyment for guests and hosts You walk by, pick up a tasty morsel and pop it in your mouth: simple, and perfect for a party. You dont have to spend ages finding the right utensils, or sit down and eat a whole plate of the same food. Appetisers offer variety, because each bite has a different taste. Appetisers are so small and handy that they mostly disappear in a single mouthful. No spilling or dripping, no pesky stains on clothing. You can even spare the plates: a snack is best served on a simple napkin.

As the guests help themselves, the host is free of this chore. In addition, the throng round the cold buffet table gets people chatting, as they can meet casually and informally. Without having to remain seated in one place at the table, you can move around with the appetisers, enjoying them as you go: after youve eaten, your napkin just disappears in the rubbish bin. This is great for the host too: no more collecting the plates, no more time-consuming washing up: you just need to set out a receptacle for collecting the used napkins. Its as easy and environmentally friendly as it gets. At parties where finger food is served, the hosts are spared, not just from doing the dishes, but also from other time-consuming activities such as laying the table and ensuring the seating arrangements are all sorted.

Instead, they can concentrate on the preparation of the dishes and in many cases this can easily take place a day or two beforehand. And, last but not least, preparing finger food for a buffet is a creative challenge, because you can use your imagination: theres no limit to choosing the right ingredients and the garnishing for these small treats. You can go for something fancy, with exotic vegetables, tropical fruits and savoury spices. Finger food invites you to try new and unusual combinations, promising new and tasty experiences. Our recipes offer numerous ideas that will inspire you to produce your own creations. Finger food fans with an artistic vein can also give free rein to their talent by decorating the snacks and shaping artful figures and patterns from fruits, vegetables, cheeses and creams.

Practical tips for food preparation As always, it is sensible to consider at the beginning exactly what you want to cook, which recipes go well together, and the type and quantity of food you will need. For each recipe, we give the number of portions or servings the recipe will make. You can then increase or decrease the quantity of ingredients accordingly. Having a shopping list organised on a day-by-day basis is particularly helpful, ie what can be bought several days in advance, what needs to be obtained fresh on the day, and what ready-made products can be used. You should definitely buy the following ingredients fresh on the date of preparation: fish, poultry, meat and unsealed delicatessen sausages. Eggs which are to be used raw, for example in mayonnaise, should also be bought fresh on the day.

Also, of course, baguettes and rolls taste best when they are fresh. Vegetables and fruit can be bought one or two days beforehand though you should bear in mind that light- and oxygen-sensitive vitamins do not last long. Keep the vegetables in the cool drawer of the refrigerator. Some varieties such as spinach keep best in plastic bags. Caution: do not store tomatoes in the refrigerator, where they lose their flavour! If you use fresh herbs, then put them in water to keep them fresh. You should buy cheese in big pieces and then slice or grate as needed.

Once sliced, it dries out and spoils more quickly, and even when grated it loses its flavour. For finger food, prepare fresh creams and mayonnaise on the day of the party, and chill until ready to serve. The fresh ingredients contained in it, such as yoghurt and crme frache and especially eggs, can spoil easily, especially on hot days. There are also a number of finger-food ingredients that you can safely buy ready-prepared and do not have to prepare yourself: puff pastry, sheets of rice paper, dough, tortillas, croustades, bread, crackers and chocolate cups for filling. The best oils for dressings are native, cold-pressed oils, as they not only taste better, but also contain all the healthy fatty acids. However, these oils should not be used for roasting or frying.