Old-fashioned canapés - first recipe

rosemary
13 minutes ago
5 min read

"If you don't have the time to prepare something good then just serve some olives or nuts." Beverley Sutherland Smith

Well you would perhaps wouldn't you? - or just open a bag of crisps because canapés - the retro kind - often take a lot of work.

This is a photograph of some of Beverley Sutherland Smith's canapés, styled in a very old-fashioned way on a silver platter with the bottle of champagne in a silver bucket. The kind of thing you would get served at a fancy cocktail party, a hotel restaurant buffet or a dinner dance. Remember them?

That platter doesn't actually include my first recipe - Smoked fish canapés, which I shall come to, but that, and those on the platter too require quite a lot of work. And money. There are various types of pastry involved, not to mention the caviar and the highest quality smoked fish and ham.

The book is Beverley Sutherland Smith's A Taste of Class, which she says is made up of favourite recipes from the cooking classes that she gave in Melbourne back in the 70s and 80s. The book itself was published in 1980 - the beginning of the decade of excess. David's boss's wife went to one of her classes I recall. So I'm guessing they were relatively expensive lessons aimed at upper middle class ladies who did, or were made to do, a lot of entertaining. I don't know whether this still happens today - executives of various levels entertaining customers, staff and suppliers at home in a relatively informal setting. Parties for your valuable staff and their wives ... I suspect not.

As she says in her very brief introduction:

"Because the school mainly teaches cooking for entertaining and special occasions some of the dishes are more expensive than others."

They are also displayed in expensive settings - of which three below - a bacon and lettuce quiche, Duck with sour cherry sauce, and even the simple pasta dish - Tagliatelle with sautéed vegetables when served in a shiny silver dish looks classy.

It's a certain kind of classy though isn't it? Classy today can mean something looking minimalist but striking on the plainest but expensive wooden block, or an exquisite thing that has been assembled with tweezers on some very complicated base, the centrepiece in this case being an enormously expensive slice of raw tuna, drizzled with that very, very expensive extra virgin oil. I do not have the recipes for these, but then I doubt we would ever have a go - at least at the one on the right.

These days I think we - and the publishing world as well - have now realised that we would all like to look classy as long as it's not too difficult and doesn't cost too much, and so we can now experiment with - my top choice - Noor Murad's Dates with tahini, chilli and salt; Gorgonzola and prosciutto figs and Prawn and brioche toasties from delicious.; Air fryer prawn toasts from Woolworths - who coincidentally have a whole section of air fryer appetisers in November's issue - and Curtis Stone's Cucumber and goat's cheese bites with smoked trout and there are literally thousands of other such impressive looking but easy to make treats to welcome your guests available everywhere.

A canapé is actually French for a sofa - the idea being that the base is the sofa and the topping the person sitting on it. Or - a reference to the ancients sitting around on couches eating nibbly things. For canapé - the French word is:

"derived from the Greek kōnōpeion, meaning "an Egyptian couch with mosquito curtains". Simon Mills/The Week

Which led me to spending a fruitless quarter of an hour or so trying to find a picture of such a thing. The Egyptians seemed to have preferred sitting on chairs.

Canapés as we know them today were big in the 18th century although really they have been around since forever, to keep your guests happy whilst they are mingling and waiting for their meal. But it was Escoffier who really gave them the status they have today, as an opportunity for chefs to show off their artistry and technical skill which is certainly what happens today. Even in a sit-down restaurant meal in the form of those amuse-bouches which arrive soon after you have sat down - sometimes the best part of the whole meal.

But back to Beverley and her first recipe - the first of the section that she calls Savouries - in itself an old-fashioned expression. How old all of this makes me feel. You might think that a recipe for Smoked fish canapés might feature smoked salmon - or maybe trout. But no - we are talking smoked cod here - and you have to buy "good quality smoked cod as some of the cheaper cod is very salted and rather dry." Well good luck with finding that. South African bright yellow smoked cod is all that I ever see around here. And I constantly ask myself why, here in Australia we do not smoke cod-like fish. Well I'm sure we do but only in very small artisan quantities.

It's actually one of her more complicated recipes - mostly she's pretty simple. First you have to poach the fish. Then you make a sauce with spring onions, butter, flour, and cream flavoured with pepper, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and beaten with an egg yolk and then combined with the flaked smoked fish. Cool for 24 hours in the fridge. Next day you place some of the mixture on circles of bread, sprinkle with Parmesan and bake until golden. A bit of a faff. I could not find a picture - nobody else seems to have thought of doing this. The closest I could find, were both for salt cod, not smoked - Salt cod mousse on polenta crostini (crostini di polenta con baccalà mantecato) from Michael Bonacini on the SBS website and Canapés cabillaud:

"A mixture made by combining minced boiled salt cod fish with finely chopped green peppers and spring onions is seasoned with tarragon vinegar, then spread over triangle-shaped pieces of toast. Once assembled, cod fish canapés are typically decorated with a few capers." Taste Atlas.

And they're not cooked either. So maybe Beverley should be applauded for her originality, although alas there is no picture. We shall never know.

I confess I have struggled a bit with this particular post. I do think that those little bits of finger food that we nibble on, even if it's as simple as a sausage roll are important for easing you into party mood. After all you don't eat this kind of thing for an everyday dinner do you? It's definitely a celebratory thing, and I'm sure there will be possibly millions of the things served at the Melbourne Cup next Tuesday. And you know it must be a more interesting thing for a chef to do than the same old meals they churn out every night.

I have actually made several recipes from that book. Beverley's food rarely disappoints, and since I have been leaving comments in my cookbooks - a relatively recent thing, I see I have made at least two things - one of which Chicken with lemon sauce was give 4 1/2 stars and pronounced Yum! Perhaps I should make it again this weekend - or the Chicken breasts with ham and spinach of which there is a picture.

Christmas is coming. Start honing your canapé skills.