Santapés
A little green beard, a flash of prosciutto for a face, white woolly scarf, shiny black feet and a pointed red hat – Chelsea’s Santa Christmas Canapés! There’s nothing new about the combination of flavours I’ve used here, but I tell you what, I haven’t seen everything assembled to look this festive before! I used ‘Tomatoberrys’, which are a bit bigger than cherry tomatoes and have a great shape. Cherry tomatoes will work fine though – you may just have to cut your cheese rounds a little smaller. You could go really crazy and dot little black eyes on with black food colouring if you wanted. If you’re expecting a crowd, double the recipe. Makes 12-14.
Note to gluten-free folk: If you’re unsure about the store-bought balsamic glaze, either make your own with the recipe below or leave it off.
Ingredients
1 punnet ripe tomatoberries (or cherry tomatoes, or grape tomatoes)
1 pottle fresh small mozzarella or bocconcini balls
1 bunch fresh basil leaves
4-5 slices prosciutto or smoked salmon, torn into small pieces (optional)
2 tablespoons balsamic glaze/reduction (use bought or make your own – see below)
Toothpicks or skewers, to serve
Method
You may need to cut your skewers first if they’re too long – else they will look silly sticking a long way out the top. Make you you cut them on a diagonal to create a sharp point, or you’ll mush Santa as you poke it in.
Using a sharp knife, slice only the very top part of the tomatoes off, just so that they have a more stable surface to sit on. Here’s a tip – only cut off the very thinnest slice you can, to avoid cutting into the fleshy seeded part. Otherwise the juice can run out and look messy on the platter.
Slice the tomato in two even halves. The top you’ve sliced will be the base. The pointed bottom is the ‘hat’ to go on top.
Slice a ball of cheese into even slices, and place a slice on the tomato base. Top with a piece of folded prosciutto, a basil leaf, and season with salt (and pepper if you like). Gently place the top on, holding it all steady as you insert the skewer to hold everything in place.
Squirt a small blob of balsamic glaze on to a platter (no bigger than a 5c piece). Gently place the Santa on top.
Repeat until all the ingredients are used up. Best served straight away but you can keep them in the fridge for an hour or so on a plate, and put them on the platter with the balsamic just before you serve.
Balsamic reduction
Place 1 cup balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan with 1/2 cup packed brown sugar. Simmer thickened, about 5 minutes or so. Leave to cool before using it (it will thicken up more as it cools as well).
Is there a photo? I can’t quite imagine what they should look like?
Yes, there is now x
These are fabulous, I had them the other night at a friends and they looked very impressive. She did them without the prosciutto but they were still fabulous – soooo easy and quick to do. Thanks Chelsea
I’m confused – are you slicing out the middle of the tomatoes and discarding? Or just cutting them in half?
Just cutting in half!
My daughter made these for our early Christmas celebration and they are so delicious fresh and tasty ! So Christmasy and cute . Will def make for our work shared lunch next week !!
Yum Yum Yum Yum Yum… Why did I not find this before christmas… same as the yummy salad… (Which we had on Christmas day ) Delicious. Now my go to salad for this summer.
Received your third book from ‘Santa” loving the Herbed honey “rack of lamb’ with creamed cauliflower even tho it went on mutton chops … I so love that your recipies are easy to adapt and move to other forms of the same base meat. So enjoying your books and recipes Happy new year. =)
HI Chelsea, those are adorable. I am doing your Slow cooked pork belly with perfect crackling for Christmas Eve dinner. I’ve done it before and it is fantastic. Have a great Christmas.
Hi Chelsea, what could I use to dot on the black eyes (I take it not a marker pen!) – should be edible ? Thank you.
You can buy black food colouring :)
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Cant wait to make these for Xmas they are so cute. Have a lovely Xmas Chelsea and take a well earned break. Loved all your recipes you have sent our way over the year. You are amazing.
We will be having these at our family Christmas at the Barrier this Christmas.
What a wonderful combination.
Thanks Mum!
hi Chelsea, so very nice to get a Christmas recipe that looks like Santa and isn’t too sweet, and this is from the Queen of Sweetness in the kitchen!!!!!!!!!!!
I will be doing this at our Christmas BBQ (when we get around to it).
Many thanks and Merry Christmas to you and yours.
They look great, I’m going to try mine with smoked salmon instead of prosciutto, hope they taste as good
How fun – very novel and tasty too!