Holiday Fare – Finger food

Nothing beats finger food at parties, and with the holiday season upon us once again, there will be many opportunities for merrymaking. 

 

Plan now for creating a fusion of diverse platters to suit our culturally diverse nation’s coming together.

Finger foods encourage easy conversation among gathered guests, as they require no utensils and are never overly messy, making them easy to eat while standing or sitting. Although most finger foods originated as hors d’ oeuvres, they’ve evolved into entire party meals, and are now served exclusively at any event and for any occasion.

Creating trays of food requires careful thought and planning, as it is important to choose and arrange different types of foods well, bearing in mind catering for vegetarians, those with food allergies too, for example seafood or dairy products, and those consuming religion-specific food such as Halaal or Kosher options. In addition, a variety of items must be made available, as not everyone is going to enjoy every item presented to them.

The easiest ways of classifying specific foods for specific customers are pairing similar items on the same tray, separating spicy and mild foods and labeling them for easy identification, and preparing separate trays of miniature, classic must-have bits and pieces such as quiche and rissole; Deviled eggs with pickles; and cheeses with seasonal fruit, dried fruits, preserves, olives and nuts.

Sandwiches need not be a bore: toppings can be prepared on a variety of breads such as tuna salad on rye, roasted vegetable on focaccia, and ham and brie on French rolls. A variety of spreads can be included on the breads to satisfy different tastes: sundried tomato, pesto, hummus and spicy mayonnaise.

Other palate pleasers include wraps: tortillas filled with meat and cheese, rolled, and cut into wheel shapes, and baked foods wrapped in phylo or other dough. These can include spinach and feta in phylo, Mexican Sopaipillas, samoosas and spring rolls.

More exotic concoctions perfect for theme parties include a sushi platter with California rolls, cucumber rolls, spicy rolls and vegetable rolls with soy sauce and wasabi in addition to a seafood platter. These can be served in addition to a seafood platter.

A seafood platter could consist of anything from oysters, prawns, shrimps and crab sticks for a cold platter or hot seafood like fish fillets, calamari rings, scallops and baby octopus. Another option is an oyster platter with natural oysters along with garnished oysters. Try the following:

 

– Oysters lightly grilled with a dill, lemon and caper butter finish;
– Oyster grilled with a tomato and onion relish and a little haloumi cheese;
– Oyster grilled with julienne bacon and Worcestershire sauce.

Even with all these mouth-watering options available to us, South Africans are still inherently a braaiing nation – even on Christmas day. Offer a “mini braai platter” containing braai-ready items such as marinated meat and vegetable kebabs, cocktail sausages, prawn skewers, skewered tikka fish, boneless ribs, buffalo wings, asparagus-wrapped bacon and stuffed mushrooms.

 




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