Prawn Canapés (for Christmas, in this case)
Several years ago, a friend of mine made amazing prawn canapés. They each had three capers on top. I remember them so fondly that I bought capers last Christmas (and hated them).
This year, I hunted down the recipe she’d started with, and found some other cool recipes along the way. One of them recommended mixing fresh chives into the cream cheese, but I found it really good without them.
So far, I have done two HIGHLY successful experiment sessions trying out various flavour combinations. It takes a lot to fill up on bite-size hors d’oeuvres, but it can be done. I’ve shared them with three other people too, including my son (it’s always a good day when he embraces a new food, and he has thoroughly enjoyed advising me on taste combinations along the way).
Each canape has a structural item—either a skewer, a slice of cucumber, or a basil leaf—that holds the whole thing together. For the cucumber, slices should be 2mm or less so it holds its shape but doesn’t overwhelm the other flavours. You should cut the cucumber on a diagonal to make the pieces bigger (and be aware that cucumber ‘sweats’ so you may need to pat your slices dry after ten minutes, especially if you put the spicy sauce on them as it doesn’t mix well with water).
I like skewers best. They’re not as floppy as leaves, and they don’t get overwhelmed by cucumber (sorry cucumber; people who love crunch will prefer you). Plus anyone who eats them keeps their fingers completely clean.
Other than structural items, I mostly stuck to a rule of three: Each canapé has a prawn (except when it doesn’t because not everyone likes prawns), a ‘sauce’, and a garnish.
So here are my ‘sauce’ items:
There is already a fundamental problem in that cream cheese and ricotta are too similar (both visually and as a taste), and so are smashed avocado and guacamole. So really one should pick a favourite of each of those pairs.
Avocado VS Guacamole:
Avocado is a refreshingly simple taste—that perfect exactly-ripe avocado flavour. With avocado, you can blend just three key flavours (prawn, avocado, and ?) and the eater can taste them all.
Guacamole has a teeny tiny bit of spice, which will sharply divide tasters. It is delightfully complex in flavour, hitting several notes in a delightful chord.
Conclusion: For younger kids or those who dislike spice, pure avocado is the winner. But for those who want something gourmet and fascinating, I’d pick guacamole for sure. You can make your own if you like, although you want to be sure it won’t brown.
Cream Cheese VS Ricotta:
Both can be savoury or sweet, but cream cheese is oh so creamy so it lends itself to a more dessert-like concoction. Cream cheese is often the base of dips because it’s so yummy. It’s indulgent and rich while still being a subtle flavour that can blend with almost anything.
Ricotta is yummy too, and also blends beautifully with almost anything, but it’s a lot lighter and (presumably) healthier.
Conclusion: For people that cheerfully throw diets out the window and want to seriously get into the most amazing/special treats on offer, cream cheese is the winner. For those that can’t handle too much rich food and/or want canapés that are genuinely healthy, use ricotta.
The “Fried Chicken Sauce” in the photo does not contain chicken. I found it in Woollies in a cardboard stand with other sauces in the fresh food area. It tastes like sweet chilli sauce mixed with mayo. At first it tastes completely sweet, and then the spice hits. It’s a real journey every time. It does burn the mouth a little, but I still enjoyed it (I’m fairly wimpy but getting much less so lately).
Garnishes!
There are two types of coconut because I wanted to experiment and see which was best (I also tried desiccated coconut but forgot to put it in this photo). The leaves are basil, and chocolate mint. There are spring onions, sweet corn, capers (lol), toasted sesame seeds, and green olives. And mango.
I chose not to use any variety of mini tomato because they’re a pain to cut up. But who knows? I may get inspired to get into them later. The red colour certainly pops, which is cool.
The olives are INTENSE in flavour and needed to be cut into eighths. The mango was also surprisingly potent as a flavour, so I cut it into quite small pieces too. The sesame seeds were terrible (and I tried non-toasted sesame seeds too). Their flavour completely vanished, and then they crunched weirdly (like bits of eggshell had accidentally fallen in the sauce) and/or tried to stick in my teeth. I think all nuts would have a similar effect, unless they were part of a sauce (eg satay sauce could be great).
The only capers I could find were in vinegar, so that is the flavour they brought to the table. Olives, obviously, are crazy salty. My own flavour inclinations lean strongly towards umami and sweetness, so it’s good to have sour and salty in the mix for other taste styles. I quite like a bit of salt sometimes, but pretty much never like anything sour. However, the capers (which I carefully dried before using) tasted interesting enough that I was reasonably happy to eat them. I think I need to find fresh capers somewhere. Probably not this year though.
The corn is pretty but just kind of boring, and feels ordinary/cheap. I think it’s worthwhile with the avocado or guacamole (a nice shout-out to South American cuisine), but not with anything else. My son and my niece are obsessed with corn, so I’ll keep it in the mix for that reason.
The chocolate mint is fairly similar to basil but doesn’t work as well taste-wise except with mango and/or cream cheese, when it shines. you can also make these without prawns for anyone who doesn’t eat prawns, although they lack structural integrity. They’re basically a dessert and are definitely a crowd-pleaser. They might work better with a leaf base but served on a spoon.
Coconut looks amazing and goes with prawns really well… but I’m still not 100% sure it worked well with these canapes. The shredded coconut had by far the best texture and the best look, but I still found the mouthfeel a little weird. But maybe weird is good—for variety, if nothing else. I liked the idea of it as a modifier for the spicy sauce, and I forgot to try it with the avo/guacamole (it’s no good with the cream cheese/ricotta, either visually or as a taste).
In this pic, the spicy sauce is paired with a single piece of spring onion, then with desiccated coconut, then coconut flakes, and finally shredded coconut. If you look at the top left piece or the bottom right, you can also see the spicy sauce seems to be melting. That is due to the fact that the prawns weren’t completely dry. So next time I’ll use more paper towels and make sure the prawns are fully dry.
Prawns! My favourite are the pre-cooked tail-off deveined Garlic Prawns, but any cooked and deveined and de-tailed prawns are good. Or you can use whatever style of prawns you personally like.
These are both sold frozen so you need to defrost them before you start. With the garlic prawns I chuck them in a fry pan for about ten minutes (then drain off a horrifying amount of butter and pat them dry). With the others I run them under cold water for about five minutes (really more like thirty seconds then I wander off for five minutes, then repeat until they’re good—and again, pat them dry with paper towels and store them in the fridge until I’m ready.
(ProTip: Make sure no cats are able to access your kitchen at this time.)
It would be a LOT less work to use bigger prawns. But I am very socially anxious, and eating any appetiser that takes more than a bite is very awkward for me. Plus I like the way that the symphony of flavours all play at exactly the same time in that one amazing mouthful. It’s an ah! moment.
These two photos show really nice mini prawn salads that healthy adults will love. And they’re delicious! That’s basil, prawn, guacamole, and spring onion on the left, and cucumber, prawn, avocado and capers on the right. Apologies for the terrible photos.
PREPARATION:
You need to get absolutely everything ready before you start, including a bowl for rubbish. You’ll need containers or plates for the finished canapés; you’ll need to prepare anything that needs draining or cutting or washing or drying; you’ll need to grab a thousand pairs of teaspoons/tongs for dishing things out (enough that if one spoon touches a prawn you can just chuck that one aside and grab a fresh one), etc. You’ll also need toothpicks. And of course cucumbers. Small basil leaves are best for garnishing; the big leaves are good for being your structural base. They curve like a little boat, which is cute.
STEP ONE
Lay out all your prawns (or as many as you can fit on your working surface). It often helps to put them directly on a plate or into your container of choice (something wide and shallow with a lid). Then wash your hands of course, before you get molecules of prawns absolutely everywhere.
You’ll definitely find some prawns that still have their digestive system attached. I always chuck them straight into the rubbish bowl because I’m squeamish; you can just peel them off yourself.
STEP TWO
Add your sauces. The supermarket avocado products don’t easily go brown, so you have loads of time. (Speaking of time, making these canapes takes a LONG time. Possibly hours.)
STEP THREE
Garnishes. And you’re done!
Store in the fridge, obviously.
My favourite garnish for the spicy sauce is a basil leaf (and put it on a cucumber if you want to make it milder). Or mango. Or MAYBE shredded coconut. I can’t decide if coconut is worthwhile or not.*
For cream cheese, I like mango best. Or basil. Or chocolate mint (regular mint would be great too). Or, weirdly, olive.
For ricotta, all the same garnishes as cream cheese work well, but it feels more savoury. Ooh! I bet it’s amazing with fresh chives.* (Sidebar: Dill sprigs look great but I hate dill. You may love it. I bet it goes well with capers or olives for a savoury double-punch.)
For avocado, I like spring onion. Or capers. I think mango was good but I can’t remember.* I bet it’s great with fresh chives too.*
For guacamole, spring onion. Or corn. Maybe olive? I can’t remember.*
*I’ll have to do more experiments.
UPDATE:
Fresh chives are too subtle a taste so they don’t really work (although they look amazing).
The smashed avo starts to brown a very little bit in the fridge from the next day (the guacamole doesn’t).
Felicity Banks 