I’m not going to tell you hold old my grandmother is but I will tell you this, it’s been a while since she’s decided she wasn’t going to cook on Christmas Day or on the 1stof January. The good days are over and someone else has taken over.
Every year the family is invited for an afternoon ‘snack’ at my grandmother’s place. It’s an open invitation where you can show up between 2pm and 5pm. What we do is drink a lot of bubbly and wine and eat quite a bit too. It’s a classic family reunion for us. And the way it’s done is usually pretty fancy. Since my grandmother doesn’t cook anymore, she usually hires a high end caterer and has canapésprepared for us. It’s pretty good but I personally think it’s never as good as something made fresh and prepared with heart. Which is why when my grandmother spoke to me about having her usual party, I didn’t hesitate a second and offered her to help. Basically, I told her I would do the dirty job, for free! The only thing she had to do was to pay for the groceries.
I’m not going to lie… she hesitated at first. But when she saw the Coquille St-Jacques on this blog, she called me back and told me I had the job. That’s when I new what I had gotten into. It wasn’t going to be an easy task… My grandmother is not one who is easily impressed.
So I put up my sleeves and decided on 10 different types of canapésfor the event, enough to satisfy all tastes. My barriers were the following: 11 guests (I was notified the day before the event!), my food had to be somewhat classic and I couldn’t have any breakable dishes in my plating. As for me, I wanted to be able to make quick and easy bites that would be tasty and have a visual impact.
Crab and curry cucumber bite
Level: BIG KID
INGREDIENTS
1 English cucumber, cut in ¼ cm slices
240 g chunk crabmeat (canned will do just fine)
¼ red pepper, minced
4 branches green shallots, chopped
2 tbsp Madras curry
1 tbsp curcuma
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sour cream
1 tsp lemon juice
PREPARATION
In a bowl, mix all of the ingredients. Serve on cucumber slices.
