Favourite Goats Cheese Canapés (2 different mouthful's)

Sarah Bainbridge
Jun 23, 2016
3 min read

I ate out last night, we went to 'The Shed' restaurant in Notting hill (they also have 'Rabbit' on the Kings Road in Chelsea). I've had their cook book for a while and love the farm to fork sentiment that's at the heart of it (they have a farm in West Sussex), their food style is British seasonal menus served in a 'tapas' sharing style, yum! Anyway to the point...My husband forgot his glasses and told me to order, big mistake as much to his horror when the food started to arrive it became clear that I hadn't been able to control my current goats cheese addiction. I had unconsciously (or most probably consciously) ordered 3 dishes where goats cheese was the main event! I really love it (far more than he does) so thought I'd share some recipes.

Goats cheese is great in salad (pictured above is one of my favourites), I also love it melted in a tart but what I belive it was made for is canapés. It's got the kind of strong kick that you need when serving just a mouthful. I've made hundreds (probably 1000's) of the canapes below in the last 6 months, whilst doing catering jobs, they both go down really well. The amounts listed should make approx 20 -25 small bites, with some left over beetroot crisps for the kids!

Beetroot crisps topped with honeycomb, goats cheese & mint

If beetroot isn't in season I sometimes use beetroot crackers rather than making the crisps and they work just as well, here's the ones I like best

http://rwgarcia.com/products/artisan-crackers/. However, at this time of year there's plenty of beetroot around...

To make the crisps preheat the oven at 180 degrees, line serval trays with greaseproof paper and thinly slice 900grams of large beetroot. Make sure you slice the beetroot thinly enough (1.5 mm), use a big root (because they shrink) and cover thoroughly with oil.

Once sliced pop the beetroot into a bowl with 3tbsp's of olive oil, mix together and place the slices on the trays (don't crowd them). After 10 mins rotate the trays and after another 10-15 mins take out (or when crisp). Soak out excess oil on kitchen paper and pop into a bowl with a little salt & pepper.

To top the crisps mix 125g goats cheese (fresh goats cheese without the rind) with a table spoon of milk, then top each crisp with half a teaspoon of the creamy mixture and a small chunk of honeycomb, a drizzle of honey and a little shredded mint.

Endive topped with goats cheese, pear and toasted almonds

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees . Take a couple of endive, chop the base off, pull apart the leaves and wash. The very small leaves in the middle can be shredded and put to one side to top the canapés. Cut the other leaves to a similar size, halving the larger ones (horizontally) if required and put on a kitchen towel to dry.

Pop a small handful of flaked almonds onto a baking tray and into the oven, check after 5-8 mins and remove when they begin to brown, leave to one side to cool.

Take a pear and peel, core and chop into 1cm chunks, put into a bowl and mix with a tablespoon of honey.

To top the endive mix 125g goats cheese (fresh goats cheese without the rind) with a table spoon of milk and top each leaf with a teaspoon of the creamy mixture, add a couple of chunks of pear, a sprinkle of the almonds and finish with the shredded endive.