Easy finger food recipes perfect for summer picnics

Posted on 17 December 2021

There is nothing quite like a peaceful picnic on a perfect summers day. For your next outing, try these simple recipes for cheese tarts and flatbread, paired excellently with KWV’s Classic Collection.

Red wine caramelised onions & goats’ cheese tartlets

Ingredients 

3 onions thinly sliced

3 Tbsp of olive oil

1 cup (250ml) of red wine

3 Tbsp of brown sugar

3 – 4 sprigs of fresh thyme leaves removed and a few extra for garnishing each tart

Salt and black pepper

2 sheets of puff pastry 23c x 23cm (Sam uses 1 pack of Woolworths all-butter puff)

100 – 200g goats’ cheese (depending on what size tarts you make)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onions over a low heat until softened but not browned for about 15 minutes. Add ½ the red wine and deglaze the pan, allowing all the liquid to cook off. Add the sugar, thyme, salt and pepper and cook for 5 more minutes. Add the remainder of the red wine and once again continue cooking and stirring until the liquid has cooked off.

Place your puff pastry sheets on a floured surface and cut out the circles to the desired size. You could also leave the pastry whole or cut into 4 x squares. This way you better optimise the pastry sheet with no wastage through offcuts.

Score the inside of the pastry with a small cookie cutter or a knife ¾ of the way through, but don’t cut all the way through, to make a small rim and place on a lined baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and press down on the inner circle/square piece so that it drops down, it should come away where you have scored it, and fill each pastry case with the caramelised onion.

Top with the goats’ cheese (you can either crumble this or cut into discs), scatter over fresh thyme leaves and return to the oven to bake for a further 20 minutes until golden.

Serve warm or cold on their own or with a salad.

Chef’s tip

There is enough onion to make either 2 x large square tarts using the 2 x 250g puff pastry or 8 smaller square tarts (each square cut into 4). This way there is no pastry wastage. Or you can make 18 smaller tartlets but there will be some extra pastry that is trimmed off (you will only use 100g goats’ cheese if you are making smaller tarts)

This recipe can also make one larger tart, or be made into smaller canape sizes for a party.

Crispy flatbread with roasted vegetables, steak & rocket

Ingredients 

Serves 2 – 4 at a picnic

Roasted vegetables

400g zucchini thickly sliced

1 large red or yellow pepper cut into rough chunks

1 large red onion cut into 8ths and broken up into thick florets

2 fresh thyme stalks

Olive oil

Sea salt and pepper

Crispy flatbread

150g self-raising flour

110ml cold water

½ tsp salt

1 tsp sesame seeds – optional

½ tsp dried oregano – optional

Herb crème fraîche

½ tub (125g) crème fraîche

Zest from ¼ lemon

1 Tbsp of fresh lemon juice

1½ Tbsps of finely chopped chives or parsley

Sea salt and pepper

Steak

250g steak of your choice

Salt and black pepper

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Shaved parmesan to garnish

Rocket leaves to garnish

Method 

To roast the vegetables, preheat the oven to 200°C and toss the washed and cut vegetables into a large oven tray. Sprinkle lightly with olive oil, sea salt and black pepper. Add the thyme stalks if applicable and toss the vegetables to coat lightly with the oil. Roast for 30 minutes until starting to brown on the edges and cooked through. Remove and bring to room temperature.

To make the flatbread, mix all the ingredients together in a bowl using a fork. Once a ball is formed, remove from the bowl, and give it a short knead using extra flour as required. Set the dough aside to rest.

To make the herb crème fraîche, mix all the ingredients together, season to taste and then cover in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

Brush the steak with olive oil and season very well with salt and black pepper. Fry in a very hot pan until caramelised and browned on the outside but pink on the inside (or to your preference). Set it aside to rest for 10 minutes. When cool, thinly slice against the grain and give the meat a spritz of lemon juice.

Roll the dough out onto a floured surface until it is as thin as it will go without breaking. It will be around 30cm in diameter. Heat a non-stick skillet or cast-iron pan to very hot and then drop the flatbread straight into the pan. Once bubbles start forming on the surface and the underside is starting to brown, flip it over and cook the other side.

To assemble; spread the herb crème fraîche over the bottom of the flat bread, top with the roasted vegetables and the thinly sliced steak. Garnish with parmesan shavings and fresh rocket. Season with more salt and pepper and serve.

Picnic recipes by Sam Linsell of @drizzleanddip www.drizzleanddip.com for KWV Wines.

 






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