Snacking into the summer season
Go-to finger food ideas for the summer season
As we head into snacking and entertaining season, now’s the time to gather your collection of go-to finger food ideas.
These oaty biscuits have a beautiful cheesy flavour, crumbly texture and a nice bite from the flax seeds and caraway seeds.
I’ve paired them with a simple tuna cream, which uses canned tuna and a few other pantry staples for a punchy flavour and velvety texture.
Make sure to weigh your tuna after draining from the cans — this is to ensure you end up with the correct amount of tuna, and none of the liquid from the cans.
This delicious combo isn’t confined to entertaining and weekend snacking — take these biscuits and tuna cream for work or school lunches … just make sure to keep the tuna in an airtight container to contain the smell!
Oat, Cheddar & Caraway Biscuits with Zesty Tuna Cream
Makes 9
Ingredients
For the oat, cheddar and carraway biscuits:
• 150g oats
• 150g almonds
• 50g flour
• 2 Tbsp flax seeds
• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• 1 tsp salt
• 75g cold butter, cubed
• 125g cheddar cheese, grated For the zesty tuna cream:
• 200g drained canned tuna (weight after draining from 2-3 x 95g cans in springwater)
• 75g sour cream
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp finely chopped parsley
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• 1⁄2 tsp grated horseradish
• 1⁄2 tsp salt
Method
1. Preheat oven to 160C fan-forced/ 180C convection. Line a slice tin (mine was 18x27cm) with baking paper.
2. Place oats and almonds in a baking dish. Add 1 Tbsp of oil and mix to combine. Bake for 10 minutes until lightly golden and fragrant.
3. Transfer to a food processor and pulse until coarsely ground. Add flour, flaxseeds, caraway seeds and salt, and pulse briefly to combine. With the food processor running, add butter, one cube at a time, followed by the cheese. Add 2-4 Tbsp water, gradually, until the mixture clumps together.
4. Press firmly and evenly into your prepared baking tin and score with a knife to create 9 rectangles. Prick each with the fork and bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and crisp.
5. Allow to cool before slicing all the way through along your score marks.
6. Meanwhile, to make the tuna cream, blend everything in a food processor until smooth.
7. Serve the cooled crackers with tuna cream, thinly sliced red onion and finely chopped parsley.
Olivia Moore and her Taupō business That Green Olive offer recipe development, food photography — in studio or on-location — for restaurants and cafes, recipe video creation and social media content creation. G o to Olivia’s website for more recipes: www.thatgreenolive. com