Impress this New years with the best cocktail snacks ever!

If you have not yet thought about your new years cocktail party snacks yes – then hopefully these ideas would come in handy. they are great for any cocktail dinner party.

The Meatball nachos with a mango salsa are always popular. My family loves the BBQ chicken with herb stuffing (as promised the stuffing recipe is published) and the Bisto (tomato and onion relish).

Then for a light dessert nibble, the apricot bites filled with Baobab and honey Greek yoghurt is a hit.

check out the recipes at the end of the post.

 

Taco recipe

Takes about 30 minutes to prep.

Very easy to make

You’ll need:

1 avocado, peeled and cut into cubes

6 taco shells

12 cooked meatballs

Mango Salsa

80ml blue cheese salad dressing

To make the mango salsa:

1 firm mango, peeled and cut into cubes

Half red onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 hot chilli, seeded and firmly sliced

Small handful rosa tomatoes, roughly chopped

Small handful fresh coriander, chopped

Method:

1. Warm the taco shells briefly and fill with meat balls.
2. Mix all the salsa ingredients together in a small bowl. Fill equal amounts onto the taco.
3. Drizzle with Blue cheese salad dressing, add avo and serve.

To make the bisto

This relish was always called Bisto in my neighbourhood. To this day – we still love to make Bisto and serve it warm with a traditional South African sausage – Boerewors.

My Niece Bonie makes the best bisto ever! And she was generous to share her recipe.

You’ll need:

1 onion, peeled and chopped

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium sized tomato, chopped

1 tea spoon dried basil

1 Tbsp smoked chilli flakes (not heaped)

2 Tbsp brown sugar (not heaped)

¼ cup water

1 Tbsp creamy mayonnaise

Pinch of salt

 

Method:

1. Fry the onion over medium heat in the olive oil until translucent.
2. Add the tomatoes, basil, chilli, brown sugar and water. Cook for about 10 minutes while stirring occasionally.
3. Stir in the mayonnaise and season with salt to taste.
4. Then to assemble the cocktail dish, carefully place BBQ mini chicken kebabs into a glass together with the stuffing and bisto, repeat with the rest of the glasses. Check out the stuffing recipe below. Garnish with sliced rosa tomatoes. Bisto is enough to make 6 portions.

 

The Stuffing Recipe:

4 slices of white bread, blitzed into crumbs (use bread that a day or two old preferably)

1 sprig fresh rosemary, leaves removed and chopped

Handful fresh coriander, chopped

20 ml softened butter

Salt and black pepper to season

Method:

1. Combine all the ingredients with a spoon until well mixed and either use to stuff into meats such as leg of lamb or chicken. I sometime use my hands to press the stuffing to be intact and hold together.
2. Or for this recipes. Roll into balls and flatten. Bake in the oven at 180°C for about 10 minutes until firm and slightly golden brown.
3. For extra flavour, chopped fresh sage can also be added.

 

The apricot recipes:

20 fresh firm and ripe apricots, halved and pip removed

2 medium sized white flesh nectarines, pip removed, peeled and finely mashed

2 heaped Tbsp baobab fruit powder

2 Tbsp double plain yoghurt

2 tsp raw honey

To garnish

Small handful fresh raspberries

2 Tbsp baobab fruit powder

Method

1. Flatten the apricots a little to make room filling. I used a back of a spoon to do this.
2. Mix together the rest of the ingredients in a small bowl and use a teaspoon to fill the apricot halves.
3. Garnish with fresh raspberries and sift over with more Baobab powder.
4. I made my Baobab powder by blitzing dried Baobab fruit until a powder.

Happy Entertaining.