I like to refer to the festive season as tiny food season – all chic little snacks and one-bite delights. Prawn cocktails, devilled eggs and oysters are all classics for a reason, but I have a few low-effort, prep-ahead ideas to share that still feel special enough to make your dish the talk of the party.

Armed with these recipes, you’ll be serving jazzy finger food at your next soiree in no time. My number one hack is to source part of your dish from the shops – ideally the most finicky part – and use your valuable time to zhuzh up what you’ve bought.

But don’t feel like you need to be throwing a party to enjoy these – they’re perfect for a low-effort trackies-and-TV night in, too.

Hash brown prawn toast

I maintain that hash browns from the supermarket deli section are the gold standard. With their two- to three-bite size and convenient oval shape, they’re the perfect vessel to support a golden cloud of tender chopped prawns for DIY prawn toast. It’s so simple: chuck some prawns in a food processor with a few pantry staples, blitz it up then spread the mixture on a hash brown and pop them in hot oil.

Don’t be put off making this if you don’t own a food processor. I hand-chopped this mix and the texture was wonderful. They’re best made ahead, as a rest in the fridge firms them up, helping them cook more evenly. These may not make it to the table – I ate half of them straight out of the fryer.

Ingredients

• 500g prawn meat, cleaned and de-shelled
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp caster sugar
• finely chopped coriander stems and red chilli, optional
• 4 defrosted hash browns (or 6 if you want thinner toasts)
• neutral oil for deep-frying
• dipping sauce to serve (see method)

Method

1. Place the prawn meat, egg white, cornflour, sesame oil, salt and sugar, along with the chopped coriander stems and chilli (if you’re using them) into the bowl of a food processor. Blend to a smooth-ish paste.
2. Divide the mixture evenly among the hash browns, spreading the mixture over one side and smoothing the top using a wet butter knife. I like to make plump “toasts”, but you can use less prawn mix (and more hash browns) for thinner ones. Leave the toasts in the fridge to set for at least 30 minutes and up to 12 hours.
3. When you’re nearly ready to serve, add enough oil for deep-frying to a heavy-bottomed pan and heat to 180C. Carefully drop the prawn toasts in, prawn-side down, and fry for 2-3 minutes before flipping to the hash brown side. Fry until the prawn mix has puffed slightly, another 1-2 minutes, then drain on a wire rack or paper towel.
4. Carefully slice each hash brown into pieces (or don’t) and serve immediately with your dipping sauce of choice. I like a mixture of soy sauce and black vinegar with chopped coriander and green chilli, but sriracha or wasabi mayo would be excellent, too.

Serves 4 as a starter

Wonton skin ‘fritti’ with prosciutto, Thai basil and olive salsa verde

I’m obsessed with gnocco fritto – golden, fried puffs of dough traditionally made with lard and served with cured meats and cheese. The nutty complexity of prosciutto and savoury parmigiano reggiano are delicious with crunchy pastry, and I’d eat them more if I weren’t generally too lazy to make the dough.

My cheeky version replaces the gnocco fritto with crispy wonton skins. A vinegar-spiked dressing with salty pops of olives, basil and diced cherry tomatoes brings the whole dish together. Easy to prepare and just as easy to eat, this is my current favourite canape.

Ingredients

• oil for frying
• 15 shop-bought wonton skins
• 200g thinly sliced prosciutto

Thai basil salsa verde

• 6-8 cherry tomatoes, diced
• ½ bunch basil, finely sliced
• ½ bunch Thai basil, finely sliced
• 1 shallot, finely sliced
• 4-6 green olives, pitted and finely sliced
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp Chinese black vinegar
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• ¼ tsp chilli flakes

Method

1. Pour cooking oil into a heavy-bottom pan to a depth of 3cm and heat to about 175C. Carefully lower the wonton skins into the oil, one at a time, to fry. They should curl up immediately when they hit the hot oil, and you can leave them as is or use tongs to straighten them out before they crisp. Remove from the oil when they’re golden, and drain on a wire rack or paper towel.
2. To make the Thai basil and olive salsa verde, combine the cherry tomatoes, basils, shallot, olives, olive oil, vinegar, soy sauce and chilli flakes in a bowl. Adjust seasoning to taste and set aside.
3. Build the fritti by using your fingers to twist a few slices of prosciutto into a rose shape and placing it on a fritto. Repeat with the remaining fritti and prosciutto. Dress generously with the salsa verde when you’re ready to serve.

Serves 6-8 as a starter

Jazzed-up supermarket pâté with peppery shallot sambal

I love making pâtés and parfaits. But when life is busy, it’s a rather involved process that uses more dishes than I care to wash. Plus great pâtés are never far away at delis, butchers and supermarkets.

The classic pâté accoutrements of pickles, mustards and preserves are fabulous, but so is the great big flavour slap of sambal matah, the Balinese raw sambal I find myself drizzling on almost everything these days. It has bite from raw shallots and chillies, the citrusy tang of lemongrass and lime leaf plus umami power all electrified by lime juice. I also love to add lots of cracked black pepper for another layer of complexity and warmth.

Ingredients

• 120-150g pâté of your choice (I like chicken and peppercorn for this)
• crackers or bread to serve

Sambal matah

• 3 large banana shallots, peeled
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 stalk lemongrass, white tender part only
• 2 long red or 4 bird’s-eye chillies
• 3 lime leaves
• 1 cup cooking oil
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1½ tsp lime juice
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• cracked black pepper

Method

1. Use a mandoline or a sharp knife to slice the shallots into rounds, cut the garlic into thin slices and follow with the lemongrass and chillies. Finely julienne or chop the lime leaf, and place everything into a heat-resistant bowl.
2. In a small pan, heat the cooking oil until it is smoking, then pour it over the sliced shallot, chilli, lemongrass, garlic and lime leaf. Add a little at first to make sure it sizzles, then carefully pour in the rest. If it doesn’t sizzle, heat the oil a little longer. Searing the ingredients with hot oil releases the flavours.
3. When the shallot mixture has cooled slightly, add the fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and some cracked pepper and stir to combine.
4. To serve, spoon the pâté into a small dish or plate – you can be creative here and smear it, perhaps, or craft a nice little mound. I’ve also used a piping bag fitted with a star tip to pipe a pretty little swirl. Spoon the sambal generously over the pâté and serve with crackers or crusty bread.

Serves 4 as a starter