From top: Smoked Salmon on Toasted Rye Rounds, Won Ton Cups with Whipped Cheese and Spicy Tuna Tartar Cucumber Slices.

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Hand-crafted canapes
brighten the holiday table

Canape is a fancy word for finger food, a little bitty bite to tease the appetite. Festive and colorful, they're great for parties because they require no utensils.

Preparing a tray of canapes requires more individual attention than, say, a baked ham, but that makes them all the more special. Think of them as hand-crafted. As appetizers they'll certainly draw more oohs and ahhs than a bowl of chips and dip.

Chef Alice Weingarten of Alice's Key West in Florida has a passion for these little bites and says they can be easily assembled just before serving if you do some set-up work to get your ingredients ready beforehand. You'll still be able to enjoy your own party, she says, and the canapes will add to the atmosphere. "It helps to have a party where people are interactive with each other. It's fun if you have people to pass (the food) for you."

Christmas and New Year's parties are the perfect time to show off some of these pretty little things. Draw from this collection, chosen for their ease of preparation. After all, you have to make these one-by-one, so tricky prep work is just asking for trouble.

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HOUGHTON MIFFLIN CO. Think of these delicate salmon rolls as rice-free sushi.

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Cut salmon into 1-inch wide strips. Cut each strip to the length of your nori sheet.

Sprinkle 1 half-sheet of nori lightly with water. Place 1 strip of salmon along the edge of the nori sheet. Roll up tightly, sealing the seam with a bit more water. Continue with remaining salmon and nori (if you have a few short pieces of salmon left, place them end-to-end on a nori sheet and roll as usual).

Combine salt, pepper and sugar. Line a cookie sheet with plastic wrap and sprinkle with half the salt mixture. Slice salmon rolls into 1/2-inch pieces. Place on top of salt mixture. Sprinkle tops with remaining salt mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Just before serving, give the slices a spritz of lemon juice. Serves 12.

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BESS PRESS Tofu and fishcake base are fried to make these little tempura bundles.

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Christmas canapes

Brighten the holiday table
with these hand-held treats

Big Island cooking instructor Sachi Fukuda has made somewhat of a specialty of the appetizer, publishing "Pupus: An Island Tradition" in 1995 and following it up this year with "Pupus ... Plus," available in local bookstores or through besspress.com.

One of her Japanese-style dishes makes an attractive and intriguing addition to our canape collection.

All these canape suggestions require some advance work, but the techniques are simple. For best results, work ahead on fillings or toppings, but assemble the little bites just before serving. Set up your work area like an assembly line.

Squeeze water from tofu and mix well with surimi and salt.

Heat oil. Cut nori into thirds lengthwise and then into 10 pieces, widthwise.

Dip a teaspoon into hot oil, then scoop up a spoonful of tofu mixture. Wrap with a nori strip, then slide into oil. Fry 2 minutes, then turn and fry another 2 minutes, until golden.

Chop tuna into very tiny pieces that will hold together in a ball.

Mix in sriracha, ginger juice, sesame oil and salt.

Whisk together sauce ingredients until just blended. Don't over-mix.

Spoon tuna mixture onto center of a cucumber slice. Top with a bit of sauce (this is easy if you put the sauce in a squirt bottle).

Combine cream cheese and sour cream with dill and refrigerate in a pastry bag until ready to use.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Use a 1-1/2 inch cutter to cut 3 to 4 circles of bread from each rye slice. Toast in oven until crisp; set aside.

Slice salmon into thin strips. Roll each strip so it looks like a a rose. Place one on each slice of bread. Squeeze a dollop of cream-cheese mixture on top of each canape. Garnish more chopped dill. Makes 25 to 30.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Lightly spray mini-muffin tins with oil. Press one won ton wrapper into each cup. Spray again with oil, being sure to lightly mist edges of each won ton. Bake until edges begin to lightly brown, about 4 minutes.

Gently remove won ton cups from muffin tin. Cool 5 minutes.

Beat cream cheese, sour cream, chives, hot pepper sauce, salt and pepper until light and fluffy. Spoon mixture into medium sealable plastic bag. Press out any air; seal.

Slice red pepper into 36 thin strips. Set a pepper strip into each cup, arranging it so one end dangles up and over edge of cup.

Cut a 1/4-inch triangle from corner of plastic bag holding cream cheese mixture. Squeeze out about 1/2 tablespoon of mixture into each cup. Top with 1 caper and several slices of scallion. Cups may be refrigerated, uncovered, up to 30 minutes. Makes 36 cups, enough for 12 people.