Appetizers such as these Peperoncini Stuffed with Salmon Dill Cream always got short shrift in our house so I didn’t grow up with any family specialties to share with you here. My mom used to say that she couldn’t understand why anyone would want to fill their guests up with food right before you sat them down to a dinner they worked all day preparing. Limiting hors d’oeuvres to a bowl of cashews was more her style. Me? I’ve just been lazy. I now I need to up my game but I continue to hope that by the time my guests have dinner and dessert, they won’t remember that I only put down a block of cheese and some grapes before dinner was served.
I decided this week, however, that this weekend’s guests needed a bit more than cashews so I reached back into my recipe clippings to find the very first thing I ever prepared in a kitchen for others. I ever clipped out of Gourmet Magazine, my very first subscribed issue, and I was determined to cooking my way through the entire issue. This turned out to not be very practical and I do not think I succeeded. The feature was on picnics with various dishes presented visually on a turned over canoe on a lake and I didn’t have a lake or a canoe but for a few weeks we ate some very lovely picnic food in our backyard.
This is one of those recipes that once made, you will forever have it committed to your memory. Prepare to be inundated with requests to bring them to potlucks and picnics. Removing the seeds from the peperoncini will take away most of the heat, leaving just enough to get cooled by the salmon cream. Be sure to mince the shallot very fine and mix the salmon well so you don’t clog your pastry bag tip. And while I’m thinking of it, just go and get yourself a pastry bag if you don’t have one. They are cheap and cutting a hole in the corner of a Ziplock just won’t cut it for this one. Make them a day ahead for even more ease on party day.
Peperoncini Stuffed with Salmon Dill Cream
Lovingly clipped from Gourmet. No longer with us.
This is what you will need:
- 35 to 40 (three to four 9-ounce jars) peperoncini (pickled Tuscan peppers), drained
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 1/4 cup minced fresh dill
- 3 tablespoons minced shallot
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 6 ounces thinly sliced smoked salmon, chopped fine
This is how you make it:
- Trim the stem ends off the peperoncini at an angle and, wearing rubber gloves, discard the seeds and ribs.
- Let the peperoncini drain on paper towels.
- In a bowl cream the cream cheese with the butter until the mixture is smooth, add the dill, the shallot, the capers, and the lemon juice, and combine the mixture well.
- Stir in the salmon and salt and pepper to taste, transfer the mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch decorative or plain tip, and pipe the smoked salmon and dill cream into the peperoncini.
- The peperoncini may be prepared 1 day in advance and kept covered and chilled.
What an interesting combination – I can’t wait to give it a try!
I think you would really like these Ms. Barrister. A lot.