Chilled Stuffed Pepper Wedges

Happily, the dried beef-cream cheese balls of the 60's reappeared, amped up a bit, to stuff peppers in the 80's.  They  make a visually attractive and delicious appetizer  for a tailgate or  any party.      I think I've stuffed  a few thousand appetizer  peppers over the years...they were a popular  choice when I was catering.     I use  red and green peppers at Christmas   and add yellow and/ or  orange other times of the year. Lately I've been stuffing the  bite-sized small  sweet mixed peppers that come bagged,  but  do miss that pop of green color.

Today I  used the small  yellow, red  and orange peppers, so I've added the original  1985 cookbook photo  to show  the  pepper wedges.  It's a photo of a photo, sorry 'bout the quality, but it serves its purpose.

For the wedges, be sure  to choose three similarly -sized and -shaped peppers  so they are uniform when  sliced.  Short and fat are preferable to long  and slender.  If the peppers are smallish you may want  to buy four. 

Using a mixer or food processor with a blade, process  8 oz. of cream cheese with 1c. ricotta cheese, 2 tsp horseradish, 1 tsp yellow mustard, 1/2 tsp. black pepper, & 1/2 tsp seasoned salt,  until smooth.  Stir in  about 3 oz. dried beef from a jar,  finely chopped,   2 minced radishes or water chestnuts,  4 TB  minced green onion.  Set aside in the fridge.

Remove the stems of three  bell peppers (one green, one red, one yellow)  by cutting a small, 1" circle around the  top.  Save the stem & top.  Scoop out the seeds and white membranes from inside the peppers.  Densely pack the cheese mixture inside the peppers, pressing to fill  solidly  to the bottom and edges. Top with the reserved stem. Wrap each pepper in plastic wrap or a baggie, and  seal.    This is the stopping point if you're making these a day or two ahead.

When ready to proceed, after  chilling for a minimum of 2-3 hours, discard the stems and cut each pepper in half lengthwise, then each half in four wedges. Arrange on a tray and garnish with pimiento strips or black olive slices. A longer  chilling time makes slicing  easier.

 You'll get 24 wedges from ordinary  peppers.  I've pushed  my luck when making dozens of these  ahead for a large party ......they start getting  soft instead of crunchy, and a little weepy, around the 48-hour period.. .. still OK to eat,  but   messier than they should be.   When slicing,  wipe your knife with a damp paper towel between cuts to keep the pepper from getting messy.

Serve the small  bagged peppers whole, cutting a little more from the stem end to reveal what's inside. 

Oh Gosh, Ganache

  I was telling a friend how to make a quickie little dessert, ( not the one pictured)  and that conversation was going along just fine until I added "then just put a ganache on them"   Whoa!  Her  reaction was "no way, I  can't do fancy stuff".   So here is my little ganache lecture for anyone who is similarly confused.

Ganache is just a harmless little  French word for a 2-ingredient concoction.  Really.   Ganache is  just a rich fudgy concoction made of cream and chocolate, melted together. It's a glaze, an icing, a sauce........  Pretty simple, and certainly not frightening.  You are braver than any ganache.

   Depending on how you let  it thicken - or not --  ganache is the smooth sheet of thick  fudge icing on a cupcake....a  rich hot fudge sauce for your ice cream,  a lovely filling for sandwich cookies,  a warm fondue sauce for dipping  fruit or cake cubes, a  brownie  or cake glaze or  doughnut  icing......   Or  fold cooled ganache into whipped cream for an instant chocolate mousse.  And  if that's not  quite enough chocolate, accompany any of those with a cup of hot chocolate made by  stirring ganache into warm milk for the ultimate jolt of cacao heaven. Yowza.


Here are two simple ways to make ganache: ( Actually, all ways to make ganache are simple)   In a microwave:     Place 8 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (  finely chopped, or chips are fine) in a medium bowl.  In a glass measuring cup,  nuke 3/4 c. heavy  whipping cream  on high 1-2 minutes or until it comes to a boil.  Immediately pour it over the chocolate and  stir til smooth.  Cool just a bit- til slightly warm - and stir in 2 TB softened butter, unsalted is best, stir til melted.  Now , based on what you intend to do with it,  use it now, or let it cool a bit to thicken, or of you want it really thick, put in the fridge  until it's the thickness you want. Stir now  and then to check on the consistency.

or, use a saucepan -  put the cream and chocolate in together and slowly warm,  stirring,  over low heat, til its completely melted and smooth.  Let cool a couple minutes off the heat and stir in the butter.  Butter adds the shine. Because  I feel  that the  hot pan keeps the ganache warm and spoonable longer, I tend to use this method when doing large batches of cupcakes or brownies that take a little longer  to get them all iced.

3/4 cup   of cream to 12 oz chocolate will make enough to glaze an 8 or 9 inch 2-layer cake or  a 13x9 cake. 

To make a to-die-for ice cream sauce, use the saucepan method using  8 oz finely chopped chocolate and 1 cup whipping cream.  It can be covered and  stored in the fridge for  about a month.

And if you want to see the similarity between  making a ganache and  a super-duperly-easy  2  minute  'chocolat pot de creme', enter it into the search bar on this blog and laugh merrily as you   picture yourself saying modestly "oh gosh, it's  really just a ganache"!


You're very welcome. 

Bacon Bark

    

As though bacon addicts need any more incredibly awesome  bacon recipes?   A wonderful   sweet/salty  finger-food appetizer or bar snack, you can  jar this up  for gifts, or selfishly keep it all to yourself.  

I almost always use sugar free 'maple syrup' and brown Splenda or Stevia, so if you want to calculate  a carb count, it's essentially just nuts and the sweetener.  Using real maple syrup  tastes  only slightly more fabulous.  If you intend to make this low sodium, use real maple syrup and low sodium bacon, cut the salt amount down and/or use  Diamond Crystal kosher salt.

It's a quickie recipe.  Use two dishes-- one medium bowl for the nut mixture, and a large  shallow one..... like  a pie plate  or platter.for the bacon mixture.   Preheat the oven to 350 for at least 15 minutes. Prepare  a rimmed cookie sheet.  Non-stick is best but even so, be sure to use  parchment or foil or disposable baking sheets. Parchment is best - and  if you use foil give it a light spray of Pam.  There's bigtime stickiness ahead. 

Nuts:  In one bowl, place 2 c. pecan halves and 2c walnut halves, 1/2 c. light brown sugar, 4 TB maple syrup, 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice, 1 tsp Hungarian paprika, 1 tsp coarse salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper. mix well and set aside.  Do not  use chopped  nuts!  but slightly broken,  almost-half  pieces are OK to include.

Bacon:  Into the other dish, cut 12 slices of center-cut bacon  in  1"  pieces across the strips.  It's easiest to use scissors and cut  several strips at once, while the bacon is still cold and stuck together, then separate the pieces once they're cut... space them out in the flat dish so when  you add the other ingredients they'll  easily coat the bacon.  Then add  a mixture of  1/2 c. brown sugar, 1 tsp Hungarian paprika,  zest of  2 oranges or  lemons, salt and pepper. Pat it on and then with a fork or fingers , stir/toss   gently til all  bacon pieces are pretty much coated.  Then spread them  on the prepared pan and bake until the bacon is almost done and all the  sugar is bubbling, about 10 minutes.

Then add the nuts to the pan.   Using a  spatula, turn and mix, then spread out again and bake 15-25 minutes more, turning and spreading again halfway through.   It's done when the mixture has obviously turned caramel-ly and sticky.   The length of time will depend on how thinly or closely the mixture is spread on the pan.  Be sure that there are no large gaps --- you want it to stick together. Just slide the foil or parchment sheets off the hot pan to cool.

When cooling, you may want to flip the  pieces over a few times   to let the undersides harden a bit before storing them away so they  won't be sticky.  Let sit on the counter until it's 'dry' enough to  break or tear into  clumps. This may take several hours..   Edited to add that it doesn't need to be refrigerated in the  short term.  If saving for days on end I do pop it in the fridge

Scarf some  down while gooey and warm,  or let it cool and break it apart.   This recipe will make  about  6-7  cups of sweet,  spicy, salty, bacony, nutty  goodness.  No one will be the wiser  if you  claim  that you only made a half recipe...just be sure you get all the sticky evidence off your fingers.