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Cherry and Cheese Salad
3 green peppers 3 tablespoons cream cheese 1/2 cup canned cherries 2 tablespoons chopped nuts Cut green peppers in halves and remove the seeds and membranes. Mash cream cheese and add drained canned cherries, finely chopped, sufficient of the cherry syrup to slightly moisten the cheese and nut meats. Pack the mixture into the halved peppers, chill on the ice and with a sharp knife cut in thin slices lengthwise. Serve two slices as a portion, laid on three halves of romaine. Dress with French dressing.
A stuffed-pepper pinwheel: the filling is packed into hollow pepper shells, chilled solid, then sliced so each round shows a ring of green around a pale center. Success depends entirely on how firm the filling gets.
- The hinge is the chillThe mixture must be cold enough to cut cleanly or the slices collapse. Pack the peppers, wrap each tightly in plastic, and refrigerate at least four hours; overnight is better. A brief spell in the freezer just before slicing makes the knife work easier.
- Slice across, not along"Cut in thin slices lengthwise" here means along the length of the halved pepper, giving long crescents. If you want the familiar pinwheel round, leave the peppers whole, cut out the stem end, fill, chill, and slice crosswise about 1/4 inch thick.
- Cheese quantityThree tablespoons of cream cheese will not fill three peppers. Reckon on 6-8 oz of cream cheese for three medium peppers, keeping the cherries and nuts in roughly the same proportion to it.
- Moisture controlCherry syrup added to soften the cheese also keeps it from setting. Add it a few drops at a time, and blot the chopped cherries dry first; wet fruit is the usual reason these slices fall apart.
- The cherriesCanned cherries of this period meant sweet dark cherries or red sour cherries in syrup. Either works; drain thoroughly and chop fine so the pieces do not create fault lines in the slice. Fresh cherries need a spoonful of sugar syrup to stand in for the canning liquid.
- French dressingIn books of this period this is a simple vinaigrette -- roughly three parts oil to one part vinegar with salt, pepper and often paprika -- not the sweet orange bottled product sold under that name today.
- Romaine"Three halves of romaine" most likely means leaves split down the rib, though halved hearts would also fit. The pale inner leaves lie flatter and are less likely to overwhelm the mild filling.
- YieldThe number of portions depends entirely on how thin the slices are cut; at two slices a portion, three peppers will stretch well beyond six servings, which suits it better to a light salad course than to a main dish.