Recipe: Cucumbers with Cream Cheese and Smoked Salmon

Name: Cucumbers with Cream Cheese and Smoked Salmon
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 1 beautiful garden cucumber or farmers market cucumber, peeled, cut in half lengthwise, salted and left to drain on a plate; 3.5 oz (100 g) of good farmhouse cream cheese, drained; 1 natural organic yogurt; 1 small bunch of chervil; Salt and freshly ground pepper; 1 teaspoon of paprika; 1 pinch of horseradish; 2 beautiful slices of label red smoked salmon; A little salmon roe

By chef patrick Asfaux 5/5 (7 reviews) · 🍳 3 made it

Prep 10 min

Total 10 min

Servings 4 serv.

Draining the cucumber is the step that changes everything: you need a minimum of 30 minutes to prevent your little boats from weeping water. Then you fill them with a cream cheese and smoked salmon mousse, topped with diamonds of label red salmon and salmon roe. A light and generous summer appetizer.

Ingredients for 4 servings

Adjust for

servings

1 beautiful garden cucumber or farmers market cucumber, peeled, cut in half lengthwise, salted and left to drain on a plate
3.5 oz (100 g) of good farmhouse cream cheese, drained
1 natural organic yogurt
1 small bunch of chervil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 pinch of horseradish
2 beautiful slices of label red smoked salmon
A little salmon roe

Step-by-step directions

1 Rinse the 2 cucumber halves and dry them very well.

2 Cut your smoked salmon into 16 small diamonds and keep the scraps.

3 Blend your cream cheese, yogurt, salmon scraps, add a little salt, pepper, paprika, a pinch of horseradish and the chervil stems.

4 Transfer to a salad bowl then add the chervil roughly chopped, put a little in the cold.

5 Fill a piping bag with your mixture then fill your cucumber halves.

6 On each, arrange your 8 small diamonds of smoked salmon topped with a few salmon roe and a sprig of chervil.

7 Slice with a knife to make 16 little boats with a toothpick that you'll plant in them, then arrange them around a round plate for a lovely little summer appetizer.

A chef's advice

To avoid turning your little boats into a swimming pool, here's the critical trick: after draining, dry very well with paper towels. On the regional side, Mediterranean cuisines often make this appetizer with Greek tzatziki instead of farmhouse cream cheese, and they replace the smoked salmon with crumbled feta. Less rich, more tangy, that works too. But with French cream cheese and good label red salmon, you've got the balanced version.