Summary

Preparation Time: 15 + 15 mins. (15 mins for cutting apples and then 15 mins for wrapping salmon balls)
Cook Time: 10 mins.
Servings: 20 balls
Meal type: Appetizer
Grocery Cost: $30.20 ($1.51 per ball)

Recipe Rating:  

Ingredients

• 5 apples, preferably crisp tart cooking apples like granny smith or crispin, peeled and cut to a 1/4″ dice ($4.00)
• 1 cup (250g) cream cheese ($3.20)
• 1 cup sugar ($2.00)
• 1 tbsp shallots, finely diced ($1.00)
• 1 tsp ginger, finely diced ($0.50)
• 1 tsp garlic, finely diced ($0.50)
• 3 tbsp butter ($3.00)
• 2 packs (300g) smoked salmon ($16.00)
• Five spice to taste

Procedure to Caramelize Apples

1. Peel and cut apples to a 1/4″ dice

The best way I found to chop the apples quickly was to cut slices off one side, then the opposite side, then the other two sides until you’re left with just the core in the middle. Cut the slices into strips (like french fries) and then dice up the strips until you get this:

2. Heat butter on medium heat. When butter turns light brown, add in apples. Cook until tender crisp, approx 5-6 mins.
3. Add sugar to apples. Here is my tender crisp apples with a bit of sugar sprinkled on top:

I actually only used about 3 tbsp of sugar but if you like sweet stuff, you’ll get better caramelization if you use the whole cup.
4. Cook for another few minutes until apples and sugar start to turn brown and caramelize.

5. Remove from heat and set aside and allow to cool.

Procedure for Assembly

1. Finely dice shallots, ginger, and garlic.
2. Mix together cream cheese, apples, shallots, ginger, garlic, and add five spice to taste.
3. Lay salmon flat on plastic wrap.
4. Spoon cream cheese mixture onto salmon and use plastic wrap to form a ball.


Tips:

• For a colourful contrast, add some green stuff for garnish, like pea shoots or something else mild tasting.
• I ended up with a lot of extra filling left, possible because the apples I used were huge. I think this recipe would work just as well with three large or four medium sized apples instead. The leftover cream cheese mixture tastes great on toasted bagels too, so it wasn’t so bad to have extra for breakfast the next morning.

Results

Variations

• The apples taste great with the smoked salmon no matter how you do them – caramelized, lightly cooked, raw (although be careful, raw apples will brown if left exposed to air, and will release water if you let them sit with sugar on them). Cooking the apples less will result in a crispier texture which is interesting and still delicious.
• Also, as I mentioned, I didn’t want to use too much sugar so I cut it down to about 3 tbsp. I find it’s entirely a matter of taste, because I got reviews from my guinea pigs…I mean, friends…ranging from too sweet to not sweet enough. The more sugar you use the easier it is to get the apples to caramelize.