Deli and Veggie Appetizer….Easier to Make Than I Thought

We went to a party the other night and had been asked to bring an appetizer so I decided to try something I had never done before…a deli and vegetable bouquet. I had never attempted to make anything like this before, it just looked really complicated but when done in small steps, it was easier than I thought, but still a bit time-consuming…worth it though when everyone exclaimed over it! I found this little book called Appetizer & Snack Bouquets at a book fair (published by CQ Products) that helped me put this together.

I of course got my basket from Goodwill…the hosts got to keep it and didn’t have to worry about getting it back to me. You can use a smaller container if you want and use whatever vegetables and meats and cheeses are on sale.

You will need….

(approximately-depending on your container size and the foods you use).

• 20-30 round thin deli slices ham, turkey and/or hard salami
• 20-30 thin slices provolone, Colby-Jack and/or American cheese
• 2 stalks celery, ends removed
• 6 (or more) radishes
• 25 to 30 (10″) wooden or bamboo skewers
• 2 to 3 medium carrots, peeled
• Crinkle cutter
• Wood and/or plastic toothpicks
• 2 (or more) medium cucumbers
• Melon baller
• Yellow or red cherry tomatoes
• 15 medium pitted black olives, drained
• 8-10 large stuffed green olives, drained
• Red grape tomatoes
• Container (round basket or whatever you’re using for the base)
• 1-2 heads iceberg lettuce (I actually used cabbage because it was less expensive)
• 1 small bunch green kale
• Spreadable chive and onion cream cheese, room temperature
• mini sweet gherkin or dill pickles
• pretzel rods

Now this list looks huge I know, but again, you can pick and choose what you want and how much of it, that’s the beauty of this! And once you see how easy it is to put together, you’ll get a better feel for the creation you want to make.

To Begin…

1) To make celery curls, cut celery stalks into finger lengths: split pieces in half lengthwise. With a sharp knife, make parallel lengthwise cuts through each pice, starting about 1″ from an end and placing cuts very close together.

Chill in ice water for two hours or until curled.

2) To prepare radish wheels, slice off tem and root of each radish, leaving a small white circle on the top and bottom. Cutting at an angle, slice out small V-shaped wedges of red skin, running between top and bottom of radish: remove wedges. Spaced wedges evenly to show white stripes. Poke the point of a skewer into the edge of each radish wheel; cover with damp paper towels.

This is a crinkle cutter in case you haven’t seen one before. I got mine years ago from Pampered Chef. Amazon has them for anywhere from $3.50 to $7.00 and Pampered Chef currently sells them (product # 1089) for $10.50….I use mine on potatoes, fruit, and even bread.

3) Cut thickest end of carrots into 5″ lengths. With a crinkle cutter, slice each length into 4 even spears. Poke a toothpick into the large end of each carrot spear; wrap in damp paper towels.

4) Cut off 1 1/4″ from both ends of cucumbers (or zucchini), reserve center part of cucumber for another use (I made a cucumber salad the next night or you could add to some of the other skewers). With a melon baller, remove insides of cucumber ends to make shells. With a sharp knife, cut out 4 or 5 evenly spaced triangles from the edge of each shell to create “flower petals.”

Fasten a cherry tomato in the center by inserting a toothpick from bottom of shell into tomato without piercing the top. Cover with damp paper towels. (These make cute little dip holders too, without the tomato inserted.)

5) Make several skewers of black olives; make other skewers of green olives with grape tomatoes, reserving some for meat and cheese skewers. Cover with damp paper towels.

6) Line basket with waxed paper. Place both heads of lettuce (or cabbage-whatever’s cheaper) in basket, cutting 1 or both as needed for a snug fit.

Lettuce (or cabbage) should mound above top of basket slightly. Arrange kale over lettuce.

Meat and Cheese “Flowers”

Now I have to admit that the bouquet I saw in my book had meat and cheese “flowers” that I could not recreate! I was in a time-crunch at this point and sometimes I’m just not that clever or patient! I will give you the directions on how to make them though in case you’re more creative than me….which wouldn’t be hard! I simply spread a bit of the cream cheese between my meat and cheese, rolled it up, stuck them on skewers and topped them off with olives, tomatoes, and pickles.

They used a flower shaped cookie cutter for the cheese…

• With the cookie cutter, cut half of cheese slices into flower shapes. Bouquet flowers can be made with various combinations of meat and cheese and a small amount of cream cheese spread between the layers.
• Stack 1 or 2 meat slices with 1 cheese slice, staggering top edges. (Cheese may be on the top or bottom.)
• Push the point of a skewer into one end of the following center items; pickle, corn, green or black olive, grape tomato.
• Place the skewered item on the center of a meat/cheese stack and fold lower edges over each other to form a cone shape with skewer sticking out the bottom.
• Fasten overlapping layers in front with a toothpick.
• (Bottom picture) Wrap the meat/cheese layers around a un-skewered center item and shape the cone, but push a skewer point through the whole flower at an angle to hold it together.
• Cover all cones with waxed paper to prevent drying.

I thought the pretzel rod skewers would be hard to make because they’d break easily…these were actually the easiest thing for me to make in the entire basket. Break off one end of each pretzel rod and gently twist a toothpick or skewer into broken end so pretzel can be inserted into base more securely.

8) Gather prepared skewers. Begin bouquet assembly by inserting skewers of meat and cheese flowers into base, trimming skewers as needed so flowers rest low in bouquet. Place them in different directions so arrangement is attractive from all sides.

10) Place cucumber flowers low in bouquet, pressing toothpick into base. Fill open spaces of bouquet with carrot spears, radish wheels, pretzel rods and skewers of olives and tomatoes. Drain celery curls and add to bouquet as desired.

Tammy’s Tip ‘O the Day!

The next time I attempt this, I will prep my skewers earlier in the day, keep them wrapped and assemble the bouquet right before we leave. I made this about and hour before leaving so I was “rushed”….just fyi!