Smoked Mussel Appetizers with Cream Cheese | Sybaritica

Well, today’s post is not really a recipe as such, but rather a simple little idea that I play around with sometimes when my wife and I feel like a light little snack. Smoked oysters or mussels are probably a little passé as a formal hors d’oeuvre these days but having a few cans in the cupboard can be handy for putting together a little treat if you like getting a little creative with them…

I can’t remember exactly where it was that I was first served smoked oysters on top of cream cheese, but I have borrowed the idea as a basic theme quite often and quite frequently substitute one of the commercial chip dips for the plain old Philadelphia. On this occasion, I used a variety containing garlic and chives that my wife is fond of and I spread it on some nice little crackers made with a little depression in the center. For the garnish, I shredded a little lettuce and then tossed it with some of the oil from the mussel can mixed with lemon juice. Lemon works really well with either smoked oysters or mussels and I would imagine that some finely shredded lemon zest would make a great garnish all by itself. The last time I did an appetizer like this, I actually used some commercial Caesar salad dressing as a base (not having any cheese or dip) and found it very nice indeed.

Anyway, as I say, there’s not much of a recipe for you here today, but perhaps you might find this an interesting ‘small-plate’ theme to play around with…

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