Smoked Salmon Hearts

I made these beautiful, heart shaped hors d’œuvres for Valentines day and I thought I’d share the simple recipe with you because making heart shaped hors d’œuvres shouldn’t be reserved for one day of the year! The fussiest thing about this recipe is cutting out the heart shapes from the smoked salmon. But you needn’t fuss at all, just piece the smoked salmon on the rice and cut out easy rectangles using a sharp knife! I ended up using a knife along the outer edge of a heart-shaped cookie cutter and assembling the salmon on top of the cut rice. Want to make it even easier? You can also purchase ready-made wasabi mayo.

Choose a heart-shaped cookie cutter that is one bite.

Smoked Salmon Sushi Hearts

Makes about 16 bite-sized hearts, but it will depend on size of your hearts

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sushi rice, cooked to package directions
• 1 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
• 100 g smoked salmon
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 tsp wasabi paste, or to taste

Directions:

1. Mix the rice vinegar into the hot rice and set aside to cool completely.
2. Line a 25 cm or 10 inch square cake pan with plastic wrap overhanging two opposing sides. Press the cooled cooked rice evenly into the pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to set in shape.
3. In the meantime, combine the mayonnaise and wasabi paste and mix throughly. Refrigerate.
4. Take the plastic wrap overhanging sides and lift the rice out of the pan onto a cutting board. Remove plastic wrap.
5. On another cutting board, take a slice of smoked salmon and press your heart shaped cookie cutter into it, if it doesn’t cut through completely, use a sharp knife to cleanly cut the heart shape using the cookie cutter as your guide. Repeat as many times as you have smoked salmon. Remember that you can piece together a large enough block of smoked salmon to cut more hearts out.
6. Once you have exhausted the smoked salmon, cut as many hearts out from the rice as you have salmon hearts; you can also reuse the left over rice bits to make additional rice hearts. Assemble by placing the smoked salmon heart directly on top of the rice heart, lining up as best you can.
7. Dot a single dot of the wasabi mayo in the centre of the heart. Serve immediately, or refrigerate covered with plastic wrap so that the rice doesn’t dry out.

The wasabi mayo is a lovely bit of heat

Directions for Rectangles:

1. Mix the rice vinegar into the hot rice and set aside to cool completely.
2. Line a 25 cm or 10 inch square cake pan with plastic wrap overhanging two opposing sides. Press the cooled cooked rice evenly into the pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to set in shape.
3. In the meantime, combine the mayonnaise and wasabi paste and mix throughly.
4. Take individual sheets of smoked salmon and piece it on top of the rice while still in the pan, overlapping slightly so that there aren’t any holes. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
5. Take the plastic wrap overhanging sides and lift the rice out of the pan onto a cutting board. Remove plastic wrap.
6. Using a ruler or straight edge, cut even rectangles and dot each one with the wasabi mayo (you may need additional wasabi mayo for this)

My friend Susan made these for a pot luck dinner we had in November last year. I liked them so much I knew I had to make them sometime!

The little hearts are very festive, but you needn’t reserve them for Valentine’s Day.

The nutrition is based on 2 hearts per serving.

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Smoked Salmon Tartare in Endive Spoons

We’re all about cocktails and with cocktails you need hors d’œuvres, of course! These little bites are very tasty and rather refreshing and go great with a vodka martini. And the best part, you’ll have no spoons to wash because with this clever recipe your guests can eat the spoons!

You can even eat the spoon!

Smoked Salmon Tartar in Endive Spoons

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 60 g Smoked Salmon, chopped roughly
• 10 Endive leaves washed
• 1 tbsp chopped dill
• 1 tbsp chopped capers
• 1/2 chopped green onion, green part only
• 2-3 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together well. Taste, season as required
2. Spoon a small amount of the mixture into each endive spoon.
3. Arrange on a decoratively shaped plate, refrigerate until ready to serve.
4. Cheers

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Mini Potato Latkes and Smoked Salmon Mousse

Happy Independence day! We’ve just returned from our weekend with Paul and T, or I should rather say, we’ve survived another weekend with Paul and T! Great company with lots of eating and drinking and some exciting activities (tubing, believe it or not)! We thoroughly enjoyed cooking at the Lake House and I’ll recreate a few of our recipes in the coming weeks.
But for now, we’re back to reality. Now that patio season is in full swing, and the cocktails are flowing, we need a good repertoire of hors d’œuvres to serve whilst sipping our poisons. I was scrounging around the freezer and found these mini potato latkes I made a couple of months ago and thought, hmmm, what would go well with that? I was over at Norma’s wonderful blog and of course, she posted recipes from the Locust Grove’s Sunset Sensations…and there it was. It hit me like a stone (I always get it wrong!). Smoked Salmon Mousse. Thank you Norma for the inspiration. Although the recipe provided by Chef Ed of Lola’s Cafe and Crave Restaurant was a bit rich for my taste, I adapted it slightly lighter and I wanted to use up some ingredients hanging around my refrigerator this week. It’s so easy, you could do it with both hands tied behind your back…oh, my, my. 😉

Two for me and one for you!

For the mini latkes, please see Martha Stewarts recipe here (I make mine small, about 5cm in diametre and freeze them after I cook them)

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 30 g smoked salmon
• 1/4 cup softened goats cheese
• 1-2 tbsp cream or milk
• 1 tbsp fresh dill
• 1 tsp fresh chives, minced
• salt to taste

Directions:

1. Add all of the ingredients except the chives to a small food processor. Processes until smooth.
2. Heat latkes until crispy. Spoon about a tsp onto each latke and garnish with chives.

I always make an extra, just in case

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Smoked Salmon Breakfast Egg Puffs

My friend Kelly, from Inspired Edibles (an Ontario girl!) inspired me with her wonderful Flourless Salmon Dill Bites for breakfast this past Good Friday morning; thank you Kelly.

I had a bit of the smoked salmon mousse left over from the appi’s I put together on Thursday for cocktails and instead of tossing it, I used it as a base for this tasty egg dish. Kelly, I hope you don’t mind, but I changed the recipe a bit as JT and I don’t need the calories that your growing boys need.

Beating the egg whites adds just the fluffiness you need for a filling breakfast while watching your girlish figure!

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup egg whites
• 1/4 cup non fat Greek yogurt
• 4 tbsp smoked salmon mousse (you don’t need to add this if you don’t have it, I was just using it up)
• 2 slices of smoked salmon, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 tsp dill
• salt

Directions:

1. Pre heat oven to 350°F.
2. Add whole egg, yogurt, smoked salmon mousse, smoked salmon, onion and dill into a bowl and whisk until well mixed. Set aside.
3. Whip egg whites until stiff peaks form but not dry. Fold into egg mixture.
4. Prepare 200 mL ramekins with non-stick spray and pour the egg mixture evenly into each ramekin, leaving about 2 cm of space at the top (you need this because they puff up like a souflée) Bake for about 20-25 minutes, top should be golden and the insides should test clean with a cake tester. Serve immediately (or after photo) on a bed of baby arugula dressed with a drizzle of balsamic and garnished with something red (tomatoes would have been perfect, but I didn’t have any so I used diced red peppers)

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Smoked Salmon Mousse in Cucumber Cups and the ABC Award

It was Thursday before the long weekend and we all know what that means in my house…cocktails! And we all know I really don’t like serving cocktails without a little grub on the side. But I’ve been at work all day and haven’t really thought about it until now. I rummage through the freezer and find a little baggy with Smoked Salmon Horseradish Mousse that I made recently. This little appi is a re-invention of a the mousse which I blogged about in 2008 (no, the mousse is not THAT old ;-)!). I served it last night in little cucumber cups (you know, the mini cucumbers that are so darn adorable?)

Smoked Salmon Horseradish Mousse

I know what you're thinking, is that a fire back there? Why yes, it was a bit chilly that evening and we thought we'd have a lovely fire to keep us toasty!

an adaptation from Gourmet | November 1992
Serves 6 as a first course (freeze leftovers like I did).

Ingredients:

• 3/4 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• 3/4 cup sour cream (I used yogurt cheese)
• 2 ounces smoked salmon, chopped (about 1/3 cup), plus 6 ounces smoked salmon, sliced thin
• 1 tablespoon finely grated peeled fresh horseradish, or to taste
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh dill plus dill sprigs for garnish
• 2 mini cucumbers, cut into 5 equal sized ‘cups’
• 2 tsp red roe
• 2 tsp chives, finely chopped

Directions:

1. With a small melon baller or a sharp edged spoon, scoop out the middle part of the cucumber until about 2mm from all edges. Turn up-side-down on paper towel and allow to drain.
2. In a small saucepan sprinkle the gelatin over the water and let it soften for 1 minute.
3. Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring, until the gelatin is dissolved, add 1/4 cup of the yogurt cheese, and cook the mixture, whisking, until it is smooth.
4. In a food processor purée the chopped salmon until it is very smooth add the gelatin mixture, the remaining 1/2 cup sour cream, the horseradish,
5. Remove from blender and stir in the minced dill, and salt and pepper to taste.
6. Spoon small amounts of this mixture into the cucumber cups and top with red roe and chopped chives.
7. Refrigerate or serve immediately.

Betsy at Bits and Breadcrumbs recently nominated me for the lovely ABC Award, thank you kindly. I am always very flattered and touched by your kindness. As Betsy put it there doesn’t seem to be any specific rules attached to this fun award; just thank the person who gave it to you and share something about yourself using each letter of the alphabet. Wow, this almost made my brain explode. 😉

ABCD: Assertive, Blue-eyed , Cheeky, Deliberate
EFGH: Exacting, Feminine, Gullible, Happy
IJKL: Introspective, Joking, Kind, Loving
MNOP: Mature, Naughty, Observant, Polite
QRST: Quirky, Right, Sassy, Talented
UVW: Unusual, Vivacious, Witty
XYZ: X(any suggestions?), Youthful, Zealous

Thanks again Betsy.

Cheers Everyone!

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