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Smoked Salmon


Darienne

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I know this sounds ridiculous. :wacko:

My DH bought me two 350 gram packages of smoked salmon yesterday because it was reduced by 75% for some unknown reason and he knows I love it. He doesn't like it. He does like regular salmon a lot and we eat salmon steaks/filets with lime regularly.

What on earth am I to do with the smoked salmon except eat a lot of bagels and cream cheese over the next few weeks?

(Sorry. Please do not suggest guests or a party. It is not possible at this point in our lives.)

Thanks. :smile:

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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If you and your husband like chowder, you could make this salmon chowder by Sara Moulton, and just leave out the smoked salmon from your husband's serving.

I first made it years ago (click here for some photos) and have altered her recipe. This is my version; it makes about 4 servings, depending on what else you're having.

Salmon and Leek Chowder

4 tablespoons butter

1 large or 2 medium leeks, washed and diced (about 2 cups)

1 1/2 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup dry vermouth or white wine

1/4 cup dry sherry

2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 2 cups)

3 to 4 medium red potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 2 cups)

4 cups whole milk

1 cup cream

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

1/2 teaspoon celery salt

12 ounces fresh salmon fillet, skinned and boned

4 ounces smoked salmon, in small chunks

1/4 cup chopped fresh dill

2 teaspoons lemon grated zest

In a large heavy pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the leeks and cook until softened, 3-4 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for another two to three minutes.

Add the vermouth and sherry and cook for a minute or two, stirring until smooth. Add cream and milk and stir for a few minutes until leek mixture is incorporated into the milk.

Add potatoes and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes, or until potatoes are barely tender.

If salmon fillet is thick, cut into two or three smaller pieces. Add to simmering soup and cook until slightly firm to the touch, 7 or 8 minutes.

Remove the salmon to a plate and break into chunks with a fork.

Add the salmon chunks, smoked salmon, dill and lemon zest and stir gently. If chowder is too thick, add a little milk. Adjust seasoning and serve topped with additional dill, if desired.

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Thanks for the recipes and advice so far.

Gifted Gourmet, there will be something on your huge list I can use for sure.

Jaz: Thanks. Ed hates fish soup. I don't know why.

ElsieD.: Maybe a salmon mousse would work. I could try it. Please and thanks. My Mother used to make a salmon souffle which Ed would eat. Not happily, but he would eat it. :hmmm:

Ed's main idea of eating fish is deep fried battered fish with french fries. He's very accepting of anything 'new', but like many of us, he likes the stuff he likes the way he likes it or not at all. :wub: Remember, he brings me coffee in bed EVERY morning. :wub: :wub:

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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Echoing scubadoo97, is this lox-type salmon (you mentioned bagels and cream cheese) or chunk-o-salmon?

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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Is this hot or cold smoked salmon?

Right. It looks like most of the recipes on that wonderful link of GGs are for hot-smoked salmon - ie, with alderwood.

They're not always interchangeable in recipes, you know.

The hot-smoked salmon has more of a canned tuna texture and feel. As opposed to lox.

Sounds to me like the OP has lox, because of the bagels and cream cheese reference, although you certainly can eat the hot-smoked salmon with bagels and cream cheese as well.

I don't understand why rappers have to hunch over while they stomp around the stage hollering.  It hurts my back to watch them. On the other hand, I've been thinking that perhaps I should start a rap group here at the Old Folks' Home.  Most of us already walk like that.

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What on earth am I to do with the smoked salmon except eat a lot of bagels and cream cheese over the next few weeks?

You know what's coming don't you.... ? :biggrin:

You can mail some to your Hawaiian cousin :wub: LOL

Where did he get such a bargain >?

Edited by Aloha Steve (log)

edited for grammar & spelling. I do it 95% of my posts so I'll state it here. :)

"I have never developed indigestion from eating my words."-- Winston Churchill

Talk doesn't cook rice. ~ Chinese Proverb

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The eggs recommendations are a good one. I'd say make a mousse, but that's actually a way to stretch your smoked salmon supply rather than consume it more readily. And that grilled cheese sounds outrageously good.

Me, I'd pretend I'm Scandinavian. Get a bottle of Aquavit, some Danish-style rye bread or some flat bread, lots of butter, and eat, drink and be merry.

Bob Libkind aka "rlibkind"

Robert's Market Report

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The salmon is currently frozen, sliced, in a 350 gram package and it is lox, rather than the chunk.

DH came by and I asked him why he doesn't like smoked salmon. He says because he doesn't like raw fish. All explanations from me make no difference. He has never even tasted lox it turns out. He says he'll fry his portion.

I still think I'll cut it up and make something with it. As long as it's 'cooked', he'll probably eat it. Problem is, we can't even buy decent bagels where we live... :sad:

My Mother's folks were Jewish Poles so of course I love lox, and Ed comes from an RC family and really doesn't like fish at all which he was forced to eat every Friday as a kid. Strange beasts, aren't we? :raz:

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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Bagels

4 c Bread flour (King Arthur Sir Lancelot Flour is even better)

1 tbs barley malt syrup (Eden Organics makes it)

1.5 tsp salt

1.5 tsp yeast

1-1/4 c water

Knead all ingredients in a mixer (about 6 minutes on 2 setting on my Kitchen Aid). Add a little more water to bring dough together if necessary.

Make 12 balls of dough and allow to rest for about ten minutes.

Poke a hole in each ball with your thumb, and stretch into bagel shape.

Refrigerate overnight.

Remove, return to room temperature and allow to rise until double in bulk, about 2-3 hours total.

Preheat oven to 450F

Put the bagels into boiling water for 15 sec on each side, beginning with the top side down.

Brush with an egg wash and top with toppings if desired

Bake for about 15-20 min.

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Bagels

4 c Bread flour (King Arthur Sir Lancelot Flour is even better)

You are a better man than I, David A. Goldfarb

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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350g is just over 12 oz. My wife and I have been working through a 2 lb side of cold smoked salmon. I slice it daily as we eat it. 12 oz would be gone in a couple of days.

Got two packages....

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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The pasta dish is indeed a winner as is the venerable LEO (lox, eggs, & onions, scrambled).

Making my own bagels in New York City, I know, it seems crazy, but it's not that difficult, and I'm hedging my bets in case we find ourselves in a non-bagel city someday. I make my own corned beef, too. Haven't sorted out pickles yet.

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here's what first came to mind:

if you have hot smoked salmon you can make this quick dish and tailor it to suit your tastes - all measurements are approximations cause i never measure when making this one

smoked salmon & pasta - for 2 people

1/4 sweet yellow onion - thinly sliced

1 tsp capers

1+ tbsp butter

4-6 oz smoked salmon crumbled in smallish pieces

heavy cream

freshly ground black pepper

fresh linguine for two

dash of alcohol - vodka or white wine - optional

Saute onions in butter until translucent, add in alcohol (optional) & cook off the alcohol, throw in capers, salmon and heat. Finish up with a healthy dash of heavy cream to make it saucy, then heat through again. Pour over a shallow bowl of linguine and toss. serve immediately topped with a sprinkle of fresh ground black pepper.

if it's lox, you can use it in other sandwich-y sort of things besides bagels & cream cheese. try it on dark rye in a pseudo-rueben sandwich with sauerkraut(hold the cheese), or try a LLT - lox, lettuce & tomato, or how about a cucumber & lox sandwich?

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The salmon is currently frozen, sliced, in a 350 gram package and it is lox, rather than the chunk.

DH came by and I asked him why he doesn't like smoked salmon. He says because he doesn't like raw fish. All explanations from me make no difference. He has never even tasted lox it turns out. He says he'll fry his portion.

The horror....The horror.

These might work:

Cooked penne rigate, a little butter, asparagus pieces, sliced lox, lemon zest, black pepper. The heat of the penne will "cook" the salmon for DH.

A salad: avocado chunks, thinly sliced fennel bulb, radicchio, slivered red or yellow bell pepper, sliced lox, lemon-y mustard-y vinaigrette. Tell DH the acid in the vinaigrette cooks the salmon.

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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Just for grins, I Googled "fried lox" and found some very peculiar things. Nothing worth reporting here, though. :-D

Others have already suggested my first thought--a cream sauce over pasta; I've had that with the other type of smoked salmon (the flakeable alder-smoked stuff) and the flavors match terrifically. I bet using the salmon in a risotto would also work great.

I was going to suggest making sushi rolls, seeing as how lox is one of the favorite go-to fish ingredients for people who want to try sushi but are noodgy about the "raw fish" thing. But if your husband is computing lox as "raw fish" anyway, I guess that doesn't really help matters.

Another thought: I've purchased frozen lox before, and as long as it hasn't been thawed you can keep it frozen for a reasonable amount of time without harm. So maybe you could just stash it away for a more opportune moment (either with more lox appreciators present, or when your husband has forgotten about its existence? :laugh: )

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What's stopping you from freezing it in serving-sized packages ? (I'm a smoked salmon fundamentalist myself - fresh wholewheat bread, buttered; lemon juice; ground black pepper. Amen). Hot smoked ? Make fish cakes, or unibonara.

QUIET!  People are trying to pontificate.

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