Salmon Spread for Easy Summer Entertaining

My mother was one of those women who always had too much food in the house. Just in case.

Just in case company came. You can't just let them sit there and not eat.

Just in case you needed a little something extra for supper. Or as a snack over the weekend.

Just in case you had some leftovers and you didn't want to throw them out.

If you ever took a look in my freezer, my fridge and my kitchen cabinets you would know, like mother, like daughter.

I have a ton of food things.

Just in case.

This past weekend when my cousins came for a sleepover, I discussed this with my cousin Leslie, whose mother was my Mom's sister. She was bemoaning her overstuffed freezer, refrig, pantry. With all the "just-in-case" stuff. 

We are who we are, products of our upbringing, including our need for just-in-case food.

But I did point out to her that with the leftover salmon I made the other day, the dill, lemons, celery and cream cheese I always have on hand, I made this spread. Which is a perfectly easy-to-make, quick-as-a-wink to make hors d'oeuvre to be served with chips or crudites. And I served it over the weekend.

Easy. 

You can do it too. And if you don't have leftover salmon, you can used canned salmon, tuna or sardines. It's also delicious with leftover cooked bluefish.

 

Salmon Spread

• 8 ounces cooked salmon, crumbled
• 2 scallions, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Place the salmon, scallions, celery, cream cheese, lemon juice, dill and Dijon mustard in the workbowl of a food processor and process until thoroughly blended. 

Makes about 1-1/2 cups

Savory Herb and Cheese Sufganiyot

I've always been more of an hors d'oeuvre person than a dessert person. So, given the choice (if I HAD to choose) of franks-in-blankets or potato puffs versus chocolate cake, it would definitely be the franks-and-potatoes for me.

This does not mean I am immune to dessert and during Hanukkah I do love to get my fill of sufganiyot, especially the tiny fried choux puffs that I make with a bit of sugar and lemon. And also a jelly doughnut or two. Or three.

But, I am who I am, so this year I decided to make savory sufganiyot.

Can that really be a thing?

Anyway, it went over bigtime at my house. I had thought about serving them with a bourbon before dinner, but it got late and we were hungry so we actually ate these as a side dish with some roasted salmon and broccoli. 

Either way, for cocktails or with dinner.

We polished these off.

 

Herb and Cheese SufganIYot

• 1 cup water
• 1/4 pound unsalted butter, cut into chunks
• 1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1-1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh mixed herbs, or 1-1/2 teaspoons dried
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• vegetable oil for frying

Place the water and butter in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. When the butter has melted, add the flour and salt all at once. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture is well blended and begins to come away from the sides of the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool for 2-3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. Mix in the herbs and cheese. 

Heat about 1-1/2-inches of vegetable oil in a large, deep frying pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot enough to make a tiny piece of dough sizzle, drop mounded teaspoons-worth of dough into the pan, cooking about 8 at a time. Move the puffs around using a wooden spoon, for about a minute or until the bottoms are golden brown. Turn the puffs over. Cook another half minute or until golden brown. Lift the puffs out with a large frying basket or other tool onto paper towels. Repeat with the rest of the puffs. When all the puffs have been fried, refry all of them for about one to 1-1/2 minutes, moving them around in the pan with a wooden spoon (alternately, you can fry the puffs, lift them out for 15-20 seconds and put them back in the pan for the second fry, then repeat with the rest).

 Makes about 60

Hummus and the Hound

My daughter’s dog Ziggy ate my breakfast yesterday. !@#$%^^&&*

It was yogurt and strawberries and I accidentally left the bowl on a chair outside on the deck while I got up for a few seconds to get something a few feet away. That’s all it takes for this dog. She has a nose for food and will zero in on it in seconds.

Okay, I was almost finished anyway.

Later in the day Ziggy got to the homemade hummus —!@#$%^&* — which unfortunately was in an antique sandwich glass bowl. Not an expensive thing, but it was a good shape and size bowl for hummus, which I make often. Okay, okay, it’s just a thing. But the hummus was really good and it was gone, gone, along with its container.

I had a dog named Rocky when I was about 8. That dog also ate everything in sight and one day it leaped up onto the table and made off with the roast beef my mother just put there for my father to slice.

That was it for my mother who never wanted the dog in the first place. She said we children wouldn’t take care of it (she was right) and that she would wind up with all the work (she was right about that too). The next week Rocky was “living with a nice family on a farm upstate.”

Anyway, if you want a recipe for easy, homemade hummus, here it is. It was good while it lasted:

Lemony Hummus

1 can chickpeas (about one pound)

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup tahini

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 large cloves garlic

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

cayenne pepper to taste (I use 1/4 teaspoon)

chopped parsley, optional, about 2-3 tablespoons

zatar, optional

pita bread

Drain the chickpeas but reserve the liquid. Place the chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini, olive oil, garlic, paprika, cumin, salt and cayenne pepper in a food processor. Process until you reach the texture you like, adding 3-4 tablespoons of the reserved chickpea liquid if you like it smooth. Spoon into a serving bowl. Sprinkle with optional parsley and zatar. Serve with pita bread. Makes about 1-1/2 cups.