Remember back when I mentioned that we bought some mead on our recent trip to Prince Edward Island? We drank it to celebrate our second wedding anniversary, with an all-Scandinavian meal inspired by The New Nordic, a cookbook by Simon Bajada. Well, I thought I’d share a couple of the dishes that I prepared as part of our Nordic anniversary feast.
I’ll break this post up into two parts, but don’t worry: I’ll be dill-igent about getting the second part out really soon!
Perhaps I should take a small step back and explain the whole Scandinavian thing? We are into all things Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic… Because my husband Erick is learning Swedish. (And doing a great job, I must say! Or, « han gör et bra jobb. ») By extension, I am learning a fair bit about Nordic culture and music! So I thought I’d tackle a little Scandinavian cuisine as well.
I’ll be sharing the recipes for the Coho Salmon Gravlax and the Chilled Pea and Dill Soup over the next couple of days. The gravlax is a fabulous appetizer, and the soup was Erick’s favourite part of the meal (although the mead ran it a close second)!
We started off with the gravlax, which was super simple to prepare, but thoroughly dill-licious!
*For those of you who are new around here, I love to dill-iver a good (or very bad) pun. Please don’t let your readership dwin-dill just because my sense of humour is somewhat dill-usional.*
Salmon & Dill Gravlax
For six medium-large appetizers or twelves small appetizers, you will need:
1 package smoked salmon
cream cheese
fresh chopped dill
six slices of toasted rye bread
capers
1 fresh lemon
- Lightly toast the bread.
- Spread a thin layer of cream cheese on the bread slices.
- Add a piece of salmon to each slice.
- Add some capers on top of the salmon.
- Sprinkle some dill on top.
- Finish with a squeeze of lemon juice
It’s that simple!
Now, some of you may be leery about using capers: I was too. But really, they have less taste than olives and just add the perfect amount of saltiness to this kind of dish. I highly recommend a second chance for those little guys!
This is a perfect appetizer for summer entertaining, as it requires NO oven time whatsoever and can be whipped up in under ten minutes. I hope you’ll give it a try!
So tell me: what is your favourite appetizer for summer or last-minute entertaining? Do you have a standby recipe whose ingredients are always in the pantry? Leave a comment and let me know! I love to hear from you.
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This post was featured at My Urban Family!
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