Potato Latkes with Smoked Salmon

Big Guy smoked more salmon yesterday - two beautiful big sides of wild Alaskan sockeye cured in a dry rub of salt, brown sugar, pepper and dill seed for 24 hours then smoked in the Big Chief using apple wood chips. Such a beautiful thing!

He did that along with the majority of things on our weekend honey do list and consequently we both kinda' ran out of steam in the dinner department. I had no energy left to give and didn't have the heart to ask him to rotisserie a chicken I had thawing in the refrigerator so we moved on to plan "B" and teamed up to produce a "munchie" dinner. 

There's nothing much better with freshly smoked salmon than a pile of potato latkes, hot from the pan and super crisp. Simply one Idaho potato, peeled and grated into a bowl of cold water then squeezed using my trusty OXO potato ricer so no moisture remained in the lovely snow white shreds. Combined with an egg, a little flour, finely chopped red onion and a touch of salt and pepper, the little cakes took but a couple of minutes to crisp up in a quarter inch of hot canola. 

While I handled the latke cookin', Big Guy arranged all the "withs" on our dinner plates and the resulting feast left two people entirely satisfied. The moral of the story...think outside the box every once in a while and come up with a light, fun dinner instead of the usual.

By the way, seeing as the holiday season's right around the corner, think outside the box when it comes to hors d'oeuvres too and cook up some latkes. They can be made in advance and reheated in the oven just before serving and go exceedingly well with an unlimited number of toppings including but not limited to deviled ham, egg salad, sour cream and caviar and/or smoked salmon of course, never mind the red pepper aioli we had the other night. Awesome! 

A year ago - Pumpkin Scones with Candied Ginger

Two year's ago -  Pork Stew with Cider

 

Comments

[Shaun]

Wow looks great, must be awesome to have your own smoker, that salmon looks great! My supermarket smoked salmon is not the same, not a heavy enough smoke, but those latkes will go great with some kippers on sunday.

[June]

Shaun - The smoker really comes in handy as we tend to like a smokier flavor as well. Big Guy does a heck of a job on the salmon AND he makes all our own bacon too.

[Lea]

That looks fabulous - I love that meal - for all reasons you listed - and then some! What kind of wood does the Big Guy use to smoke his salmon?

[June]

Lea - it was so darned tasty, I can't tell ya. Big Guy used Apple wood this time, but he's used Maple before and Alder as well.

[Lorraine]

Damn...wish you were already moved up here. That is my favorite type of meal and I would have been sitting on your doorstep waiting for my share.

[June]

Lorraine - I would have gladly grated another potato and made more latkes. Big Guy's smoked salmon is amazing!