My Seattle-area brother and his wife have now twice sent us salmon as a Christmas gift. This is not a complaint, but a declaration of ignorance. The first time, the salmon sat in our refrigerator for, I believe, two years, in a foil packet. It's not that we don't like salmon, it's just that we haven't acquired that much of a "thing" for it, and so it has been much easier to prepare or eat almost anything else that has been in the house.
If I had a dollar for every time I said "we have to eat this salmon sometime" on the first go around I'd be able to buy my gas-powered bicycle. Eventually it disappeared, but we still haven't figured out something desirable and low-on-the-learning-curve to do with salmon.
And last year we received three packets of salmon.
If you're reading this, D & A, you know we love you, and you know we're proud and don't like to admit we're boneheads about anything, but you gotta help us out. Gifts of food are excellent for the initiated. Send me a box of breaded pork tenderloins, or steaks, and those babies will fly out of the freezer. But we need help on the salmon. I found a site that provides recipes for dishes that include smoked salmon, and we can find something that way. But personal recommendations are preferred.
So if you have any, send them my way. I'm clueless.
1. Pick up fish.
2. Eat.
Sorry, I'm a caveman when it comes to smoked salmon.
Omelet: beat three eggs with a tablespoon of milk and a pinch of black pepper. grate a bit of mild white cheese, a jack or havarti or mozzarella; crumbled feta for a stronger taste. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a skillet, pour beaten eggs outward in spiral from center, roll pan to get even layer. Sprinkle liberally with grated cheese. Add a little crumbled smoked salmon -- it doesn't take much. Fresh tomatoes are good in this too, as are mushrooms, basil.
Try to fold omelet perfectly, fail, finish cooking and eat anyway.
Alfredo: cook fettucine, prepare alfredo sauce in whatever manner suits your cooking (from a jar, from scratch, foil-lined envelope, whatever). Crumble smoked salmon into alfredo sauce a minute or two before saucing pasta.
Over rice: prepare white rice. break a bit of smoked salmon over a bowl of rice. stripe liberally with tamari or teryaki sauce.
salmon/tuna salad : make tuna salad however you usually make it, but add one part smoked salmon to five parts tuna. Good on crackers, or in tuna melt open face grilled sandwiches.