Little Salmon Pots

Name: Little Salmon Pots
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 8
Ingredients: 350 g (12oz) unsalted butter; Grated zest of 1 lemon; 3 fresh bay leaves; 200g (7oz) hot-smoked salmon; 200 g (7oz) smoked salmon, roughly chopped; 3tbsp chopped fresh dill, plus 8 sprigs to garnish; 4 tbsp. gherkins or dill cucumbers, finely chopped

Treat dinner party guests to these delicious salmon starters

By The Good Housekeeping Cookery TeamPublished: 12 December 2006

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Yields:

Prep Time:

10 mins

Cook Time:

5 mins

Total Time:

15 mins

Ingredients

350 g (12oz) unsalted butter
Grated zest of 1 lemon
3 fresh bay leaves
200g (7oz) hot-smoked salmon
200 g (7oz) smoked salmon, roughly chopped
3tbsp chopped fresh dill, plus 8 sprigs to garnish
4 Tbsp. gherkins or dill cucumbers, finely chopped

Directions

1. Step 1
  Put the butter in a pan with the lemon zest and bay leaves. Heat until melted, then remove from the heat and set aside to infuse for 10min. Strain the butter through a fine sieve into a jug, discarding the white residue left in the sieve.
2. Step 2
  Remove the skin and any dark flesh from the hot-smoked salmon. Put in a bowl and break up roughly with a fork. Add the smoked salmon, dill and gherkins and mix together. Season with freshly ground black pepper.
3. Step 3
  Divide the mixture among eight 150ml (5fl oz) ramekins, then put a sprig of dill on top. Pour over the cooled butter, giving each pot a small tap to help the butter spread through the salmon. Chill for 1hr until set.
4. Step 4
  Prepare ahead: Make the pots up to two days ahead and keep, covered, in the fridge. Remove from the fridge 15min before serving to come up to room temperature. Timesaver: If you don't want to make the salmon pots or prefer the pure simplicity of unadulterated salmon, here's a luxurious alternative to try Salmon cured in dry salt, then smoked and cut from the top of the fish for the best, most tender flesh. Serve with a drizzle of lemon or warmed vodka and dill. Called the Russian Royal Fillet, it's pricey, but you'll probably never have tasted salmon so good. Serve with Ciabatta toasts: Thinly slice a ciabatta on the diagonal and grill until golden and curling. Store for in an airtight container for up to two days. If you don't eat them all on Christmas Day, the toasts will keep for another five days in an airtight container.

Per Serving:

Calories: 400
Total fat: 38 g
Saturated fat: 24 g

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The Good Housekeeping Cookery Team

An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).

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