Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Hungarian Inspired Mushroom Stew with Smoked Salmon and Bacon, and Creamy Cucumber Salad with Dill

My wife is from Alaska, and so far our consistent Christmas present her dad sends us is the Alaskan version of a Hickory farms basket with sausages, and cheeses, and crackers, and sauces but most importantly these little packets of delicious greasy smoked salmon. I can only eat so much of the stuff alone but recently I have been experimenting with using it in some recipes and I'll tell you straight up: it's awesome.


I have been taking it in an Eastern European direction just because I think that the flavor of the Salmon lends itself nicely to elements like dill, marjoram, garlic, sour cream, paprika etc. I also think that it's an excellent ingredient paired up with mushrooms so here is my latest creation. Slices of nice bread with butter are a must with these dishes too!



Hungarian Inspired Mushroom stew with Smoked Salmon

Serves 4

Ingredients

¼ lb bacon finely chopped
¼ lb hard smoked salmon (not the cold smoked raw seeming variety but the hard smoked firm kind)
24 oz of cleaned sliced mushrooms (cremini, portabello, button etc.)
1 carrot finely diced
2 med onions finely diced
2 stalks of celery finely diced
1 TBS tomato paste
2 C cabbage finely diced
½ C red wine
4 cloves of garlic minced
1 tsp marjoram
1 tsp red chili flakes
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp paprika
salt to taste
2 TBS finely chopped fresh parsley

Method

Fry the bacon until crispy at med then add ½ of the garlic and stir for 20 seconds
Add in your onions, and red chili flakes if your using them, and fry until golden
Add the carrots, celery, cabbage, and tomato paste and sautee stirring for 5 minutes
Add ½ C red wine and deglaze for 2 minutes
Add 1 C water and half your paprika, stir, reduce to simmer, then cover and let simmer for 20 min stirring occasionally until everything is very tender
Add in smoked salmon and mash into mixture
Add mushrooms with a little salt, marjoram, the remaining paprika and garlic, and black pepper, raise heat back to medium and stir together then cover for 5 minutes or so.
Remove lid and let mixture cook until the mushrooms are tender and the sauce has thickened to your desired consistency
Add salt to taste and garnish with fresh parsley

Creamy Cucumber Salad with Dill

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 cucumbers, ½ peeled into stripes and cut into 1/3 inch cubes
1 clove garlic mashed into a fine paste
½ tsp salt
1 TBS dried dill
1 TBS sour cream
¼ Greek yogurt

Method

Mix all ingredients together and let sit at least 30 minutes before serving

Eat it!

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