Herb blinis with hay-smoked salmon and citrus cream

Among the delicacies of the Danish Easter table, you can always find smoked salmon.

Here you get a suggestion for how to impress your guests at this year's Easter lunch with a beautiful and delicious salmon dish.

Jeppe Foldager will guide you through how to dry-salt and smoke your salmon without a smoker, a process that takes some time, but is well worth the wait. Finally, the dish is plated on homemade, flavorful herb blinis topped with fresh citrus cream and flowers.

Servings: 4 Prep time: 12 hours 30 min Cook time: 40 min

Ingredients

Herb blinis

2 eggs

120 g crème fraîche 38%

120 ml whole milk

110 g wheat flour

15 g scallions

10 g parsley

5 g dill

finely grated zest of ½ lemon

4 g salt

a pinch of black pepper

½ tsp baking powder

butter for frying

Hay-smoked salmon

250 g fresh salmon (loin or center cut)

30 g sea salt

4 g sugar

freshly ground pepper and crushed juniper berries

1 handful of dried hay

Citrus cream

200 g crème fraîche 38%

zest of ½ lemon

1–2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp sugar

salt and pepper

For plating

citrus cream

red currant jelly

dill

chive blossoms

tarragon

Instructions

Salmon

1. Sprinkle the salmon with salt, sugar and a bit of pepper.
2. Let it cure for 12–24 hours in the refrigerator.
3. Quickly rinse off the salt and pat the salmon dry.
4. Place hay in a pan with a lid and heat until it ignites, then extinguish the flame.
5. Once it's smoking, place the salmon on a rack in the pan and close the lid.
6. Smoke for 10–15 minutes until lightly smoked but without direct heat.
7. Dust a bit of the ash over the salmon.

Herb blinis

1. Whisk together eggs, crème fraîche and milk.
2. Add flour, salt and pepper, baking powder and whisk until smooth.
3. Fold in the herbs and lemon zest.
4. Let the batter rest for 15 minutes.
5. Fry small thick pancakes (6–7 cm) in butter over medium heat.

Citrus cream

1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Season to taste with salt and citrus.

Plating

1. Slice the salmon thinly – 2 slices per pancake.
2. Fold the salmon nicely and place it on the pancake.
3. Add citrus cream and garnish with red currant jelly, dill, chive blossoms and tarragon.