I've never had to cook for just myself: I spent my college years living at home, and after graduation I moved down the the Twin Cities with Mike. Based on the sorts of low effort, slightly pathetic dinners I make for myself when Mike cooks meat entrees, I have long suspected that if left to my own devices I would subsist on oatmeal, popcorn, apples, and the occasional plate of spaghetti. So when Mike headed out to rural Wisconsin to spend six days at his cabin, I was seized with an irrational urge to prove, once and for all, that I could cook decent meals for myself. Granted, there was one night when I ate four ears of corn from our CSA for dinner, but that was mostly because sweet corn is best freshly picked. My other dinners more than compensated for corn-on-the-cob Tuesday: homemade English muffins and ratatouille salad, eggplant lasagna, and charred Italian peppers with pasta. But my best culinary effort was a salmon avocado appetizer based on the Norwegian Star's salmon tartare appetizer I fell in love with on our Baltic cruise.
My version isn't "tartare" since I used cooked canned salmon instead of smoked salmon, but the flavor is similar. I used a 3 1/2 inch ring mold to make one entree-sized portion, but you could make two appetizer-sized portions by using smaller ring molds. This would also make a nice spread on a sandwich or crackers.
Inspired by the Norwegian Star's salmon tartare appetizer
Serves one as an entree or two as an appetizer
Ingredients:
- 6 ounce can sockeye salmon
- 1 medium avocado
- 2 tablespoons diced cucumber
- freshly squeezed lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste
- small leaves of lettuce, toast point, or additional cucumber slices to garnish, if desired
Drain salmon and remove skin. Place in small bowl and flake with fork.
Halve avocado and remove pit. Scoop out flesh and add to salmon.
Add the cucumber to the salmon and avocado mixture and mix until well combined. Season with lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste.
For an entree-sized portion (pictured), press mixture into a 3 1/2-inch round ring mold. Use two smaller ring molds if appetizer-sized portions are desired.
To serve, remove ring mold. Garnish with a few small pieces of lettuce, a toast point, or cucumber slices if desired.
