Christmas Appetizer: Irish Smoked Salmon (fresh off the plane)

If you’re like me you’re knee deep in the throws of everything Christmas, especially food. Every Christmas, without fail, I get my annual side of smoked salmon sent over to me by the matriarch of the Murphy clan. For me it’s like getting a little piece of home every year, which is important. Sometimes it’s hard living so far away from home.

My fondest memories of Christmastime of course revolves around food and along with that goes the odd scoop or tree. For our family in particular, Christmas is all about spending time with family and friends so much so that for as long as I can remember my parents hosted an open house for any and everybody to pop in. (And boy did they!)

Mum would prepare a few starters for people to nibble on and this is one of the classics. You can’t beat some Smoked Salmon on brown bread. We of course, had Brown Soda Bread but here I adapted it by using pumpernickel bread.

Check out my Soda Bread Cooking Demo to see me in action.

So if you’re still looking for a quick n’ easy appetizer for Christmas, try this. It will surely go down a treat!

RECIPE:

Makes about 4 portions (single servings). Adjust as needed per your guest count.

Irish Smoked Salmon

pumpernickel bread

Cucumber – peeled and thinly sliced

2 tbsp whipped low-fat cream cheese

1/2 lemon – zested

1/4 tsp white pepper

fresh chopped chives – garnish

DIRECTIONS:

Mix the cream cheese, zest and pepper together and smear each pumpernickel bread with some to coat.

Lay 3 pieces of the cucumber on each piece of bread and a couple of pieces of smoked salmon on top. Cut the bread slices in half diagonally and finish with a sprinkle of fresh chives and a wedge of lemon.

All recipes are made with the finest quality farmers market whole foods, natural and non-processed ingredients as much as possible.