Blini with Smoked Salmon

 I love Smoked Salmon.  

That was a complete sentence. 

 I've been known to pick up pieces and just shovel them into my mouth, ok, so I was a little more delicate than that.    I've made quite a few dishes/recipes with smoked salmon over the years, but this is one of my favorite ways to use it, for now.  I may change my mind in the future.  As I experiment try new recipes. 

I've used both cold-smoked and hot-smoked salmon in my recipes.  I think it elevates just about every recipe you make.   I've made Salmon Mousse, Smoked Salmon Tarts, Salmon Cakes, topped Deviled Eggs with a curl of smoked salmon, and I've even made my own Gravad Laks.  And I made this amazing Smoked Salmon Cheesecake once as well.   

Get the idea, I like Smoked Salmon?  Well, I do.   I actually have way more Smoked and regular Salmon recipes on my blog.  Go ahead and take a look.  I would detail them here, but this post is all about Elegant Appetizers for Mother's Day for our Sunday Funday Bunch.

And I just had to participate, with, you guessed it, Smoked Salmon.  Our hostess this week is Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Even though I'm the only mother I'm celebrating this year, I can make it special for me.  So I did, make it special, that is.    And I blame it all on The Great British Bake Off.   They had their contestants make Blini with Hot Smoked Salmon once, and I kinda glommed onto that idea and came up with these little bites of deliciousness. 

Too much hyperbole? Nah.   

I made some buckwheat blini (I had some buckwheat flour on hand to make buckwheat Pancakes).  And then I played, a lot.  

I raided my dill plant, minced up some red onion and some capers, and decorated. 

 Then I consumed.

But before I finished consuming, I decorated with some fresh Dill Fronds, cause I could. 

 I even topped them off with some Caviar.  I had way too much fun, and now I have a jar of Caviar in the fridge to use on something. I'm sure I'll come up with an idea or two to use it.   I'll share my attempts on here as well.  

Take a look at what our other fabulous cooks came up with: 

• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Wendy Klik Blini with Caviar 
• Amy's Cooking Adventures: Crackers with Salami & Pepperoni Rosettes 
• Sneha's Recipe: Crumb Coated Cheesy Veg Crepes 
• Karen's Kitchen Stories: Fresh Artichoke and Spinach Dip 
• Culinary Cam : Roasted Carrot Tarte Tatin 
• Sid's Sea Palm Cooking : Smoked Salmon Blini 
  
• Mayuri's JikoniMayuri's Jikoni: Sweet Potato Brie Bites

 

Buckwheat Blini with Smoked Salmon

Author: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking - Adapted from many recipes

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 3 MinInactive time: 30 MinTotal time: 43 Min

Make this Mother's Day extra special with these bites of deliciousness. Be aware, this recipe makes a lot of blini. 

Ingredients

Blini

• 1/2  cup Buckwheat Flour
• 1/2 cup AP Flour
• 1 egg separated - room temperature
• 3/4 cup warm milk
• 1 teaspoon yeast
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Toppings

• 1/2 cup Crème Fraîche
• 1 tsp. Creamed Horseradish
• 2 + oz. Cold Smoked Salmon, sliced thinly
• 1-2 Tablespoons finely minced Red Onion
• 1-2 Tablespoons, finely chopped Capers
• 2 + teaspoons Caviar
• 2 + teaspoons finely chopped Fresh Dill, plus more for decorations
• Mix the Crème fraîche and horseradish together and set aside

Instructions

1. Heat the milk to about 110 degrees, add egg yolk, yeast, and sugar, set aside until frothy.
2. Sift the dry ingredients together, then add the milk-yeast mixture and combine.
3. Cover with some plastic wrap and set aside for about an hour or until the batter has doubled in size.
4. Beat the egg white until stiff. Fold into the risen batter.  
   
   
   
5. Place a non-stick frying pan on the stove and heat to medium-high. Or spray some cooking spray in a frying pan and heat.
6. Dollop about a tablespoon of the batter into the heated pan, doing about 4 at a time, cook until  bubbly, turn over and cook an additional 45 seconds or so. Remove to a warmed platter.

Assembly

1. Now for the fun part, assembly:
2. Dollop about a half teaspoon of the Crème fraîche-horseradish sauce on each blini.
3. Form a 'rose' out of each piece of salmon, and place carefully on top of the creme fraiche mixture. Top with a sprinkle of the finely minced onion, capers, and chopped dill. Add a 1/4 teaspoon of caviar on top if you wish. Use some dill fronds to decorate further if desired.
4. Serve immediately.

 

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Recipes that use Paneer

 As you may have surmised, I have fun in the kitchen.   And one of my fun activities (mainly because I don't know any better) is to play with new recipe ideas.   I'm part of a group called Sunday Funday, and every week we have a theme we can make food for.  You can participate or not, but a week or so in advance, you tell the organizers what you're making and schedule the recipe to go 'live' at the same time. 

Mayuri Patel of Mayuri Jikoni is our hostess this month and said to create a dish using either cottage cheese, paneer, or tofu.  It should be the star ingredient and could be either sweet or savory.   Personally, I love cottage cheese and paneer, but I cannot stand the texture of tofu.  So I went exploring on the net.

I hope you're not bored yet, cause this week I decided to go ahead and play again. I've missed a couple of weeks, but I'm back and ready to have fun again.

A few years back, I was a member of the Secret Recipe Club, where we posted a recipe once a month that we'd found on our assigned blog and wrote about it. 

My assignment for one month was Camille's blog , and I found a recipe for Palak Paneer on there.    At the time, I wasn't aware of any place in the big city where I could find ready-made Paneer (Indian Cheese), so I made my own.   I've since found it there and keep a block of it in my freezer, ready to use when I'm in the mood to use Paneer in a recipe.   I still make my own, though, cause this stuff is good and is so darn easy to make as well.  

And since it's so easy to make your own Paneer, I decided to make some this week and share some ideas for how to use it.   

I love most of the Indian food I've tried, and decided to make some Paneer Makhani (aka Butter Chicken, if using chicken).    That was until I forgot to buy some tomato paste, so I pivoted.   I made some Paneer Pakora instead.    

But first, I had to make some paneer; well, I didn't have to, but I wanted to.  

I processed a half-gallon of milk into two batches of Paneer. I even borrowed an idea from one of my sisters: rather than using a pot to boil the milk and the risk of scorching it, I put it in a microwave-safe 4-cup measure and zapped it until the milk boiled.     When you have modern conveniences, you should use them.   I had a couple of lemons I juiced up and added to the milk to make the Paneer.   I also decided to fill the bowls with water to press the paneer out.   A gallon of water weighs 8 pounds, so it made sense to do it that way.  

And just cause I could, I also made some Naan to go with the Palak Paneer.   

I borrowed a dictum from Red Green (Canadian) and used my Tortilla press for the Naan.  As Red Green used to say, any tool can be the right tool, and it worked beautifully for the Naan.    Although true confessions time, I used a real shortcut to make the Naan, and they were not as good as my original recipe.   

And now to the Paneer Pakora.  I did a bit of a swivel on here as well.    I had some Chutney in the fridge and decided to use it.  And I'm not sorry I did.  I just had the best meal.  And totally understand why these are a great snack, but I made them into a meal.    In India, these are also sold as street snacks, and are made as after-school snacks as well.    All I know is, I'll be making them again.  

Paneer Pakora

Yield: 2-4

Author: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking - Adapted from many recipes

A fun little appetizer that's a touch different.

Ingredients

Batter for Paneer

• 1 cup Besan Flour (aka Chickpea Flour)
• 2 tablespoon gluten free flour
• 3/4 tsp. Turmeric
• 3/4 tsp. Garam Masala
• 3/4 tsp. chili/paprika spice mixture
• 1/4 tsp. cumin powder
• 1/2 cup water +1 tablespoon + add more if needed by the teaspoonful
• salt if desired, to taste
• Oil for frying, to a depth of around 2 inches
• 8 oz. Paneer, cut into cubes
• Mango Chutney or your favorite chutney.

Instructions

1. Mix the batter ingredients together, adding more water as needed, until it envelops the paneer cubes.
2. Heat the oil to around 335 degrees.
3. Dip the cubes in the batter and add to the oil; cook for a couple of minutes, turning over if needed to ensure they are cooked on all sides. Drain on a paper towel, and serve with some chutney.

 

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Check out what my fellow Sunday Funday Bloggers came up with: 

• Corn Paneer Parathas from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Cottage Cheese Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Cottage Cheese Wraps from Making Miracles
• Cheese Paneer Tikka Open Sandwich in Air Fryer from Cook with Renu
• Firecracker Tofu Broccolini Stir-Fry from Food Lust People Love
• Homemade Paneer Recipe Ideas from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Paneer Tomato Rice With Leftover Rice For One from Sneha's Recipe
• Pasta with Green Beans and Ricotta from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Potato, Cottage Cheese, & Caramelized Onion Pierogi from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Retro Cottage Cheese Jello Salad from A Messy Kitchen

Shrimp and Cucumber Salad

 Have you ever made something that's so good, you have trouble not finishing off the entire recipe by yourself?  

I was introduced to this salad by a friend, and could not stop eating it.  In fact, I made a bit of a pig of myself; I went for seconds and may have gone for thirds, but memory fails me on that one.   All I know is that it was so good and I had to make some for myself.   And then, me being me, I decided to add in some Sweet peppers I had on hand, and well, it was good before, but this added a certain little extra.     

This is a great low-carb meal, and yes, it does have mayonnaise in it. You could probably sub in either low-fat mayo or even Greek yogurt, but why?  

I will also add a bit of caution here, because of the vinegar in the sauce/marinade, it can make the shrimp go a bit 'mealy', but honestly, it doesn't matter, cause the overall taste is wonderful    And while it tasted amazing, I had to take more pictures of it. 

I kinda loaded up on shrimp, and that was not a problem.   The only thing that might have added to the meal, a nice warm piece of my homemade No-Knead bread.   Slathered with butter, of course.    And I have to admit to eating the rest of it for breakfast and lunch the next day.    And life was good.   I'm planning this for dinner again next week.  

It's that good.  

Shrimp Cucumber Salad

Yield: 2-3

Author: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking - Adapted from many recipes

This salad is brilliant on its own or with a nice slab of homemade bread. Quick and easy to put together, as well as totally delicious.

Ingredients

sauce

• 2 Tbsp. Cider or Rice Vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. Sugar
• 4 Tbsp. Dijon Mustard or Whole Grain mustard
• 4 Tbsp. Mayonnaise
• 3 Tbsp. Chopped fresh Dill
• Whisk together and set aside while you prepare the other ingredients

Instructions

Salad

1. 4 pickling cucumbers or small seedless ones, or a single English Hothouse cucumber cut into cubes.
2. 1-2 large ripe mangoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3. 1 lb. Cooked shrimp cut into either halves or thirds
4. 1-2 small sweet red, yellow or orange peppers, cut into 1/2 inch slices
5. Combine all the cut-up ingredients in a bowl, then pour the sauce/marinade over them. Toss to combine and place in the fridge for an hour or so before serving. Season with salt and hot pepper sauce if desired. Serve and enjoy.

Estimate only

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Homemade Sprinkles

 Did you know you could make your own sprinkles to go on top of a cake or cupcakes?  You can.  

A while ago, I was watching the GBBO (Great British Bake Off), and one of the tasks they had to do was to make their own sprinkles.  Well, I thought that was cool, but didn't give it much more thought.  Until this week.  

I signed up to bring a cake to be raffled off at our local Bingo night.   I started going there with some Snowbird friends a few weeks ago, and just could not help myself when I found out they love it when people bake a cake and bring it to Bingo, where it is raffled off.   The money raised stays in the community, and baking and donating cakes are among the ways I like to support my local community.     
A few weeks ago, I made this cake and brought it to Bingo night.   It was my Chocolate Cake with Seafoam Frosting.   The lady cutting the cake did an incredible job, BTW.  

 

And then I promptly signed up to bring another cake.    This is my Easter Cake, decorated with my homemade sprinkles.  

This was before I decided to use up as many sprinkles as I could on the cake.   I think it was almost tastefully decorated, but... Why not have some fun?  I stuck the marshmallow peep bunnies in the middle as if they were coming out or going back home after leaving some Cadbury eggs for whoever. 

But I wanted more. So I threw most of the rest of the sprinkles on the cake. I had made lots of sprinkles and decided they needed to be used.

 As you may know, I also like to play in the kitchen.   I've made a few decorated cakes in the past. This was a Bunny cake, I put together at 6 am or so, when I was cooking lunches at the Senior Center. 

 

I also made this Easter Basket cake for the Legion Cake Raffle a few years later.   

As I said at the beginning, before I got totally distracted, I decided to make my own Sprinkles.  Mainly because I really do not like commercial sprinkles, they're made with a lot of weird ingredients I can't even pronounce, much less spell.    

I had made up a bunch of royal icing at Christmas, which I hadn't used, so I froze it.   And decided to take it out of the freezer and start playing.    

What triggered this? Well, a couple of random comments made at the market, from people who absolutely abhorred coconut.  And honestly, I didn't feel like coloring coconut.   I wanted to bake a bundt cake in my new bundt pan and decorate it for Easter.   And somewhere in the dim recesses of my memory, I remembered that GBBO episode, especially when I started looking at decorating ideas online.   I also didn't feel like searching out some sprinkles. As you can see, I had lots of green, so I decided to use it as 'grass' for the eggs.  I also made a seafoam (7-minute frosting) frosting for the cake as well, and placed (sprinkled) my homemade sprinkles on it, along with some purple and blue sprinkles.    Can I just say, this was fun.  Making the sprinkles, that is.   

And here it goes.  How to make sprinkles.  First off, make some royal icing.  You know the kind made with meringue powder that dries hard.  In other words, the same kind you make to decorate Christmas Cookies.  I use the recipe on the Wilton website.   However, it does make a lot of icing/frosting, so... I cut the recipe in half.  Luckily, I have a set of measuring spoons that let me measure out half tablespoons, so that's what I do.  I've also been known to freeze leftover frosting in sealed frosting bags, then just massage the bags to reincorporate everything.   Just saying...

 Divide the frosting into several small dishes and color them with gel colors, mixing well.  And then go have fun.  Pipe them into little rows,

using either a very small piping tip or just cutting the very tip off the frosting bag, let them dry overnight, then break them up and use with abandon.  😉   Have fun, in other words.   I now have lots of leftover sprinkles for future bakes. I'm told you can keep them at room temperature for up to a year, but I like to freeze stuff, or I may just pull out my vacuum sealer, put the little container in there, and seal them in that way.    Decisions, decisions...  At least I don't have to buy sprinkles again, unless I want cute little bears or trees for the Christmas sprinkles.  And honestly, why would you want them when you can make your own sprinkles?  

The cake underneath all the fun was my Thanksgiving cake.    I love using sweet potatoes in cakes and other stuff like my Sweet Potato Tortillas, both of which are gluten-free and delicious.    Just click on the underlined text to go straight to the recipes.  

I had another thought.  You can actually pipe out letters, shapes, etc.  And use those to personalize a cake as well.  
I've got another cake coming up in a couple of weeks, and I'm going to use my newfound 'skill' to make some letters and really personalize the cake.  

Go have some fun...

Gluten Free Sweet Potato Tortillas

 This week for Sunday Funday, we're being asked to make something with Tortillas.   Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories is our hostess and asked us to make a recipe using tortillas, either flour or corn, or make our own tortillas.  Well, I had to make my own tortillas.   I've been making various versions of tortillas for years.  

Now, I might be a bit obsessed with gluten-free items lately, well, not really, but so many people I know are eating or attempting to eat gluten-free these days, and I've been playing with a lot of gluten-free recipes.    A few years ago, I even made some Cauliflower Tortillas.  And they were good.  Also gluten-free and keto as well.  Cause why not? 

I made some awesome Sweet Potato Tortillas a couple of years ago, and thought I'd revisit them again; however, this time around, I made them with some gluten-free flour instead of the masa.     

I had a lone sweet potato in the pantry. I kept meaning to eat it, but then the potatoes beside it sprouted. 

And they are now in a pot with some dirt over them, waiting to make more potatoes, whereas the sweet potato has been made into these little bites of yum.  

I had some of my Firehouse Chili in the freezer, and I was going to use it to make part of the filling.    At least that was the plan, until I got home late and ended up eating the chili for dinner.   So I pivoted, I cooked a pot of beans for refried beans,  and used them as a topping along with some shredded lettuce and tomato, and a dollop of sour cream. 

  And life was good.   Well, sorta.   My tortilla press isn't here (it's in storage), so I decided to roll out the tortillas. They're much easier to make in a tortilla press.  However, the very thick batter was not conducive to being rolled out.      I actually pressed them out into a rough tortilla shape and thickness in between two sheets of greased (with non-stick cooking spray) parchment paper after dolloping 1/4 cup of batter onto the paper.  Actually, I used a 1/4 cup cookie scoop for these tortillas, and it was the perfect amount.  I thought. 

   I also have to say I like my original recipe better, but this one works well too.    It's more like a thick batter than dough, and the basic recipe makes up to 18 tortillas, depending on how big you make them. 

I had some adventures along the way, but I persevered and ended up with enough tortillas to either feed a teenage boy for a day or an old woman for a few weeks. 

 I'm the old woman here, just in case you were wondering.   I discovered that I couldn't just swap out masa flour for gluten-free flour without making a lot of adjustments.  I also added in some besan (chickpea) flour because I like it, and the dough was a touch too soft without it.   It was also tricky getting the very 'fluid' tortillas into the pan to quickly dry-fry them.  

I transferred it to the pan using the paper I'd patted out the tortilla in, and then peeled off the paper as the tortilla was cooking and firming up. 

As I said, my tortilla press is in storage, but I managed to figure out how to make the tortillas anyway, and I now have lots in my freezer for future meals.   I had tried to pat them out between some plastic wrap, with a little gluten-free flour, and that was a major flop.  So I pulled out the parchment paper and tried it with that, and discovered that gluten-free flour becomes rather glue-like when moistened. So I tried spraying the paper with some cooking spray, and that was the ticket.    This was an interesting trial.  😉

At least I got a lot of tortillas out of it, for future meals.   

Gluten Free Sweet Potato Tortillas

Yield: 18+ tortillas

Author: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking - Adapted from many recipes

A different take on tortillas. Using Sweet Potatoes as a base, and making it gluten-free to boot. These make a lovely folding-style tortilla.

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked and mashed Sweet Potato
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup water + adding more water as needed a tablespoon at a time
• 1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour
• 1/2 cup Besan Flour (Chick pea flour)
• 1-2 teaspoon cumin, add more if desired 1/4 teaspoon at a time
• 1/2 -1 teaspoon salt
• 2 -3 tablespoons finely minced jalapeno

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together until they become a thick, stiff batter.
2. Spray a piece of parchment paper with some cooking spray and dollop a 1/4 cup of batter onto it. Top it with another piece of greased parchment paper and pat the batter out into a round, and the thickness you want.
3. Prepare a pan with some non-stick spray, if needed, on medium-high heat and place the tortilla into the pan, keeping the parchment paper on one side, and as soon as the tortilla starts to cook, lift the parchment paper off. Cook on each side for about 40 seconds on medium-high heat. Set aside while cooking the rest of the tortillas.
4. Serve with either some homemade chili or my fave, some refried beans, and top with lettuce, chopped tomato, olives, and some sour cream. Fold up over the filling and eat.

 

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Here's what my fellow Sunday Funday bloggers shared:

• Bacon and Egg Breakfast Quesadillas by Food Lust People Love
• Baked Vegetable Chimichanga by Mayuri's Jikoni
• Easy Enchiladas by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Crock Pott Quesabirria by Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Gluten Free Sweet Potato Tortillas by Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Bake by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Shrimp Tacos with Coleslaw by Making Miracles
• Vegan Samosadillas by Snehas Recipe

All recipes and their respective images are either original or adapted and credited, and are all the sole property of Sid's Sea Palm Cooking, © 2011-2026, with all rights reserved thereof.